
                        The Pleasurable Revolution

                     from the Wobbly Review of Books
                                    by
                               Mike Ballard

 THE BOOK OF PLEASURES, by Raoul Vaneigem
 ISBN 0 904665 03 8
 Published by Pending Press, London, 1983


 Warning:  this book will squeeze your adrenal glands.  It is  the
 very  personal  statement  of  a  French   revolutionary,   who's
 organizational history and political profile can be found in  the
 Situationist  movement  of  the  1960's,  a movement which carved
 its niche in history with the paving  stones  dug  from  Parisian
 streets  during  the  heady  days  of  May,  1968.   It   is    a
 psychological  snapshot  of  one, Raoul Vaneigem, circa 1979.  LE
 LIVRE DES PLAISIRS was translated into English, as  the  BOOK  OF
 PLEASURES, by John Fullerton in 1983.  Its latest incarnation can
 by purchased from Left Bank Books, at 4142  Brooklyn  Ave.  N.E.,
 Seattle,   Washington   98105.    It's  a  fairly  expensive  105
 pages--$12  in  paperback--   but   considering   its   lack   of
 availability  in most libraries, being able to read it is usually
 going to be limited to being able to buy or steal it;  an  irony,
 I'm sure, M. Vaneigem would appreciate.

 "All pleasure is creative", he writes, "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."

 Raoul Vaneigem sees the social relations  and  the  consciousness
 which springs from them under the rule of capital, as turning the
 real   world   upside   down.    Human  desires,  traits,  labor,
 creativity, indeed human beings themselves, come increasingly  to
 be  viewed as attainable in exchange for money:  sexiness through
 soap  commodities,  joy  through  the  purchase  of  brand  named
 alcoholic commodities, self-esteem by buying  a  certain  car  or
 truck.   This  upside down (reified, if you will) world permeates
 human  communication  and  therefore,  consciousness  in   modern
 industrial societies.  It stifles human self-awareness and blocks
 the  road  to social revolution, the road toward what M. Vaneigem
 describes as  "universal  self-management".   It  is  culminating
 today in the almost total commodification of human relations.

 "There will be no proletarian emancipation unless we  strike  the
 shackles  off  pleasure.",  Vaneigem  writes.   In order to crack
 one's way out of this multifaceted shell, he  proposes  that  the
 individual  worker  focus first on her/ his need for pleasure and
 then to use it  as  the  engine  of  psychological  emancipation.
 Duty,  guilt,  and sacrifice-- the traditional left, liberal, and
 religious motivators--  tend  to  produce  less  than  liberating
 results and in fact, according to Vaneigem, are counterproductive
 or worse, reactionary in nature.
 "Doing exactly what you feel like is pleasure's greatest  weapon,
 connecting  individual  acts  with collective practice; we all do
 it.  If rejecting survival made the 1968 movement taking hold  of
 life will open the era of universal self- management."

 Agree?  Disagree?  Curious?   Pick  up  the  BOOK  OF  PLEASURES.
 Follow  M.  Vaneigem's id though the psychological thicket of our
 collective super-egos.  You may see yourself and your  co-workers
 inside, suspended within this sphere of self induced repressions,
 reinforced  by the admonitions of all the official authorities of
 modern  ideology:  religion,  the  State,  the   Economy,   media
 pundits...  Choose  your  poison.   Raoul Vaneigem would have you
 choose pleasure.

 Admittedly, this can be a dangerous path and Vaneigem deals  with
 many  of  your  objections  as  he  argues,  appeals, and taunts.
 Sometimes a Freudian/Reichian map would seem helpful; but in  all
 commonsense  and  a  tuned-in  critical faculty is all you really
 need.  It is true that M. Vaneigem can sound  pompous  at  times.
 His  aphoristic phrasing can put one off too.  His pronouncements
 pooh-poohing organization in favor of spontaneous  autonomy  left
 me  cold  after  awhile.   While this notion may be appealing, it
 will never satisfy the desire of those who wish for more  than  a
 psychic   liberation  from  the  rule  of  capital.   Generalized
 self-management can only be realized on a societal level as a set
 of social relations based on  democratic  practice.   Individuals
 can  only  go  so  far by themselves.  A cooperative commonwealth
 requires  democratic  mediation  of  individual  differences  and
 individual desires. This is sometimes  hard  work  which  is  not
 always immediately pleasurable.  C'est la vie, non M. Vaneigem?

 I don't mean to throw cold water on the BOOK OF PLEASURES though.
 The insights which pack this book  are  extremely  useful.   They
 continually   stimulate   and  challenge  the  reader.   I  think
 Vaneigem's observations can help  us  as,  "we  are  forming  the
 structures of the new society within the shell of the old."

This review is reprinted from the April, 1993 edition of the
"Industrial Worker", the newpaper of the Wobblies.
subs to the "IW" can be had for a mere $10 per year.  There
are 12 issues per year. Snail mail to
Industrial Worker
1095 Market St. #204
San Francisco, Ca 94103
U.S.A.

