the erotic
Georges Bataille’s Erotism off my shelf the other day, a book I’d probably say I’d read if pressed when I’ve really only skimmed. Yet I was struck immediately by the very first line of the introduction: “Eroticism, it may be said, is assenting to life up to the point of death.”
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Eroticism is not defined merely by its proximity to the sensual or... See more
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Eroticism is not defined merely by its proximity to the sensual or... See more
on erotic intelligence
At first, I just thought — I understood it intuitively, but really, there was nothing substantive and scientific behind it. I did understand that animals have sex. It is the instinct. It is the base. But
we have an erotic mind. And that erotic mind, it is infinite. And eroticism thrives on the ritual and the celebration... See more
Krista Tippett • Esther Perel — The Erotic Is an Antidote to Death
Eroticism is one of the few forms of play permitted to adults. It occurs in a world parallel to the habitual one; it frees us to adopt new personas; it has a tendency to generate enduring communities whose members are "apart together" even when its excesses have come to an end; and, finally, it is dispensable and therefore indispensable.
Becca Rothfeld • All Things Are Too Small
I sensed that they had a deep understanding of eroticism. Though I doubt that they ever used this word, they embodied its mystical meaning as a quality of aliveness, a pathway to freedom—not just the narrow definition of sex that modernity has assigned to it.
Esther Perel • Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
Uses of the Erotic: Audre Lorde on the Relationship Between Eros, Creativity, and Power
Maria Popovathemarginalian.org
For the erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. Once we know the extent to which we are capable of feeling that sense of satisfaction and completion, we can then observe which of our various life endeavours bring us closest to that fullness.
Audre Lorde. • Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
Eroticism, then, is about gravity, not about gratification, the pull toward something that reorients the self. And this gravity manifests not only in romantic or sexual relationships, but in every domain where desire dares to disrupt duty.