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INTERVIEW: ‘My goal is to dig up the outrageous facts about Switzerland that startle you’

"Why do the Swiss have such great sex?" That's the title of a new book by Swiss/American author Ashley Curtis which reveals a Switzerland you never knew existed. The Local spoke to him recently to find out more.

Published: 29 November 2018 20:20 CET

INTERVIEW: 'My goal is to dig up the outrageous facts about Switzerland that startle you'

Photo courtesy of Ashley Curtis.

Covering everything from cow suicides to free heroin for addicts and the real story of William Tell, Curtis's book is a humorous yet serious take on a country that often finds itself reduced to a handful of stereotypes.

“I wanted to answer the questions about Switzerland no one would ever think of asking,” the author told The Local, speaking of the inspiration behind the book.

The writer has had plenty of time to dwell on the mysteries of Switzerland. He attended primary school here, visited regularly in the years that followed, and then worked for over 20 years at the independent Ecole d’Humanité school in the canton of Bern, where he taught maths and physics in the morning and climbing and ski touring in the afternoon.

Curtis’s scientific bent is clear in “Why do the Swiss have great sex?”. Some of the most inspired sections delve deep into statistics (How much would it cost to buy Switzerland? Nine trillion Swiss francs, for the bits that are available. Could the whole world sleep in Switzerland? Yes. Although they wouldn’t have space to do much else.).

A lot of the pleasure in the book, though, comes from sheer surprise.

“The most fun sections to write were those where I had an inkling of the answer and then all the facts would fall into place.” he says.

“Then it was like a moment of breathlessness. As my girlfriend said, it's like these questions are trap doors to a whole other Switzerland.”

The section about what happens to Switzerland’s nuclear waste was one of these experiences. With nuclear power responsible for just over a third of the country’s electricity generation, Curtis wanted to know what happened to all that toxic waste.

“As I was looking into this, I learned it was shipped out of the country in huge steel containers and tested by a German government agency called BAM. You couldn't make it up,” Curtis says with delight.

Another section on energy generation also saw the Californian-born author encountering one of the rare obstacles to his research.

Operators at the Grande Dixence hydropower plant in Valais didn’t take kindly to his questions regarding the cleanliness of their power production after he noted they were actually using electricity from potentially dirty sources to pump water back up to their reservoir.

In fact, the book doesn’t shy away from the tough issues, with money-laundering dictators, the high number of foreign prisoners in Switzerland’s jails, and its poor record on homophobia all coming in for analysis.

“My goal was to dig up those outrageous things that startle you,” he explains.

So what still surprises Curtis about Switzerland?

“It’s the combination of conservatism and being completely open. On the one hand you have this unbelievable rigidity about the smallest things and then you have this acceptability of ideas that would be unthinkable in the US like legalized prostitution, free heroin for addicts and assisted suicide.”

And why do the Swiss have such great sex (at least according to a 2013 YouGov survey)?

To answer the question, Curtis takes readers on a historical tour of spa culture, seventeenth century dating rituals in canton Bern and modern-day sex education in Zurich kindergartens, which includes the use of wooden penises and plush vaginas (backed by the Supreme Court no less).

He also dives once more into the world of statistics but concludes with an answer no one can really argue with.

“Nations don’t have sex. People do.”

“Why Do The Swiss Have Such Great Sex: Extraordinary Answers to 66 Improbable Questions about Switzerland” is published by Bergli Books. It can be purchased here.

OPINION: 'These are the things that make Madrid a celebration of daily life'

Photo by Victor Garcia on Unsplash

Sometimes Madrid feels like a huge, sprawling city (i.e. if you’re on the M-40 highway), but if you manage to stay within the central part, and walk or use public transport, it can feel like a collection of charming, connected villages or small towns. I love the latter incarnation of the city because of its human scale, and the way it reflects organic urban growth.

When I was little my mother and grandfather would often point out a newly developed area, and tell me “There used to be nothing there. La Castellana was a dirt road where children went roller skating”or “The bus route that now goes to Pavones used to end right here at the Retiro Park. That was the end of that part of the city.”

Where there was nothing, new apartment blocks were built so that people could move out of crowded neighborhoods like Chueca. Flash forward a generation later and many of the people who grew up in those contemporary utopian developments with grassy areas and swimming pools would do anything for an apartment in Chueca and other central neighborhoods that came into their own and became the height of trendiness.

There were many empty building plots or solares in my childhood. These made the city seem even sunnier and brighter than it nearly always is. Over the years I have come to love new small neighborhoods that I have lived in, and discovered others along the way. Some of my favorite places are lifelong standards. My Madrid is a mix of a primal blueprint and constantly adapting to novelty and my changing tastes.

For many years, I studied flamenco at the Amor de Dios dance studios on the Calle Santa Isabel, just across from the Filmoteca de Madrid.The studios are on the second floor of the Mercado de San Antón. I always looked forward to walking through the market, seeing the varied stands, and enjoying the aroma of one of the best olive vendors in Madrid. Once upstairs, there was nothing but flamenco. Small and large studios, showing their wear and tear, but fully functioning and packed all day with students, mainly local, but some international, learning bulerías, or guitar, or cante jondo, or how to play the flamenco percussión instrument, el cajón.

The windows of one of the small classrooms looked onto the inner courtyard of a convent. I always wondered what the nuns thought of the racket we made. For an hour a day I could feel like a true bailaora and I always left the market with a delicious purchase, or some flowers, and a feeling of exhilaration. I hope that Amor de Dios—temporarily closed–survives the pandemic. It is such a magical madrileño institution, thanks to the hard work, passion, and arte of generations of teachers and students.

