In itself, people prefer pleasure over displeasure.
- “. . . pleasure is the starting point and goal of living blessedly. For we recognized this as our first innate good.” [Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus.]
- “It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.” [Epicurus, Principal Doctrines.]
Pleasure describes mainly the domains of sensation and emotion but also thought and action, because thoughts and actions can also be pleasurable. However, the pleasure experience of a thought or action is mainly emotional.
People derive pleasure, and pain, from the senses: the visual arts and images of nature through vision; music through hearing; sensuality and sex through touch; the smell of a romantic partner or a flower; the taste of good food. People also derive pleasure, and pain, from each other’s company: a child’s laughter, a loved one’s affirming smile, a challenging intellectual exchange. However, pleasure can also be experienced in solitude, or from solitude itself. Pleasure can come from giving or receiving, from wealth or through a vow of poverty, from skill and accomplishment, from learning or from teaching, from amity or from solitude, from the respect of others or from equanimity, from memory or expectation or from living in the moment, from relief or from anticipation. Medications, alcohol and illicit drugs can be used to alleviate pain. This field has expanded to include cannabis (marijuana) as an accepted medical treatment. Tragically, opiate prescription appears to have played a major role in the public health problem of drug addiction. We have a growing wealth of brain studies on acute and chronic pain, and also low back pain, abdominal pain, groin pain, chest pain, headache, and pain in many other parts of the body. Functional MRI results have been compared in adults versus infants.
Pain can be physical, and also emotional. Emotional pains (suffering) include separation from others, alienation, powerlessness, awareness of mortality, privation, awkwardness, enmity, disapproval, rejection, guilt, shame, greed, envy, jealousy, fear, and many others. We will explore many of these later on.
Hedonism is a philosophical position, dating at least from the ancient Greeks, and holding that pleasure is of ultimate importance. More recently, Jeremy Bentham argued that pain and pleasure were humankind’s “two sovereign masters”. In general, ceteris paribus (Latin for “with other conditions remaining the same”, or “all other things being equal”), people prefer pleasure over pain. However, people may seek to experience the anguish of a lost relationship: this can be necessary to healing, or the anguish can in itself be a kind of pleasure. A bodybuilder’s mantra is “no pain, no gain”: the muscle groups will not develop to their fullest without the pain that comes from progressive resistance exercises. A student may develop a headache doing geometry, using parts of the brain that are not accustomed to the activity. A parent may discipline a child to improve the child’s behavior or attitude; we may discipline ourselves for similar reasons. Bentham probably would point out that each of these voluntary excursions into pain is for the purpose of creating the conditions for more enduring pleasure. This is consistent with a common view of heaven, which many people see as a state of eternal bliss – the ultimate pleasure, perhaps. We could argue, with considerable justification, that health, satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment all fit under the more general heading of pleasure, and longevity allows us to experience pleasure for a long time. In that sense, perhaps Bentham and the other hedonists were correct. However, their philosophy must be carefully distinguished from momentary pleasure, which can interfere with pleasurable experiences long term. In an ethical model, one person’s pleasure is not the only consideration: we should consider other people, because their experiences of pleasure and pain are essentially the same as our own. Hedonism can be and often is conceived too narrowly. Whatever we might say about it in our philosophies, pleasure is a basic human preference.
Real
True Narratives
Liz Phair's review of Keith Richards' autobiography for The New York Times begins by calling him "a global avatar of wish fulfillment for over four decades and managed to eke more waking hours out of a 24-hour day than perhaps any other creature alive . . ." He may not be some people's ideal of an ethical role model but surely this Rolling Stones guitarist illustrates enjoying life in the fast lane.
- Keith Richards, Life (Little, Brown and Company, 2010).
To study the history of pleasure one could study the history and philosophy of Epicureanism.
- James Warren, The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- John Sellars, The Pocket Epicurean (University of Chicago Press, 2021).
- Catherine Wilson, How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well (Hachette Book Group, 2019).
- Emily A. Austin, Living for Pleasure: an epicurean guide to life (Oxford University Press, 2023).
