unique interests
Dec. 3rd, 2004 02:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lapsedmodernistA meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apropos: the exegesis of your "unique" user interests.
Disaster memorabilia--souveniers of tragedies/disasters. It's an old industry, from souveniers of the Golgotha and pieces of the Cross to the WTC memorabilia that I shot a documentary about last year. One of the people featured in the film is Constantin Boym who, as a part of his Souveniers for the End of the Centrury line designed two sets of sculptures: Buildings of Disaster (including the 9/11 Memorial Set, Chernobyl, the Oklahoma City Federal Building, etc.) and a strange, poignant Missing Monuments. He and another interviewee, Proferssor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett really helped me conceptualize the idea discursively, rather than didactically.
Ethnographic filmmaking--I am kind of surprised this is a "unique" interest; I think it's pretty self-explanatory. I guess sometimes it is used interchangeably with "visual anthropology" but I would take issue with that.
History as sorcery--a concept Michael Taussig writes about in Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man--basically the idea being that at times (colonial) history-as-trauma constitutes an "epistemic murk" can only be articulated through discourses of magic and sorcery. If you've ever seen Jean Rouch's film "Les Maitres Fous" where he documented a ritual performed by members of a Hauka possession cult, who, during the trance were "possessed" by the spirits of colonial rulers (the governor-general, the major, etc.) and behaved transgressively and "madly" as they embodied these figures, that should give you some idea of how this concept can work.
Homo Sacer--the human being that can be killed but not sacrificed. In Ancient Greece there were two discourses of life--bios--the "qualified (i.e. political and social) life" and zoe--the "bare life" (i.e. the biological existence, the natural processes). Giorgio Agamben develops that idea in conjunction with the Ancient Roman concept of the homo sacer--a man condemned to death, stripped of his social/political life and down to bare, biological existence. According to Roman law he could be killed, but not ritually sacrificed. Agamben uses this idea of a man being reduced to such a legal status that to kill him is not a crime to consider The Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th century in a new way. He also explores that concept in terms of what it means for power and sovereignity today.
Human universals: I am a closet universalist
One-dimensional man: as per Marcuse, the one-dimensional society is a society where the space for critical discourse has been completely obliterated, and a one-dimensional man is a denizen of that society, deluded into interpreting his choices as a consumer as "freedom."
Possibly apocryphal stories: I like stories so good that they sound apocryphal, and I like apocryphal stories that make me go: "if that didn't happen it should have."
The un-50s: the zombie 1950s, a.k.a. here and now.
Theories of value: as in different systems of exchange, from capitalism to gift economies. In particular, I am partial to Simmel's relativist theory of value, reliant on subjective judgement and desire. This interest also dovetails with "gift economies," a rich and interesting topic in anthropology.
These lacustrine cities--a John Ashbery poem I am obsessed with.
"The real"--The Lacanian real, the "natural" prelingual state from which we are forever severed once we enter into Language.
Promiscuity of objects--a term I really like that I encountered in a Nicholas Thomas book, Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific. The term refers to the material artifacts that shed and acquire meanings and histories as they are given/taken/exchanged in different cultural circumstances.
The "Left Behind" Series: you know. The Rapture happens. The Antichrist comes. He is the head of the UN. He moves the UN to New Babylon. The Jews have to be converted. Wackiness ensues. I've actually only read the first two. But I find them very interesting.
apropos: the exegesis of your "unique" user interests. Disaster memorabilia--souveniers of tragedies/disasters. It's an old industry, from souveniers of the Golgotha and pieces of the Cross to the WTC memorabilia that I shot a documentary about last year. One of the people featured in the film is Constantin Boym who, as a part of his Souveniers for the End of the Centrury line designed two sets of sculptures: Buildings of Disaster (including the 9/11 Memorial Set, Chernobyl, the Oklahoma City Federal Building, etc.) and a strange, poignant Missing Monuments. He and another interviewee, Proferssor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett really helped me conceptualize the idea discursively, rather than didactically.
Ethnographic filmmaking--I am kind of surprised this is a "unique" interest; I think it's pretty self-explanatory. I guess sometimes it is used interchangeably with "visual anthropology" but I would take issue with that.
History as sorcery--a concept Michael Taussig writes about in Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man--basically the idea being that at times (colonial) history-as-trauma constitutes an "epistemic murk" can only be articulated through discourses of magic and sorcery. If you've ever seen Jean Rouch's film "Les Maitres Fous" where he documented a ritual performed by members of a Hauka possession cult, who, during the trance were "possessed" by the spirits of colonial rulers (the governor-general, the major, etc.) and behaved transgressively and "madly" as they embodied these figures, that should give you some idea of how this concept can work.
