Eros
1. Does "Eros" in the following context mean "lust"?
2. Does "Marcuse also thought" mean "like other surrealists Marcuse thought" or "in addition to what is said about his thoughts, Marcuse also thought"? I think the latter. Am I right?
Context:
Homosexuality took on particular if marginalized importance in theories of sexuality put forward by Western Marxism in the postwar era. Where “mainstream” or canonized surrealists such as André Breton were generally homophobes, other surrealist thinkers like César Moro in Peru considered the movement to be a vehicle that could forward notions of homosexual desire that fused with revolutionary goals—that is, with socialist and political liberation. Unlike Freud, Marcuse considers “genital sexuality,” or sexual activity that has procreation as its goal, part of repression, or what he terms “sublimation.” Eros, on the other hand, refuses to instrumentalize sexuality in this manner. Homosexuality, Marcuse believed, is another non-procreative “perversion” that is also part of the “Great Refusal” of the conditions of the status quo: “the perversions […] establish libidinal relations which society must ostracize because they threaten to reverse the process of civilization which turned the organism into an instrument of work.” Finally Marcuse also thought that the recovery of “pregenital polymorphous sexuality” would create larger social groups that could channel their new erotic energies into political liberation
as well.
Top answer
Hi I'm not sure that Marcuse would be happy with the word '****'; it might be better to say something like 'physical desire'. The problem with '****' is that it implies sin: it can be seen as an animal drive, without thought or care for the any other person who is involved. I don't think Marcuse means that - he is talking about physical desire for the sake of pleasure, contrasting that with procreation as the means of merely producing more people who fit within the economic structure On the second point, yes, you're right.
- Hi I'm not sure that Marcuse would be happy with the word '****'; it might be better to say something like 'physical desire'.
- The problem with '****' is that it implies sin: it can be seen as an animal drive, without thought or care for the any other person who is involved.
- I don't think Marcuse means that - he is talking about physical desire for the sake of pleasure, contrasting that with procreation as the means of merely producing more people who fit within the economic structure On the second point, yes, you're right.
- 'Also' introduces an additional thought that Marcuse has: as well as the above, he also thinks that this view of sexuality will help create groups of people who have new political ideas Dave
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Hi
I'm not sure that Marcuse would be happy with the word '****'; it might be better to say something like 'physical desire'. The problem with '****' is that it implies sin: it can be seen as an animal drive, without thought or care for the any other person who is involved. I don't think Marcuse means that - he is talking about physical desire for the sake of pleasure, contrasting that
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