The human head remains in a state of consciousness for one and a half minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at a rate of 160 words per minute. Inspired by this, Robert Olen Butler wrote Severance, 62 vignettes each 240 words in length, capturing the flow of thoughts that go through a person's mind after their head has been severed. Then, in Intercourse, he addressed another question: what goes through the mind of a person while having sex? Intercourse lays bare the most flagrant, personal thoughts and feelings of fifty couples.