How do you describe sensual pleasure ?

Volupté in the broadest sense of pleasure - in the natural or organic state of things so that it is felt when experiencing something spectacular of nature, the cosmos or the body. To witness the changes in nature as a tempest approaches from the sea - that moment when an immense creamy wave crashes beyond a boundary, or a full moon is surrounded by the constellations - momentarily swelling the throat and emitting a single sound that is the surplus of delicious. In each of these instances the event is preceded by a period of waiting and anticipation, the most recent manifestation an early evening when looking out of my window I saw in the horizon a red sky intermingled with clouds and blue, and in the foreground the skeleton shapes of winter trees that were embracing. This reverie of nature was volupté - in my highly aroused imagination the creamy red landscape was an island populated by animated trees, I was there, felt enclosed, and all was ultimately experienced in the moment of swallowing, an orchestration of desire mingling with deepest contentment.

Do you think that beyond pleasure, orgasm and its enjoyment, there are particular conditions in which the sexual act brings about sensual pleasure ? What are they ?

Volupté is more than the pleasure brought about by the sexual act, although that is important. Are there particular conditions or does nature create an environment in which volupté is the ultimate response ? If there are conditions then perhaps these are within our deepest dreams and imaginations that make a connection with moments. If conditions, then nature that is always in waiting and sometimes impatiently.

What does it tell us about our condition of being alive ?

I can only respond subjectively. The life outside of the dream and imagination holds nothing. Being alive is the rhythm of dream and imagination as two inseparable entities that seize upon the moment of volupté.

What light does it shed for you upon the sense of life, of death and of their reproduction ?

I think to a baby taking to the mother’s breast for the first time, is that volupté or satisfaction of hunger ? I think it is both. So we are born with a desire to experience natural pleasures and we demand those until satisfied. We learn about our need to make those demands through the will to survive and throughout life we play with this delicate balance. In death, so long as it is not prematurely brought about through unnatural circumstances, we have complete certainty that our desire nurtured in the womb is complete at the moment of the most longed for and natural sleep.

Do you think it can be considered as the absolute good ?

Yes, if Volupté embracing supreme points whether of nature, the cosmos or the body.

Does it, at the centre of a heightened consciousness and/or unconsciousness constitute a part of the supreme point of the spirit, as expressed by Breton ?

Yes, if Volupté embracing supreme points whether of nature, the cosmos or the body.

Was it able to inspire, more or less directly, any civilisations, any traditions, any utopias ?

I think of Sade and of Fourier, of Campanella and of Marco Polo’s imaginary cities and reply yes, of course. Within the agora of each of these utopias is the essence of volupté.

Could it, without in so doing being made banal or exploited, be taken up by society and to what ends ?

This society does not cherish enough, it would attempt to hijack volupté and name it merchandise. The society will always be outside of volupté until it values and embraces all that is nature.

From the infinitely small to the infinitely large, does it relate to cosmic phenomena, of which we only understand the mechanics, but of whose actions give us recourse to analogy ?

Do we really only understand the mechanics of cosmic phenomena ? I would beg to differ. We do not need to resort to analogy, all that we are is connected with the cosmos. If we are in link with nature then also the cosmos and our most natural acts of sensual pleasure are there in the shadows of the cosmos, they are delightfully entangled. When we make love beneath the light of a full moon, at the supreme point watch the stars and the clouds around the moon how they dance with us, watch the approaching storm how it clashes against the tide at the same moment that our rivers flow - there is a union of the spirit with the cosmos that is beautifully constructed by nature.

March 2004