Metaphors of Consumer Desire
Russell W. Belk, University of Utah
GiJliz Ger, Bilkent University
S0ren Askegaard, Odense University
The human species is not a species of needs but of desires. (J.
Dnvlgnaud)
Desire, in the colloquial sense of the word, refers to a strong longing, to something for which a person intensely yeams, or to the process of fervently wishing for something. Consumption is increasingly seen as being based upon desires, not simply upon needs (Baudrillard 1988; Bocock 1993). Yet desires are seldom mentioned in the consumer behavior literature, where similar phenomena are more often downgraded to mere "wants" or else naturalized as "needs." The neglect of desire within consumer research conceals the passionate feelings that we experience in connection with many consumption activities. Philosophical dis-cussions of the mind also show a relative neglect of desire and a substitution of beliefs as the paradigm ofthe intentional (Marks 1986; Schueler 1995). Yet, a desire without a belief seems as powerless to move us to action as a belief without a desire (Marks 1986, p. 12). Desire, passion, and bliss remind us of ourDionysonian side: motion, intoxication, eroticism, fertility, mania, animal unconsciousness, as well as death and terror, ecstatic frenzy, and the unity of life and death. Desires are ever changing, infinitely renewable wishes infiamed by imagination, fantasy, and a longing for transcendent pleasure. And the pursuit of individual desire is a sourceoffearand a target for control. Fordesires involve powerful emotions and fervent passion. Consumer desires, more even than sexual desires, have spawned revolutions, wars, and crimes.
In this paper we explore the ways in which we speak of desire in several different languages (Engl ish, French, Danish, and Turk-ish) and the metaphorical tropes through which desire is described. As Lakoff and Johnson (1980) aptly demonstrate, our understand-ings are constmcted through and highly dependent upon meta-phors. By examining the major metaphors through which we express ourconsumer desires, we believe we leamsomethingabout the essence of contemporary consumer motivation. What we discover is something far different from a logical and utilitarian conception of consumer behavior. If the fundamental domains of human existence such as eating, drinking, and mating can evoke strong passions or "desires," what might it mean If we refer to these domains in expressing our longing for other consumption objects? We suggest that the use of such metaphors involves a magical appropriation of deep passions. Furthermore, these metaphors may legitimize desire by allowing us to believe that our wishes are needs; transforming thesuperfiuousinto the essential. Hence,such metaphorsbecomeexcusesforindulglngdesires by renderingthem as uncontrollable, natural, and animalistic needs.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Some social philosophers place "desire" in the center of understanding human societies (Kojäve 1947; Radkowski, 1980). Desire, to Radkowski (1980), is not a human attribute — on the most fundamental level humans do not have desires — but it is an expression of the specific form of being in the human species. Campbell (1987) relates consumer desires to a romantic ethic of fantasizing which he sees as the distinct feature the modem indi-vidual. The motivation for this fantasizlngof "myself as Icould be" is that desire is itself pleasurable. More specifically, the hedonism of this modem "generation of longing" is that "the desiring mode constitutes a state of enjoyable discomfort, and that wanting rather
than having is the main focus of pleasure-seeking" (Campbell 1987 p. 86). Since reality cannot live up to the perfect worlds of daydreaming, inspired by advertising as well as by general my-thologies of "the good life," the dynamism of the market does not depend on fulfilling desires but rather on their perpetual recreation. Desire is also culturally constituted and shared (Radkowski 1980; Stewart 1984). Perhaps one of the domains where the link between desire and the social world of objects becomes most visible (or audible), is the language we use to qualify these objects. Words are metaphorical windows to our imaginary worid (Will-iams 1982). While consumer desires are expressed using an array ofmetaphorsincludingmagic, religion, fire, romanticlove, dreams, thirst, hunger, sex, and addiction, the last three seem to dominate the languages we consider and we restrict our treatment to these metaphors. Together, they makeup much of what are labeled "appetitive desires" (Davis 1986). Not only is consumer imagina-tion commonly expressed In termsof hungers, sexual longings, and addictions, these desires are also often used interchangeably. The Eating Metaphor
You are what you eal. This popular phrase indicates the intimate characterofeatingand its pivotal importance forourbeing in the biological as well as in the anthropological, sociological, and psychological senses of the word. The domain of eating is of special importance firstly because it refers to a biologically neces-sary pattem of behavior that has been a fundamental preoccupation for all societies throughout history. Secondly eating implies incorporating foreign elements into our bodies, thus introducing objects Into our most intimate sphere — indeed, intimus in Latin is the superlative of interior. Eating is constructing a self, quite literally. Hence, metaphors taken from the domain of eating to describe feelings about objects or experiences other than culinary ones may indicate a high degree of cathexis of this object or experience to the self.