- Howard Jones, The Epicurean Tradition (Routledge, 1989).
- Catherine Wilson, Epicureanism at the Origins of Modernity (Oxford University Press, 2008).
- Max Miller & Ann Volkwein, Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes (Simon & Schuster, 2023).
- Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari, eds., Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present (Columbia University Press, 1999).
- Colleen Lane, The Anthropology of Food: Recipes and Reflections from Human Culinary History (Palmetto Publishing, 2024).
- Massimo Montanari, Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table (Columbia University Press, 2012).
- James Birdsall, The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020): “Beard, with little money of his own but a gift for cooking and making people laugh, took on a role somewhere between gofer and impresario, mixing drinks, passing around nubs of fried battered squab as hors d’oeuvres and strategically flitting in and out of the glittering talk.”
Or one could study the pursuit of pleasure in its various forms.
- Michael Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure (Vintage, 1990).
- Ray Laurence, Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome (Continuum, 2009).
- Thomas M. Kavanagh, Enlightened Pleasures: Eighteenth-Century France and the New Epicureanism (Yale University Press, 2010).
- Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (Harper & Row, 1972): a reviewer “kept feeling the warming glow of a simpler, better, by-gone way of life -- by which I mean the days when all that mattered was what happened at the ball park, what came over the radio on summer afternoons and what they printed on the sports pages.”
- Liz Hauck, Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up – and What We Make When We Make Dinner (Dial, 2021): “. . . showing up to cook and eat with people once a week allows for startlingly deep moments of connection and community. That’s all that happens. And it’s extraordinary.”
- Christopher Turner, Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011): ". . . what is extraordinary is the number of apparently level and careful people who, in pursuit of better and bigger orgasm, were prepared to lower themselves into Reich's jerry-built 'orgone box' and await blissful developments."
- Jonathan Miles, Once Upon a Time World: The Dark and Sparkling Story of the French Riviera (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2023): “Reading this breathtaking account of the transformations of the French Riviera over the last two millenniums is like riding shotgun with a racecar driver in the Monaco Grand Prix. With each loop through time, the bystanders change — from naturalists and monarchs to dancers, writers, composers, artists, philosophers, statesmen, Rolling Stones and tourists. The background shifts as they flit past, reflecting the dreams each grafted to the craggy landscape: chateaus, casinos, yachts.”
Many people take great pleasure in something simple. It may be a curio or a work of art.
- Penelope J.E. Davies, Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition (Pearson, 8th edition, 2015).
- Elke Linda Buchholz, et. al., Art: A World History (Abrams, 2015).
- Jessica Kerwin Jenkins, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights (Doubleday, 2010).
- Lauren Klein, Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London (Malpaso Editorial, 2019): “A Celebration of Women’s Pleasure in Wandering a City”.
True narratives about the erotic:
- Toni Bentley, The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir (Ecco, 2004) is “a manifesto for anal sex”.
- Erica Garza, Getting Off: One Woman’s Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction (Simon & Schuster, 2018): “The memoir shines light on the lonely (albeit impressively multi-orgasmic) world of a woman who binges not on food or pills, but on hookups and ‘getting off.’ Oh, and porn. Lots of porn.”
On sex toys:
- Hallie Lieberman, Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy History of the Sex Toy (Penguin Books, 2017): “The Sex Toy Shops That Switched On a Feminist Revolution”.
- Lynn Comella, Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores (Duke University Press, 2018).
Technical and Analytical Readings
Technical writings on pleasure, generally:
- In Epicurus' time (341-270 B.C.E.), philosophy was considered to be the technical study of a matter. Epicurus is known for his philosophy of pleasure.
- David J. Linden, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good (Viking, 2011): “. . . Johns Hopkins neurobiologist David J. Linden explicates the workings of (certain) regions (of the brain), known collectively as the reward system, elegantly drawing on sources ranging from personal experience to studies of brain activity to experiments with molecules and genes.”
- Gene Wallenstein, The Pleasure Instinct: Why We Crave Adventure, Chocolate, Pheromones, and Music (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
- Paul Bloom, How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (W.W. Norton & Company, 2010).
