It's not my cup of tea either. Maybe study Wilhelm Reich? He thought orgasms were necessary in the fight against fascism, which was based on sexual repression.
I'm not saying you should pick your authors based on the conclusions you prefer, just pointing out that there are other views on the relation between sexuality and politics.
Desire in Deleuze's work is a machine that continually produces fantasies, experimentation, "lines of flight", that challenges everything that gets in its way, so it does have revolutionary potential. Pleasure stops the machine. Eternal self-repression isn't the answer though, because desire is supposed to be productive.
He isn't really advocating anything. He didn't write self-help books; he'd rather make things more complicated than give answers... But it's clear he's on the side of experimentation, but not necessarily of pleasure - one possibility offered in the quote above is masochism, also not everybody's thing of course.
he's asking you to forever experiment new forms of desire, of arrangements, without ever being firmly organized, beware of the ones with power that organize your desires to an inert and hierarchical form, explore without ever indulging too long in the pleasure of an instant, always follow that everchanging line to the horizon.
Pleasure is useful, sometimes, to organize yourself a little bit to help you get out of the situation that is too big for you, too complicated for you, on the search for new arrangements and desires. But beware of getting stuck in pleasure, it can kill the desire forever.
There is never an organization, an arrangement, an environment eternally adapted, each one of us must decide to bind or unbind, to build, deconstruct, rebuild, on the open path.
Pleasure interrupts pain for a moment, desire interrupts pain fully, because finally, it creates totally, a new arrangement, a new environment, step by step, eternally advancing.
I think it is: "courtly love" is the love that's forever unconsummated...
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It's not my cup of tea either. Maybe study Wilhelm Reich? He thought orgasms were necessary in the fight against fascism, which was based on sexual repression.
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I'm not saying you should pick your authors based on the conclusions you prefer, just pointing out that there are other views on the relation between sexuality and politics.
deleted by creator
Desire in Deleuze's work is a machine that continually produces fantasies, experimentation, "lines of flight", that challenges everything that gets in its way, so it does have revolutionary potential. Pleasure stops the machine. Eternal self-repression isn't the answer though, because desire is supposed to be productive.
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He isn't really advocating anything. He didn't write self-help books; he'd rather make things more complicated than give answers... But it's clear he's on the side of experimentation, but not necessarily of pleasure - one possibility offered in the quote above is masochism, also not everybody's thing of course.
he's asking you to forever experiment new forms of desire, of arrangements, without ever being firmly organized, beware of the ones with power that organize your desires to an inert and hierarchical form, explore without ever indulging too long in the pleasure of an instant, always follow that everchanging line to the horizon.
Pleasure is useful, sometimes, to organize yourself a little bit to help you get out of the situation that is too big for you, too complicated for you, on the search for new arrangements and desires. But beware of getting stuck in pleasure, it can kill the desire forever.
There is never an organization, an arrangement, an environment eternally adapted, each one of us must decide to bind or unbind, to build, deconstruct, rebuild, on the open path.
Pleasure interrupts pain for a moment, desire interrupts pain fully, because finally, it creates totally, a new arrangement, a new environment, step by step, eternally advancing.