Incorporation, however, is dangerous and may be feared as well as embraced. The short story (and film), 'Babette's Feast' represents a good example of Puritan condemnation of earthly desires. Among the film's 19th century Puritan peasants, no distinction was made between (sinful) bodily appetites such as good food, wine, and sexuality or other bodily "weaknesses." All turn the mind away from the (true) spiritual desire for 'living in Christ'. Thus,whenobligedtograntBabetteheronly wish: tocook the villagers a splendid meal, these villagers fear that it will be "witch's Sabbath". And they take precautions not to get carried away by their sinful behavior. They encourage each other: "Let's pray we don't taste the food" and agree not to praise or even to talk about the food, in order for this ignorance to save their souls from the devilish temptations. Today, however, such ideas do not prevent most people from enjoying earthly pleasures. In Danish, the word for delicious itself ("laekker") can also be applied for consumer goods. Thus, it is perfectly normal to say for instance "a delicious car", "a delicious blouse" or even a "delicious desk". The only requirement seems to be that there must be some aesthetic aspect to the good in question. Knowledge (a central part of self-construction and a special type of consumer good) can be described in several languages as something for which we thirst. And in Danish colloquial speech and slang a whole menu of applicable food metaphors appear. Most important among them probably is
368 Advances in Consumer Research
the adjective "fat." In the past several decades, especially among younger peopte, it hasoften been applied to consumed experiences, such as a "fat concert" or a "fat voyage," or directly to consumer goods such as a "fat house", a "fat chair" or even a "fat dog," all without implying any degree of obesity. In the United States hip-hop and youth slang, the word is used similarty, sometimes spetled "phat." This metaphor, atthough of recent origin, reaches back to times when fat in a Westem context was seen as a sin of tuxury imptying liberation from hunger and need. It is the richness of fat or creamy foods that is transferred to the consumer goods by the use of 'fat' as a metaphor. In several languages "cream" indicates the very topof the product quality range (e.g., in English, "the cream of the crop"). In French we might be so lucky as to get "ta creme de la creme" of something.
Recent fat-related slangexpressions in Denmarkinclude "broad ymer," (ymer is relatively high fat milk product), replacing the word "fat" with sometime synonym "broad." Since ymer is inherently high in fat content, this creates comic redundancy and suggests an evenfatter(and,impticitty,better)productorexperience. ADanish hyperbole, used in a very similar way, is the expression "knee-high cress" which, by assuming an unnatural height of this herb, attudes tofantasiesanddesiresofuntimited abundance. Again, a humorous effect is obtained, here by setecting a retativety negligible and unimportant food item as a symbol of abundance. This expression and the previous one, while now out of fashion, were used to describe extraordinary (consumer) experiences such as listening to a favorite record or possessing a fine racing bike. They both allude to the ecstasy of ptenty and the feeling of a having a "better than real" experience. A more persistent metaphor of a similar kind is that ofthe 'comucopia', which can be used in several languages to designate an abundance of consumer goods or possibilities, but which originally referred to a mythical goat's hom overflowing with food delicacies.
Fat is not the only edible metaphor that connotes "good" consumption objects. Biologically humans are txirn with a prefer-ence for the sweet taste among the four universal types of taste (MacCtancy 1992). This innate preference is atso reflected In metaphors of consumer desire. In Turkish as wett as English, the adjective 'sweet' can be used to qualify both an attractive person and an attractive consumer good. Indeed in all the Germanic languages, different types of consumer goods may qualify as "sweet." This metaphor seems to be used most often in connection with goods that have a feminine linkage, either because they are predominantly used by women, such as female clothing, or because they evoke associations of cuteness, softness, roundness, or other traditional connotations of femininity (Coward 1984).
