I had a lot of energy during this particular live update. All that unexpected talk about bodies and pleasures and fisting (yes, you read that right) brought me back to the good old days of graduate school reading Bodies and Pleasures at Webster’s Cafe in State College, PA, blushing and beaming over Ladelle McWhorter’s descriptions of Foucault’s work and pleasure and dancing like I was suddenly being let in on a radical secret that could initiate me into generations of philosophers/queers/abnormal weirdos who know something about way more enjoyable ways to get free. You’re welcome to join the club if you, too, want to know. Ideally, this passionately raw and appropriately titled download, “The Erotic as a Meta Methodology,” would be a decent place to start. While I didn’t explicitly discuss much about meta methodology after all (though this is, of course, oh so meta of an update), I did end up talking about many concepts that fundamentally shaped my own philosophical process and thinking. For instance, if you watch/listen, you’ll pick up this life-changing, graduate-level pearl of wisdom, which I got directly from the mouth of Del herself, sometime around 2009 when she summarized what you really need to know to live like Foucault: “Normalization: Boo! Discipline: Yay!” Discipline. Practices of self-overcoming. Straying afield of oneself, especially who and how we know ourselves to be in light of the oppressive systems of normalization that shape us. I have come to understand that this is where it all comes together. The erotic and thinking. Wanting and willing. Dancing and actually becoming less racist. And so, so much more. Whether we are striving to get more free or find the place where we finally feel more at home within ourselves and with each other, it all ultimately requires the same thing: We must develop and expand our own capacities that create conditions for overcoming. As this point, it’s been almost a year of me doing these live weekly(-ish) updates on Substack. The goal of Want to Know has been to document my process of developing an epistemology of intimacy. Hopefully, you are wondering, “Is it meta (philosophical performance art)? Or is it real?” One thing is obvious: It’s getting repetitive. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. During this livestream, someone commented with appreciation for the fidelity of my concepts, terms, and language. They are a poet, and their word choice with ‘fidelity’ made me light up. Because, yeah, actually, I do experience a distinct sense of something (is it pride? satisfaction? reassurance? surely something more philosophically significant…) with how it all keeps pointing back to the same pieces, the same ideas, the same implications. Not just week after week or month after month. We’re talking year after year. For decades now. Let’s get even more meta, shall we? I’ll show you what I mean. (Alright, first, heads up: To get the most meta experience of what happens next, you have to watch/listen to this Live Weekly Update. I don’t make the rules. That’s just how meta methodologies work.) Lately, I’ve been paying more attention to how I have long appreciated when those from whom I learn shed light on their own process. Oftentimes, even more than the theories they produce, which are clearly powerful and important, I connect more intimately with those instances where they reflect on the when’s, how’s, and why’s of their own learning and transformation. These accounts resonate in a different way that feels more (personal? honest? encouraging about real possibilities for meaningful change? probably all of the above…). To prove my affections and flesh out some references I made in this most recent live update, here are a few bits of anecdotal evidence of my own. * Let’s start with this, the first video of my Think for a Change series on inspiring role models. (If you didn’t know, I published my very first YouTube video fifteen years ago as part of the It Gets Better phenomenon with a commitment to make helpful philosophical resources more accessible.) * Up next is a classically meta move of thinking about thinking. In my recent livestream, I misremembered details of this video about freedom to think differently, or at all — I thought I may have been reading from Ladelle McWhorter’s book on Foucault, but I’m actually reading from Foucault’s “History of Sexuality, Vol. II: Uses of Pleasure” (which sounds intriguingly resonant with Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic,” am I right??). [FYI: It was my third video in the Think for a Change series when I read a “bedtime story” from Del’s second book on racism and sexual oppression.] * And finally, back in 2017, I shared updated thoughts on my own work developing the practice of positive philosophy. Almost ten years ago now, this lecture highlights the power of shifting toward humility and gratitude for what we must learn in order to be who we need. The piece by Amy Edgington that deeply influenced my thinking on this is titled, “Growing Up in Little Rock,” which was on the syllabus for my class on feminist friendship. Yes, you see, this is all getting extremely repetitive. There’s a whole world and billions of people across vast histories that we, individually, will never encounter, and yet there are also those pieces of ourselves and others who have some direct influence on our lives that are near and familiar, to which we can always revisit, return, review, and rethink. I believe wisdom is truth with lineage, and love, which must include the love of wisdom, often manifests through practices of becoming more intimate. So I say to you as much as I say to myself, please, let me tell you, again and again, until you know, until you understand. And please, tell me over and over again, what it is you have to share. I want to know. Through October 2026 (and probably beyond, let’s be real), the theme for Romancing the Revolution is the erotic. Thank you, Audre Lorde, for everything. To join the Sunday calls, register at my shop on buymeacoffee.com. Get full access to Want to Know at coriwong.substack.com/subscribe