- E. Tory Higgins, Beyond Pleasure and Pain: How Motivation Works (Oxford University Press, 2012).
- Alexander Lowen, Pleasure: A creative approach to life (Coward-McCann, 1970).
Technical writings on the pleasures of food:
- Bernard Lyman, A Psychology of Food: More Than a Matter of Taste (Spriger, 1988).
- John Prescott, Taste Matters: Why We Like the Foods We Do (Reaktion Books, 2012).
- Emily Crews Splane, Neil E. Rowland & Anaya Mitra, Psychology of Eating: From Biology to Culture to Policy (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2024).
- Leighann R. Chaffee & Dr Stephanie P. da Silva, A Guide to the Psychology of Eating (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).
- Jane Ogden, The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010),
- Uma Naidoo, This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More (Little, Brown, Spark 2020).
Technical writings on the pleasures of music:
- Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Penguin, 2006).
- Nolan Glaser, Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste (Flatiron Books, 2019).
- Carl E. Seashore, Psychology Of Music (1967).
- William Forde Thompson, Music, Thought, and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2014).
- Manfred Clynes, ed., Music, Mind, and Brain: The Neuropsychology of Music (Springer, 2012).
- Kristine Forney & Andrew Dell'Antonio, The Enjoyment of Music (W.W. Norton & Company, 13th edition, 2018).
Technical writings on the pleasures of visual arts:
- Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us (Random House, 2023).
- Bjarne Sode Funch & Bujme Funch, The Psychology of Art Appreciation (Museum Tusculanum, 1999).
- George Mather, The Psychology of Art (Routledge, 2021).
Technical writings on the pleasures of sex:
- Kayt Sukel, Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships (Free Press, 2012).
- Barbara Keesling, Sexual Pleasure: Reaching New Heights of Sexual Arousal and Intimacy (Hunter House, 1993).
Technical writings on the pleasures of fragrance:
- Steve Van Toller & George H. Dodd, eds., Perfumery: The psychology and biology of fragrance (Elsevier, 1992).
- Charles S. Van Toller & G.H. Dodd, eds., Fragrance: The psychology and biology of perfume (Elsevier, 1992).
- Rachel Herz, The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (William Morrow, 2008).
Technical writings on the pleasures of nature:
- Florence Williams, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative (W.W. Norton & Company, 2017).
Technical writings on the pleasures of exercise:
- Kurt L. Cox, et. al., The Psychology of Exercise: Integrating Theory and Practice (Routledge, 5th edition, 2019).
- Janet Buckworth, Exercise Psychology (Human Kinetics, 2nd edition, 2013).
Technical writings on the pleasures of companionship, of humans and pets:
- Alan Beck & Aaron Katcher, Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship (:Putnam Publishing Group, 1996).
- Lara Newton, Brothers and Sisters: Discovering the Pyschology of Companionship (Spring Journal, 2007).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Marius' pleasure consisted in taking long walks alone on the outer boulevards, or in the Champs-de-Mars, or in the least frequented alleys of the Luxembourg. He often spent half a day in gazing at a market garden, the beds of lettuce, the chickens on the dung-heap, the horse turning the water-wheel. The passers-by stared at him in surprise, and some of them thought his attire suspicious and his mien sinister. He was only a poor young man dreaming in an objectless way. [Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (1862), Volume III – Marius; Book Fifth – The Excellence of Misfortune, Chapter V, “Poverty a Good Neighbor for Misery”.]
. . . a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favourite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition . . . [Herman Melville, Moby Dick, or the Whale (1851), Chapter 15. “Chowder”.]
Novels and stories on eroticism:
- E.L. James, Fifty Shades trilogy: Fifty Shades of Grey: A Novel (Doubleday, 2011); Fifty Shades Darker: A Novel (Doubleday, 2012); Fifty Shades Freed: A Novel (Doubleday, 2013): though not well-reviewed, this trilogy attracted public attention.