A finat Danish metaphor of consumer desire drawn from the reatm of eating is the word "kraes". This word is in its strictest sense a common denominator for something good to eat. The sound of it seems to onomatopoieticatty connote crispiness. However, it can also be used to qualify something of good quality outside of the domain of food products, with a metaphorical effect simitar to "cream." In the expression "kracs for kendere" ("for those who know") it adds a further dimension of connoisseurship, implying that only the disceming can enjoy the sublime consumption expe-rience of a particular object. Just as enjoying a single malt Scotch whisky can be a tough experience for beginners, so can a "difficult" piece of music or a finely crafted technical good be troublesome for laymen to appreciate. Such an object thus becomes "kraes for kendere".
Desires can atso invotve avoiding negative consumption ex-periences, in which case negative food metaphors may be applied. Agenerat and intemationatized disparagement is that something is "not my cup of tea." Also, a specific consumption experience can
be qualified as a "thin cup of tea" in Danish, indicating an unsatis-factory level of pleasure or b>enefit. In Turkish another expression evoking the same disappointing and dissatisfying consumption experience is, "His/her eyes are hungry/starving [although the stomach isfull]". Less obviously, perhaps, desires can be expressed by reference to eliminating food by defecating or urinating. Such desires remind us that from a Freudian perspective any bodily excretion is connected to feelings of lust. Thus, paradoxically, something can be "defecating!y" or "urinatingly" good in Danish and, at the same time, the mere word for "shit" is obscene, just as is the case in English or German (in Danish also "pee" applies). The ambiguity of defecation and urination (relief and disgust) is thus reflected in this way Danes can qualify objects: as something "defecatingly good" (referring to the retieving process) or as shit (referring to the disgusting resutt/object).
The Sexuai Metaphor
We sometimes describe our fervent desire for a consumer good as a tust. We intensety yeam for it, bum for it, and ache with desire. In invoking the hot buming passion associated with sex we borrow a further metaphor(heat) used with sexual desire to describe passion as an etementat, uncontrottabte reaction, as in being con-sumed by fiame. Thus when sexuat metaphors are enlisted to describe our love of products, they imply being consumed by passion. Sexual metaphors for consumer desire also bespeak an animalistic urge that is basic, sensual, instinctual, and uncontrol-lable. We are infiamed with a carnal tust to possess and merge with anthropomorhized non-camat objects. The word tuxury comes from the Latin for lust,/uxurm. Aswithtust,strongconsumerdesire pervades our body. Reason, moratity, and concem for others are cast aside as every fiber of our being becomes transfixed with an overwhelming and urgent appetite that torments us:
Admitit. Youwantit. All of us see the stuff—maybejusta slick littte red espresso maker, or maytx just a slick tittle red Saab 900 Turlx) — and even though some of us would rather die a horrible disgusting death than admit it, we want it. Some of us want it real bad (Handy 1988, p. 108).
Handy further suggests that advertising like the catalogs of The Sharper Image act as high tech pornography igniting our lust the goods portrayed. We need not accept the Freudian idea of consumer desire as subtimated tibidinat desire in order to accept that there is something very akin to the sharp passion of sexual yeaming in our intense longing for certain consumer goods.
When we anthropomorphize consumer goods as objects of tonging we disptay a key etement of fetishism. Etten (1988) argues that the sexuat fetishism discussed by Freud and the commodity fetishism diagnosed by Marx are in reality a part of a single phenomenon. Fetishistic anthropomorphism is evident in Rook's (1987) finding that impulse purchases are often attributed to the goods that "catt out" to us to buy them. It is atso apparent in Dreiser's (1981) Sister Carrie, when the former farm gid Carrie encounters Chicago department stores:
Fine ctothes to her were a vast persuasion; they spoke tenderty and Jesuiticaily for themselves. When she came within earshot of their pleading, desire in her bent a wilting ear. Ah, ah! the voices of the so-catled inanimate (p. 98).
Anthropomorphized merchandise in the eariy department stores is even more cleariy seen in Zola's (1958) description of Denise's visits to Au Bonheur des Dames, modeled on Bon Marché in Paris:
A crowd was stopped before the shop windows, women pushing and squeezing, devouring the finery with longlag, covetous eyes. And the stuffs became animated in this passionate sidewalk atmosphere... awakening new desires in her flesh, an immense temptation to which she woutd fatally succumb (pp. 17-18).
