your pic inspired me to try a similar thing on myself just now 👀
12.02.2025 07:09
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your pic inspired me to try a similar thing on myself just now 👀
I wouldn't say "like" is the right word...
it's from an essay/interview by Foucault called "Friendship As A Way Of Life"
honestly, even in 2025 I share Foucault's rosy assessment of the place of friendship in American life and it's one of the few threads I hold onto when overwhelmed by what a torture chamber this society is to live in
![Q. You were saying a little while ago: "Rather than crying about faded pleasures, I'm interested in what we ourselves can do." Could you explain that more precisely?
M.F. Asceticism as the renunciation of pleasure has bad connota- tions. But ascesis is something else: it's the work that one performs on oneself in order to transform oneself or make the self appear which, happily, one never attains. Can that be our problem today? We've rid ourselves of asceticism. Yet it's up to us to advance into a homosexual ascesis that would make us work on ourselves and invent-I do not say discover-a manner of being that is still improbable.
Q. That means that a young homosexual must be very cautious in regard to homosexual imagery; he must work at something else?
M.F. What we must work on, it seems to me, is not so much to lib- erate our desires but to make ourselves infinitely more susceptible to pleasure [plaisirs]. We must escape and help others to escape the two readymade formulas of the pure sexual encounter and the lovers' fusion of identities.
Q. Can one see the first fruits of strong constructive relationships in the United States, in any case in the cities where the problem of sex- ual misery seems under control?
M.F. To me, it appears certain that in the United States, even if the basis of sexual misery still exists, the interest in friendship has become very important; one doesn't enter a relationship simply in order to be able to consummate it sexually, which happens very easily. But toward friendship, people are very polarized. How can a relational system be reached through sexual practices? Is it possible to create a homosex- ual mode of life?
This notion of mode of life seems important to me. Will it require the introduction of a diversification different from the ones due to social class, differences in profession and culture, a diversification that would](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ojmzd4t7tdbautptz6ppbzl7/bafkreifjgnccjd7cci2wwasedckw2eepmtqjcqp4xuu3qjpaebovgvxkfi)
Q. You were saying a little while ago: "Rather than crying about faded pleasures, I'm interested in what we ourselves can do." Could you explain that more precisely? M.F. Asceticism as the renunciation of pleasure has bad connota- tions. But ascesis is something else: it's the work that one performs on oneself in order to transform oneself or make the self appear which, happily, one never attains. Can that be our problem today? We've rid ourselves of asceticism. Yet it's up to us to advance into a homosexual ascesis that would make us work on ourselves and invent-I do not say discover-a manner of being that is still improbable. Q. That means that a young homosexual must be very cautious in regard to homosexual imagery; he must work at something else? M.F. What we must work on, it seems to me, is not so much to lib- erate our desires but to make ourselves infinitely more susceptible to pleasure [plaisirs]. We must escape and help others to escape the two readymade formulas of the pure sexual encounter and the lovers' fusion of identities. Q. Can one see the first fruits of strong constructive relationships in the United States, in any case in the cities where the problem of sex- ual misery seems under control? M.F. To me, it appears certain that in the United States, even if the basis of sexual misery still exists, the interest in friendship has become very important; one doesn't enter a relationship simply in order to be able to consummate it sexually, which happens very easily. But toward friendship, people are very polarized. How can a relational system be reached through sexual practices? Is it possible to create a homosex- ual mode of life? This notion of mode of life seems important to me. Will it require the introduction of a diversification different from the ones due to social class, differences in profession and culture, a diversification that would
signed up for storygraph to see if it doesn't help me structure my reading. you can add me on there if you'd like (aromatasemebro)
this one drew out a lot of meta-commentary about my approach towards criticism, if you're into that kind of thing boxd.it/8h9rEx
it's only just beginning
new ink
this is essentially two reviews in one because I was bowled over by Auntie Mame into speechlessness when I saw it last month
I don't usually like to do rankings, but the prompt of favorite songs from 2000 to 2024 called out to me. One per main artist
one of the worst things that two ships can do is pass in the night
DOCTOR Y. You feel that -- there. That's my hand. Is that a delusion? It's a good solid hand. PATIENT. Things aren't what they seem. Hands have come up from the dark before and slid away again. Why not yours?
such a crazy hard line that it went straight to bio
questions I am always asking
insidious way of acculturating the proletariat to the real domination of capital
we'd probably have like 80% fewer instances of misgendering if formal/polite forms of address were abolished altogether
some of you are living in such a way that your memoir could be called "only I laughed in pleasure"
last night we all clicked, dragged, and used keyboard arrows on bjork. com
bsky.app/profile/rose... updated post for accuracy (misread “hit by transphobes in car” to be as hurt w the car itself, when situation was they got out and attacked), pls share this version instead
I'm smoking that shit that made the carriage return
Sandra Gilbert, co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic, dies aged 87
it bears repeating that I've got tits
I'm still in disbelief over this photo I took from my former subway stop in Ridgewood last December. didn't edit it even a little bit. Andreas Gursky btfo'd
This is happening now in Beirut.
X, as horrific as it got, is a loudspeaker for the silenced. I am still there because of it. We must get intentional about circulating the horrors in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan if we intend to make this the just alternative.
