Sex and violence.

• Author: Gillespie, Nick
• Position: Soundbite - Phil Harvey on Show Time - Interview

Phil Harvey made his fortune selling sex toys and adult films through his Adam & Eve mail order business. Since then, he has supported libertarian causes (including the Reason Foundation, which publishes this magazine) and helped fund contraception access efforts in the developing world. He is also the author of a new novel, Show Time (Lost Coast Press), which offers a darkly comic riff on reality TV. In October, Reason TV Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie spoke with Harvey about his new book, changing sexual mores, and why people need violent entertainment.

Q: In Show Time seven people have to live on an island in the middle of Lake Superior as winter approaches. The winner--the survivor--gets $400,000. What brought you to write this book?

A: I've always been interested in violence as entertainment, something that we have a great deal of in America and most other cultures. The idea [behind the book is] that violence as entertainment might go beyond a chance of death, as in NASCAR racing, to a point where the producer of a reality show would actually hope for a fatality, where the audience would be sitting on the edge of their seats hoping for something perhaps close to a death.

Q: Are you a critic of violence and sexuality in popular culture? Do you see them as desensitizing or dehumanizing?

A: No, I'm certainly not a critic of violence and sexuality in literature or entertainment. And I'm not either a critic or a fan of reality shows, except that they're all obviously rehearsed and therefore hypocritical We need violence and sexuality in our entertainment, I think. Human beings are descended from people who had to deal with violence to survive. Worldwide violence is going down, which is something of a surprise to a lot of people. The chances of...