The sexual metaphor for consumer desire is also seen in Wiltis'(1991) account ofthe packaging of certain consumer goods, paralteling the disptay windows of retait stores:
Of atl the attributes of mass-produced commodity packaging today, the most important is the use of ptastic. The ptastic cover acts as a barrier between the consumer and the product, white at the same time it offers up a naked view of the commodity to the consumer gaze. ... Shaped and naked, but veited and withheld, the display of commodities is sexuatized. Plastic packaging defines a game of cache — cache where sexuat desire triggers both mascutine and feminine fantasies. Strip-leaseorveiled phallus— packagingconfiates a want for a particular object with a sexualized form of desire (p. 4).
In consumer desire, as in sexual desire, visual senses dominate with the shopper's gaze replacing the mate gaze (Urry 1990). As with sexual desire, fantasy and fantasizing ptay a key role in fueling this desire. Fantastic consumer desires are stimulated by cinema (Friedberg 1993), books and magazines (Davies 1983), and adver-tising Lears(1994). Beyond their role in creating consumer desires, these media also legitimize, reinforce, and transform even uncon-scious consumer wishes into imperative needs (Shabad 1991).
Nevertheless, the sexuat metaphor of consumer desire also suggests that the state of wanting itsetf is simuttaneously exciting, pteasurable, and frustrating: an exquisite torture. Ackerman(1994) suggests that the origin of this tendency in courtship was with the medievat modet of courtty tove. It continued into the Renaissance period when it developed among the bourgeoisie as well, who nearly endlessly teased and flirted, all the while delaying the fiilfillment of sexual intercourse. While the waiting period may have diminished in the contemporary West, in such rituals as kissing and foreplay we continue to delay sexuat consummation and we continue to find the postponement a pteasureabte means of protracting the excitement. This is Campbet I's (1987) pleasureable frustration or the desire to desire (Doane 1987).
While the sexual metaphor for consumer desire might t>e applied to both men and women, historicalty it has t>een directed more to female consumers. The development of the department store in particular has been characterized as a seduction of women by male store owners (Bowtby 1985,1993; Reekie 1993; Wiltiams 1982). As Reekie (1993) describes it,
...tike courtship, selling entailed a series of negotiations be-tween the sexes premised on the assumption that man was the hunter and woman his legitimate prey. Both selling and courtshipscriptsoftheeariy twentieth century were structured by cteariy demarcated sex rotes predicated on the assumption of a man's right of conquest and femate passivity. Man was the pursuer, woman the pursued; man the active initiator, woman the ptiant respondent (p. xvil).
Through retait disptay women were tempted and enticed to fondte the merchandise and based on assumed chitdlike vulnerabil-ity to buy or even steal consumer luxuries they could ill-afford (Abelson 1989). Such sex rote stereotypes invoke an even older
image of women as having uncontrotted and insatiable sexual desires (Hatpem 1990), even though this male fear is sometimes repressed by imagining women to be without sexual desire(Jacobus 1990; Kaplan 1983). Itisnotatongjump from women as insatiable sexuat beings to women as insatiabte consumers—a long-standing stereotype ofthe modem age readily seen in Dreiser's Carrie and Zola's Denise. Although department stores were marked as "women's spaces" or "an Adamless Eden" (Benson 1988), depart-ment stores and shopping malls have now become de-feminized such that men are no tonger marginatized and are increasingty a target of seductive retaiters (Reekie 1993).
Laqueur (1992) sees the rise of overt sexuality and the rise of consumer desire as historically interlinked in the creation of con-sumerculture. Lefebvre(1991,p. 162)extendsthesexuatmetóphor at this more macro level by suggesting that marketers are pimps to our consumer desires, catering to our every whim and weakness. In the marketer-as-pimp sexual metaphor, untike the department store-as-seducer variant devetoped by Reekie (1993), the product itself is the attraction and marketers merely tempt us with goods made to appear infinitely desirable. But in both cases, we are impetted as consumers by overwhelming patpabte desires that are intensety felt and create longing akin to intense sexual desire. Thus does consumer desire, like sexual desire, continually excite us in an unfulfitlabte quest.
The Addiction Metaphor
When we refer to our weakness for or dependence upon something we buy repeatedty, we catt tt addiction, implying both devotion and obsession. Rug cottectors in Turkey sometimes refer to themsetves as "rug addicts", and praise their devotion, making it seem tess negative. Addiction impties a tack of control: "I didn't intend to buy it but I coutdn't resist," "t lost myself, "I coutd not hotd myself," "I am hooked", "I have an illness for it" (in Turkish and Danish). Other terms used are duped, seized, captured, en-slaved, astounded, dumbfounded, stupefied, bewildered, or mad for something. A true (non-metaphorical) addiction "exists when a person's attachment to a sensation, an object, or another person is such as to lessen his [sic] appreciation of and ability to deal with other things in his environment, or in himself, so that he has become increasingly dependent on that experience as his only source of gratification" (Peele 1985). Addiction, the 'strong appetite', in-volves devotion, dependence, surrendering controt, habit, obses-siveness, and preoccupation with the object to the detriment of wett-being (Orford 1985; Peele 1985).
