ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 moves from thinking bodies to practicing bodies. Inspired by a ‘sociology of attachment’ and underpinned by a Deleuzian notion of the ‘event’, this chapter looks at the coming together of humans and nonhumans to produce pleasure and other a/effects in the injecting event. Instead of viewing pleasure as a controllable drug effect, embedded within the drug itself, which participants seek out, the chapter looks at how pleasure is enacted through a fragile assemblage of bodies, including substances, paraphernalia, peers, and space-time, and the techno-corporeal techniques involved, including to invigorate the venous system and negotiate ‘tolerance’. Pleasure is then expressed as ‘success’ which encapsulates both the feeling of rush and relief at the assemblage coming together. But, just as the pleasure assemblage can come together, it can fall away. Hence, the chapter’s title follows one participant’s metaphor of the ‘tilting water glass’, to highlight this fragility and the care-ful work undertaken to keep it upright.