- Maya Banks, Breathless Trilogy: Rush: A Novel (Berkley, 2013): a teenage girl grows up, and a socially powerful man has been waiting; Fever: A Novel (Berkley, 2013); Burn: A Novel (Berkley, 2013).
- Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet: A Novel (Riverhead, 1999): a lesbian relationship in late Victorian England.
- Jeanette Winterson, Written On the Body: A Novel (Knopf, 1992): “. . . a love story and a philosophical meditation on the body as both physical entity and objective correlative of our innermost selves, our bodies as our embodiment.”
- Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behvior: Stories (Simon & Schuster, 1988): a collection of short stories
- R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, eds., Kink: Stories (Simon & Schuster, 2021) “is not quite erotica. Ostensibly, it’s more about the transformative nature of kink as a practice, and the different modalities — kink as anticipation, as communication, as processing, as a mind-eraser, as an anchor, as a code, as freedom — it can unleash.”
- Sara Gran, The Book of the Most Precious Substance: A Novel (Dreamland Books, 2022): “The search for pleasure and magic is an aphrodisiac, one that pulses on the page. Gran’s plotting is hairpin in its curvature, her descriptions of desire sexy and subtle. Like Lily Albrecht, readers have little choice but to follow the book to its sinister conclusion.”
- Thomas Mallon, Up with the Sun: A Novel (Knopf, 2023): “As a drive down the highway of old-style entertainment (theater, movies, books, music, TV) — with gossip columns on the shoulder — 'Up With the Sun' is an unqualified success.”
Poetry
O, it was out by Donnycarney / When the bat flew from tree to tree / My love and I did walk together; / And sweet were the words she said to me.
Along with us the summer wind / Went murmuring -- - O, happily! -- - / But softer than the breath of summer / Was the kiss she gave to me.
[James Joyce, “O It Was Out by Donnycarney”]
Poems:
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Bacchus”
- Pablo Neruda, “Ode to My Socks”
- John Keats, “Give Me Women, Wine, and Snuff”
- John Keats, “Hither, Hither, Love”
- John Keats, “Teignmouth”
- James Joyce, “In the Dark Pine-Wood”
Books on poets and poetry:
- Richard Siken, Crush (Yale University Press, 2005): a book of erotic-obsessive poems.
- Jim Harrison, Complete Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2021): “From the beginning, Harrison wrote about two primary and intertwined themes: pleasure and death. The pleasures of Harrison’s writings tend to the Hemingwayesque, and are set largely in his native Midwest: hunting, fishing, hiking and generally being outdoors; cooking, eating and drinking; sex, women and conversation.”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Georg Philipp Telemann, Tafelmusik (Music for the Table) (1733) (approx. 255-310’), consists of eighteen chamber pieces for various combinations of instruments, organized into three productions. The tenor of the music suggests the pleasures of dining. Top recordings are by
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Wenzinger) in 1965, Musica Antiqua Köln (Goebel) in 1988, Il Rossignolo & Musica Amphion (Belder) in 2003, Musica Amphion (Belder) in 2003, and Petra Müllejans, Gottfried von der Goltz & Freiburger Barockorchester in 2009 ***.
Other works:
- Giuseppe Verdi, Falstaff (1893) (approx. 125-145’) (libretto), is an operatic celebration of a hedonist. Performances with video are conducted by Muti in 2001, and Tate in 1986. Top audio-recorded performances are conducted by Molajoli in 1932, Toscanini in 1950, Karajan in 1956, and Abbado in 2001.
- Paul Hindemith, Symphonia Serena (1946) (approx. 30-34’), is aptly described as “an agreeable work making no pretence of plumbing emotional depths, but exploiting various instruments and orchestral groups in an amiable and ingenious way.”
- Percy Grainger composed substantial bodies of pleasant musical baubles in the classical idiom, broadly defined. Mainly they are piano tunes and arrangements, songs and brief orchestral pieces. He recorded some of his works (75’), as did Leslie Howard (2015) (275’) and Eugene List (1960) (46’).