In addition to drugs, stimulant beverages and foods (tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar— luxuries democratized as part ofthe rise of consumer cutture — Mintz 1993, p. 264), gambling, sex and relatlonships,collecting,and shopping, can also be addictive. Ifthe addiction to drugs is chemical, addiction to "drug foods" is both chemical and sociat (Mintz 1993), and the sociat construction of desire attempts to reign in the ptacetx) power of "drug goods".
Many similarities can be detected between the elements of addiction (Orford 1985; West and Kranzler 1990) and the proper-ties of the consumerism, especially among computsive buyers and some coltectors. Consumerism invotves desiring more and more goods, having an unquenchable desire for goods, longing for transcendent meanings, and seeking experiences of otherness and unusual states of consciousness (Cross 1993). Compulsive buyers discuss their compulsion using drug analogies: "It's almost like you're on a drunk. Youaresointoxicated;...lgotthisgreathigh. It was like you couldn't have given me more of a rush" (O'Guinn and Faber 1989, p. 153). Like addicts, collectors are comrades, sharing deep ecstatic emotionat involvement (Betk, et al. 1991), and
form-ing 'consumption communities* (Boorstin 1968). Among collec-tors "A sense of longing and desire...is met by adding to the coltection. But this Is a temporary fix, a staving off of withdrawal, followed by a feeting of emptiness and anxiety that is addressed by searchingformore**(Betk,etat. 1991,pp.202-203). Consumption has been catted a disease (Porter 1993). A preoccupation with consumption, such that other important activities are negtected, and the persistent involvement in consumption despite ctear evidence that it has become probtematic, are observed in the work-and-spend ethic that precludes the luxury of free time in a consumer culture (Cross 1993). Among computsive buyers, shopping becomes a major leisure activity, possessions are valued over friends and other activities, and there is de facto acceptance of Barbara Kruger's neo-Cartesian creed, "I shop therefore I am" (O*Guinn and Faber 1989). As addicts narrow their repertoire of pleasures to routine drug-Uking, so do consumers in engaging in certain ritualistic consump-tion (Rook 1985), in devoting themsetves to their cottecconsump-tion, or in buying ten $10 shirte (O'Guinn and Faber 1989).
The relaxation, anesthesia, and sleepy happiness, as well as the arousal and thritt created by drugs, can atso be created by goods. Goods and shopping soothe us, thrill us, put us in abetter mood, and help us forgetour problems. And, although we realize that the thrill of shopping and buying does not last long, after a period of abstinence,shoppingbingesandspturgesretum. Despite the sleepy happiness, or power and stimulation found in drugs, their dark side is also common knowtedge. Breaking drug dependency starts with acknowledging the power of the drug: the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous (adapted by other groups for other addictions, inctud-ing Shopaholics and Spendermenders, O'Guinn and Faber 1989) is to admit powerlessness over alcohot. The next steps involve tuming to another devotion, to God or a "higher power." The loss of control or freedom is a common aspect of the experience of addiction. For exampte, from a Westem perspective drunkenness has been seen as a form of madness In which the will is overcome by passion (Jacobus 1990) or in which setf controt and reasoned judgment come to be dominated by the pursuit of pleasure. Like-wise, in a consumer society, we may feel we are possessed by our possessions (Maffesoti 1993). This is rationalized as an irresistible computsion or craving—"Isimply have to have this"—especially in impulse buying, compulsive buying, and coltecting. This admis-sion of inabitity to resist parattets the setf-attribution of addiction among drug addicts to exptain and excuse to society the drug use and to remove it from morat censure and responsibitity for behav-iorat change. With the power seen as extemat, addicts betieve that they cannot resist the temptation. So do collectors (Belk et. al 1991). Besides escaping blame and guitt, perceiving power to reside in things attows us to lose ourselves in appetites for art or music and to derive pleasure from a temporary transcendence, a loss of consciousness (Watney 1983, p. 75) tike that experienced with addictive drugs.
