Book of Pleasures

by Raoul Vaneigem

All pleasure is creative if it avoids exchange. Loving what pleases me, I have to build a space in life as little exposed as possible to pollution by business, or I will not find the strength to bring the old world down, and the fungus among us will rot my dreams. While the state is in disarray, strike hard at business and its friends.
-R.V.-

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

105 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Raoul Vaneigem (born 1934) is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines (Hainaut, Belgium). After studying romance philology at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970. He currently resides in Belgium and is the father of four children.

Vaneigem and Guy Debord were the two principal theoreticians of the Situationist movement. Although Debord was the more disciplined thinker, Vaneigem's slogans frequently made it onto the walls of Paris during the May 1968 uprisings. His most famous book, and the one that contains the famous slogans, is The Revolution of Everyday Life (in French the title was more elaborate: Traité du savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations).

After leaving the Situationist movement Vaneigem wrote a series of polemical books defending the idea of a free and self-regulating social order. He frequently made use of pseudonyms, including "Julienne de Cherisy," "Robert Desessarts," "Jules-François Dupuis," "Tristan Hannaniel," "Anne de Launay," "Ratgeb," and "Michel Thorgal." Recently he has been an advocate of a new type of strike, in which service and transportation workers provide services for free and refuse to collect payment or fares.

From www.nothingness.org: "Along with Guy Debord, the voice of Raoul Vaneigem was one of the strongest of the Situationists. Counterpoised to Debord's political and polemic style, Vaneigem offered a more poetic and spirited prose. The Revolution of Everyday Life (Traité de savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations), published in the same year as The Society of the Spectacle, helped broaden and balance the presentation of the SI's theories and practices. One of the longest SI members, and frequent editor of the journal Internationale Situationniste, Vaneigem finally left the SI in November of 1970, citing their failures as well as his own in his letter of resignation. Soon after, Debord issued a typically scathing response denouncing both Vaneigem and his critique of the Situationist International."

Further biographical information can be found at www.nothingness.org and www.notbored.org.

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Se nota la época en la que está escrito, puede ser la traducción pero de a ratos es un tedio leerlo, las ideas se vuelven repetitivas, pensar que la solución es la individualización es como meh y aparte la forma en la que habla de la infancia me pareció un poco perturbadora

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is an ok book. But Vaneigem is trying to hard to find nice catch-phrases in this book. The excitement I felt at reading short, eye-opening, poetic sentences, interspersed in deep analysis is lost when the deep analysis is removed.

Vaneigem does a big turn from collective action to individual change in this book compared to "The Revolution of Everyday Life". Vaneigem now see change originating from individuals who start living for pleasure. Not from collective action to change institutions and the world. I believe this is a mistake on Vaneigems part.

I guess this book may be an eye-opener for people who never read any situationist text or books.* But I think it is better expressed in other works. For example in his own earlier mentioned book; "The Revolution of Everyday Life".


* Vaneigem had of course left the Situationist International when this was written. But, although he take some swings on SI, the perspectives from his time in the organisation largely remains the same.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seems pretty mundane and mild compared to some contemporary writings about pleasure, "self-management," revolution/insurrection, etc. However, it seems as though it was at the forefront in the 1970s and bridges quite the gap between '60s era Situationism and, say, Crimthinc. For better or for worse, I kept noticing my mind wandering in the direction of "oh, so this is the idea Crimethinc is drawing upon when they talk about how love/pleasure are what will cease us from waking up and going to work every morning.

Not as poetic or inspiring as Treatise on Etiquette, but useful nonetheless.

[Halber Kapitel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eine eher kurzlebige Zeiterscheinung hingegen waren die Künstler der Situationistischen Internationalen, deren bekanntester Vertreter in den 60ern der Philosoph und Anarchist Raoul Vaneighem war. Sein Buch der Lüste von 1979 ist da schon ein Spätwerk. Das reichlich verschwurbelte Textkonvolut über absolute Freiheit, Lebensgier, Kostenlosigkeit und Warenwelt hält einige zitierfähige Sentenzen bereit. Ungenießbar wird das Gebräu aber durch altersgeile Phantastereien über Sex und Erotik zwischen Erwachsenen und Kindern, deren Unterdrückung den Kindern angeblich schade. Derart fiese Ideen waren wohl damals nicht unüblich und werden auch heute noch den Grünen zu Last gelegt.

[Severin M · Rating 3 out of 5]

a rather mediocre text for Vaneigem, but one which returns to Stirner in a post-SI context, and one worthy of that return. However, this book is certainly capable of motivating one in need of it given a world that increasingly feels as though it is in its final spirals around the drain

[Gas Bou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Se faire l'économie de penser l'efficacité sociale d'un tel système est assez abject. Une telle morale si elle ne pense pas a minima l'altérité comme une figure à respecter comme telle ne saurait se fonder comme structure même d'une pensée du lien social.

[Pan Buzz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Μου το πρότεινε ένας φίλος σαν ένα βιβλίο που σε κάνει να βλέπεις τον κόσμο διαφορετικά. Και πράγματι δεν είχε άδικο. Σε βάζει σε σκέψεις για τις δικές σου απολαύσεις, την ελευθερία σου,τα όρια κτλ.