- Louis Marie Gottschalk composed along a similar style as did Grainger. These have been performed by Roger Lord (2017) (75’), Eugene List (2004) (131’), Georges Rabol, (1999) (69’), Alan Marks & Nerine Barrett (1999) (112’), and Lambert Orkis (44’).
- Eric Coates composed British light music. He conducted it himself, as on these albums released in 2010 (120’), 2014 (79’) and 2018 (158’). Other albums feature Rumon Gamba & BBC Philharmonic (2002) (79’), John Wilson & BBC Concert Orchestra (2008) (71’), Charles Mackerras & London Symphony Orchestra (2012) (65’), John Wilson & BBC Concert Orchestra, and John Wilson & BBC Philharmonic (2019) (71’), John Wilson & BBC Philharmonic (2020) (57’), and John Wilson & BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (2023) (67’).
- Don Gillis, Symphony No. 5 1/2, “A Symphony for Fun” (1946) (approx. 16-19’); and Symphony X: Big D (1968) (approx. 13’): a little light entertainment.
- Adriano Banchieri, Il Zabaione Musicale and other musical entertainments from late Renaissance Italy (approx. 60-65’)
- Johannes Brahms, Rinaldo, Op. 50 (1863) (approx. 40-46’): in this cantata, which draws on three Goethe poems, a young man seeks solace.
- Franz Joseph Haydn, Notturni (approx. 90’)
- Jan Dismas Zelenka, Concerto a 8 concertanti in G major, ZWV 186 (1723) (approx. 16-18’)
- Kurt Weill, Dance arrangements
- Hoagy Carmichael’s music
Scottish folk band Old Blind Dogs showcases “the rich tradition of songs and tunes of the North East of Scotland”, mainly just for fun. Their playlist includes more than fifteen albums, beginning in the early 1990s.
Just-plain-fun Dixieland and swing jazz music by trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen and his orchestra, and by trumpeter Frankie Newton
Albums:
- Stefan Aeby Trio, “The London Concert” (2018) (53’)
- Ray Anthony & His Orchestra, “Swing Back to the 40’s” (1989); “Swing Back to the 40’s II”; “Swing Back to the 40’s III”
- Randal Despommier, “A Midsummer Odyssey: The Music of Lars Gullin” (2022) (34’): “Alto saxophonist Randal Despommier is shining a fresh light on Gullin’s musical legacy through this fine duo project with guitarist Ben Monder.”
- Ian Carr & John Taylor, “sounds & sweet airs (that give delight & hurt not)” (1992): “. . . Carr combined the melodic timbre of the trumpet and flügelhorn with the organ, played by John Taylor, as they recorded each selection between the hours of midnight and dawn on May 21, 1992. In Ian Carr's own words, ‘all the pieces were inspired by words from Shakespeare and this—plus several hours spent at dead of night in that magnificent environment—made the whole experience a very powerful one.’ Carr conceived the idea for each selection from Shakespeare's plays. The title, Sound & Sweet Airs, was taken from The Tempest.”
- Opus 5, “Swing on This” (2022) (60’): old-fashioned swing
- ZA! + Perrate, “Jolifanto” (2024) (49’): “. . . hedonistic . . .”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Zum Punsche” (With the Punch), D. 492 (1816) (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Das Lied im Grünen” (Song in the Countryside), Op. 115, No. 1, D. 917 (1827) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
Michelangelo Buonarrotti, Bacchus (1497)
- Salvador Dali, The Phenomenon of Ecstasy (1933)
- Anton Raphael Mengs, Pleasure (1754)
- Diego Velazguez, Triumph of Bacchus (1628)
- Guido Reni, The Boy Bacchus (1615)
- Kitagawa Utamoro, Midnight Revelry at Dozo Sagami
- Francis Picabia, Two Women with Poppies (1942-44)
- Boris Kustodiev, Merry Go Round (1920)
- Wassily Kandinsky, Small Pleasures (1913)
- Henryk Semiradsky, Bacchanalia (1890)
- Claude Monet, Le dejeuner sur l'herbe (The Picnic) (1865-66)
- Nicolas Poussin, Adrians or the Great Bacchanal with Woman Playing a Lute (1628)
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