White addiction invotves craving and loss of controt, desire is not an automatic response to antecedent cues or physiological states; it is a dynamic motivational process that invotves cutturat ly-based anticipations and expectations of pleasure or pleasurable relief. Several decades ago, groups of young people started to smoke banana skins, which are inert. One-third of the users reported psychedelic experiences and thousands were caught up in the craze. Outcome expectancies Involving imagination and fan-tasy underlie drug effects, as with the expectancy that atcohol is a "magic elixir" capable of transforming emotional states (Martatt 1987). Hence, addiction is not in the drug but in the user. Ceremo-niat, restrained, or moderate use of "addictive" drugs atso attests to this possibitity. Historical and cultural context influence views of
addiction,asseen in 16th century BCThebean physicians prescrib-ing opium for cryprescrib-ing children, just as, miltennia later, Victorian babies were dosed with the opiate Godfrey*s Cordial by theirnurses to keep them quiet. Today candy bars, ice-cream, or chewing gums are used to placate children.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
One consequence of thinking of consumer desire as sexual or addictive, is that especially within Christian cultures, it carries a taint of sin and creates guitt. White this, like guitt from indutgent eating (Bordo 1990; Coward 1984), potentiatty inhibits spending and consumption, it also serves to make the desire more exciting. As with sex (Parker 1991) and eating (Mintz 1993), the sense of transgression in "sinful" consumer Indulgence makes us relish the pleasure att the more. This same pteasure in transgression may help explain the lethal attraction of cigarette smoking which takes on "...poetic quatities of a sacred object oran erotic one, endowed with magicat properties and seductive charms, surrounded by taboos and an air of danger — a repository of illicit pteasure, a conduit to the transcendentat, and a spur to repression** (Ktein 1993, pp. xii-xiii). Like sex, drugs, and smoking, consumer desire retishes transgres-sion and provides onty fleeting, but ever-renewable pleasure upon consummation.
The strong acquisitive appetites of collectors (Belk, et al. 1991 ) and travelers (Cross 1993) have been suggested to involve the poweroftheobjectstomagicaltytransformeveryday life intoa new realm of experience, a fantasy life, and an experience of othemess —othertimes, places, orpeopte. The drug addict, the collector, and the traveler each pursue an altered state of consciousness. Like drugs, travet and carnivat invotve experiencing pleasurable differ-ences (Thompson 1983). These differdiffer-ences offer excitation, and the uncertainties and tensions associated with them produce a relaxation of social protocols and taboos. When on holiday or suffering an addiction, normal discipline is relaxed, and restraint gives way to indulgence. Again, pteasure comes from breaking taboos, engaging in the exotic, escaping imposed order, and satis-fying suppressed desire for disorder. Parallel arguments suggest that consumer pleasure, as with erotic pleasure, is derived from the knowledge of 'mal', of one's wrongdoing and from transgressive desires (Bataille 1973). Pleasure opposes order as Dionysus op-poses the Olympian Gods, especiatty Apotto. Desire thus pursues the forbidden. Perfumes like Opium, Taboo, and My Sin alt appeat to this transgressive aspect of desire.
With sex In particular, but atso with pleasures in general, the constructs of sin and evil have also been used in an attempt to control even the most harmless of self-indulgent desires and prac-tices like snacking or masturbation (Foucault 1985; Tiger 1992). We are urged to employ self-control and self-restraint to avoid exercising such desires. Simitariy in consumption avoiding giving in to desire is often cast as a battte of will against selfish indulgence (e.g.. Bordo 1990; Hoch and Lowenstein 1991). Just as one of the historicopportunities for suspendingorsubvertingcontrol of eating and sex In Western culture has been Carnival (Bakhtin 1968; Parker 1991), Lears (1994) demonstrates that consumer advertising and personal setting are inherentty camivalesque in their appeals for release and indulgence.
But bliss from eating, sex, drugs, or consumption dissipates very quickty. The continued craving and search for renewed btiss may become a pleasureless pursuit of pteasure. Oscillation be-tween bliss and pains of craving and dependency are as much part of consumer culture as is Intermittent bliss. If wanting rather than having is the focus of modern pleasure-seeking, and desire is defined in terms of pleasure (Campbell 1987; McCracken 1988),
endless desiring tums into a chronic deficiency (Fatk 1994). Frus-tration becomes the permanent state.
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