Here, Tiger (Anthropology/Rutgers; The Manufacture of Evil, 1987,
etc.) offers observations on our seeking of pleasure and its
prehistoric roots. "Pleasure matters," Tiger asserts. "The subject
is hot." Aiming to catch the drift of the 90's, he contends that
"pleasure is an evolutionary entitlement." Food, sex, drugs, power,
and, more interestingly, bearing children "are as much related to
our history as a species and products of it as they are products of
our invention," he convincingly argues. The taste for sugar, for
instance, was critical to primitive gatherers in sorting out what
and what not to eat. But today the craving for sweets has outlived
its function, and the pleasure derived from refined sugar carries a
price. On the other hand, Tiger explains, power gives humans and
primates chemically measurable physiological "benefits." The author
advocates "a balance sheet of fun as well as an agenda of
function," and claims that generally governmental "censors are in
fact violating a law of nature." Yet, he's against legalizing drugs
because "the human central pleasure system is too avid, too frail."
Tiger's attempt to speak to a broad audience means that what
information he provides comes in the form of cutely titled ("That
Old Gang Rape of Mine," "Ear, Ear"), rambling passages. Moreover,
his countless personal references offer little more than a series
of dropped names (Avignon, Bordeaux, and Siena as "midsize
ambitious dining towns"). Nor does the slapdash writing style help
("The bounteous body seems more desirable to men, and not only in
industrial societies, either"). Certainly, Tiger's stated ambition
"to assert and establish the moral, scientific, and political
authority of pleasure" proves far too broad and too complex.
Pleasure? Look elsewhere for thoughts grounded in the ice-cold wake
of a decade during which there seemed no shortage of those pursuing
their "entitlement" of pleasure. (Kirkus Reviews)
Pleasure is biologically desirable and good for physical and
mental health. In The Pursuit of Pleasure, Lionel Tiger explores
this aspect of human nature by focusing on the origins and forms of
pleasure. Medical science has perfected a host of often
astonishingly impressive methods for preventing, alleviating, or
recovering from pain. Its opposite, pleasure, has not had such a
well-funded and fully justified constituency. In fact, those
committed to the understanding and pursuit of pleasure, are rarely
accorded respect and a sense of significance. People have objected
to the notion of pleasure for a variety of reasons. The most
complex derive from religious convictions that the most morally
admirable human life is marked by abstemiousness, suffering, even
martyrdom. There is also a corresponding fear that people may
pursue pleasure too avidly and with too strong a sense of
entitlement, and the world's work will not get done. But just as
there have been suspicions of the dangers of pleasure, there have
also been its supporters who assert its vital and joyful centrality
to human experience. The Pursuit of Pleasure favors an agnostic
approach borrowed from natural science.
In lively, witty, and eminently readable prose, Tiger identifies
major forms of pleasure and explores their variations, now and in
the past. Pleasure, says Tiger, is not a luxury but an evolutionary
entitlement that deserves to be taken seriously. As we acknowledge
our need for enjoyment, we understand the need to establish balance
in our lives-our need for the pursuit of pleasure.
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