A perfect afternoon-evening for me would be a dance class with sevillano Juan Fernández, a movie at the filmoteca, and a quiet dinner at Vinoteca Moratín. Another favorite is the Renoir Retiro cinema (great selection of V.O. films) and then a bite (or two) at the bar of Catapa.

Photo: AFP

Of course I love the Prado, Thyssen, Reina Sofía, Caixa Forum—all so spectacular and so conveniently located in the same part of the city–and many other smaller museums. I have spent many hours at the Prado preparing to teach Spanish painting, and I don’t think there could be a nicer place to work. The museum’s library is also beautiful.

I have a special weakness for Casa-Museos, like the Lazaro Galdiano and the Sorolla museums. It’s always wonderful to imagine how artists and collectors lived, and these beautiful properties with their gardens are like time machines that take us back to a luxurious version of Madrid where people lived in palacetes much like the hotels particuliers of Paris.

The Biblioteca Nacional is also one of my favorite places to study Spain’s past or find books and documents unavailable elsewhere. Just having access to the building and its collections is a privilege. The Residencia de Estudiantes is a semi-hidden cultural center with rosemary and lavender-lined walkways off of the Calle Serrano. It’s where Federico García Lorca, Buñuel, Dali (and many other notables) lived as students. Tip: not only does it have an intense program of evening events, it also has a wonderful, peaceful, sleek restaurant.

Madrid is a celebration of daily life. Basically, give me almost any madrileño barrio, and this could be defined as simply as a city block with a panadería, a farmacia, news agent, a couple of bars, a butcher, and a frutería, where my morning errands and breakfast (and sometimes even a second breakfast) can be taken care of, and I’m off to the races.

But nothing beats a mercado. After San Antón (which I have renamed the Flamenco market) my favorite is El Mercado de la Paz, built in 1882. It is not in my barrio, but it is close enough to walk to and once a week I go to have lunch at Casa Dani and buy a few special things.

Casa Dani, reknowned for its pincho de tortilla, is a small restaurant in the middle of the market and has no windows to the outside, but this doesn’t stop it from having the best menú del día in Madrid. The options change every day, but I can go for months with a salmorejo, lubina, and fresas con naranja. The affordable menú (which is not just menu with an accent on the “u”, but “prix-fixe”) changes daily and once in a while I will go for the sopa de cocido or the extravagant arroz con bogavante. One must arrive early or be prepared to wait in a long line. The construction workers and local office people who are regulars know exactly when to show up and accompany their meals with tinto con casera or cañas.

Photo: AFP

After all this eating and/or research at a library, I need to clear my mind, and get some fresh air. Many of my favorite destinations are just across the Retiro Park, so whenever I can I walk under the horse chestnut trees that line the wide promenades. The Retiro is large enough for me to take different routes every day. In May the book fair, Feria del Libro takes over and I like to go early in the morning before it gets mobbed to make my way through the infinite maze of vendors that set up shop. In other seasons, the international bookshop Desperate Literature on the Calle Campomames is a must. Books, a park, and a pincho de tortilla just about cover the basics of an ideal life for me.

Look up at the city’s sky and it is an ever-changing series of blues that become lavender-tinged at sunset. The evening is the perfect time to wander around the Madrid de los Austrías—the gardens of the Príncipe de Anglona, the tabernas on the Cava Baja, and the lovely artisanal jewelry workshop that Helena Rohner has on the Calle del Almendro. Just the name of the street makes me happy.

On another note, Madrid is a very easy city to love and leave. There are many nearby escapadas to be taken. Especially by AVE. The high speed train has revolutionized life in Spain, and in under 3 hours you can leave from the Atocha train station and be in the center of Barcelona, or in Sevilla or Córdoba. In 20 minutes you can be in Segovia (from Chamartín Station) and in the heat of summer I like to go to La Granja, just minutes from Segovia and home to an eigtheenth century former royal summer palace. The palace’s gardens are at an elevation of close to 1200 meters, and the temperature is notably cooler and clean. Even in August.

I often remember Langston Hughes’ description of Madrid during the Civil War. Bombs were falling, but people were out on the streets, and in bars drinking a beer if they could get their hands on one. After the 2008 economic crisis, a foreign journalist friend came to Madrid and was indeed skeptical about the financial woes of Spain, “All the bars and terrazas are full. Doesn’t look like a recession to me,”she said.

Madrid has survived difficult and tragic times—the Civil War, a decades-long dictatorship, financial and political crises, and most recently, the pandemic and the lockdown. It is mourning and witnessing ongoing Covid-19 deaths. And yet, madrileños are out on the street every day getting to work, looking after their families, and still enjoying the daily, simple pleasures the city offers. El mundo sigue.

On a final note, a gin and tonic tastes better in Madrid than anywhere else. Visitors have pointed this out to me over the years, and I agree. The tonic is always served in a little bottle (and not from one of those sad soda guns) and the lemons are fragrant. Is there more to the secret? Some people say the water in Madrid is especially delicious, so the ice also has a geographical advantage. Salud.

Soledad Fox Maura is a Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Williams College. She has recently published articles in El País and Lit Hub, and her first novel, Madrid Again, was released in November 2020 by Arcade. The MAdrid bookstore Desperate Literature will be hosting a virtual book launch on December 19th. More details HERE

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