Homo Sacer--the human being that can be killed but not sacrificed. In Ancient Greece there were two discourses of life--bios--the "qualified (i.e. political and social) life" and zoe--the "bare life" (i.e. the biological existence, the natural processes). Giorgio Agamben develops that idea in conjunction with the Ancient Roman concept of the homo sacer--a man condemned to death, stripped of his social/political life and down to bare, biological existence. According to Roman law he could be killed, but not ritually sacrificed. Agamben uses this idea of a man being reduced to such a legal status that to kill him is not a crime to consider The Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th century in a new way. He also explores that concept in terms of what it means for power and sovereignity today.
Human universals: I am a closet universalist
One-dimensional man: as per Marcuse, the one-dimensional society is a society where the space for critical discourse has been completely obliterated, and a one-dimensional man is a denizen of that society, deluded into interpreting his choices as a consumer as "freedom."
Possibly apocryphal stories: I like stories so good that they sound apocryphal, and I like apocryphal stories that make me go: "if that didn't happen it should have."
The un-50s: the zombie 1950s, a.k.a. here and now.
Theories of value: as in different systems of exchange, from capitalism to gift economies. In particular, I am partial to Simmel's relativist theory of value, reliant on subjective judgement and desire. This interest also dovetails with "gift economies," a rich and interesting topic in anthropology.
These lacustrine cities--a John Ashbery poem I am obsessed with.
"The real"--The Lacanian real, the "natural" prelingual state from which we are forever severed once we enter into Language.
Promiscuity of objects--a term I really like that I encountered in a Nicholas Thomas book, Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific. The term refers to the material artifacts that shed and acquire meanings and histories as they are given/taken/exchanged in different cultural circumstances.
The "Left Behind" Series: you know. The Rapture happens. The Antichrist comes. He is the head of the UN. He moves the UN to New Babylon. The Jews have to be converted. Wackiness ensues. I've actually only read the first two. But I find them very interesting.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 07:23 pm (UTC)I'm waaaayyy on the left over there, next to the water.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-04 01:19 am (UTC)that map with all the planes? it looks *nothing* like the united states!
what were *they* drinking, huh?
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 09:29 am (UTC)that sounds very interesting. Like how people define their personalities and their individuality on what they buy. Like "I buy punk records. that's me" or the Rolling Stones song with the "man on the radio telling me that I can't be a man... but he doesnt' smoke the same cigarettes as me." Or even down to people not liking other people based on their musical tastes; Basically all a facade, huh? very interesting. However, this touches other mindsets that are out there: the next Hare-Krishna you meet will tell you the same thing. And they're both right.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 10:50 am (UTC)blabbering ramble begs indulgence
Date: 2004-12-03 12:00 pm (UTC)well hmmmmm..... that IS contentious. as an aside, I get skeptical whenever people start on about workers being "alienated" from they're "labor" - In the philosophy classes I took in college where we did read Marx (like, the Manifesto & snippets from "Kapitol") whenever that came up I was always pretty dismissive as to the veracity of that theory, and especially as to its negative consequences. It's usually where my philosophy breaks with the more leftist ideologies, seeing them, on this one, minor point, as unprogressive, stagnant even - those were my reactions, at least. Nevertheless, a very interesting "unusual interest" and I will eventually peruse some of it, especially if it attempts to reconcile inconsistencies in or update Marxist thought into something that makes better sense to me.
(Although I've always been rubbed the wrong way by many critical theorists, all those superstars that get named, by their coining of new words to explain in one go, all that is wrong, or, like, the Key to Understanding Everything With Their New Theory that Explains It All. Of couse, because you just redefined 100 commonly-used words, and if you control the words, you can rearrange them into something that fits your new, crazy theory. This is all why I've thrown Hardt & Negri's 2 books over my shoulders a few times. And why that Frederick Jameson dude in North Carolina... ahhhhhh... i just have a ugly history with critical thought....
maybe its because i didn't like the continental philosophy and the the french and italian theorists, and how all of it is descended from Hegel and the others from the century of german dreamers: my heart is really with the more practical-minded british philosophers, Adam Smith, Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Mill and my MAN Francis Bacon - more empirical and salt-of-the-earth, my kind of guys.)
ok, enough. anyway, I honeslty WILL look up Marcuse.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 11:15 am (UTC)not to overwhelm your response page, but I thought it went well with the subject
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 12:09 pm (UTC)I've tried making an icon from it myself, but the buildings are already so faint in the original, they practically disappear in a 100-pixel square :(
no subject
Date: 2004-12-04 12:04 am (UTC)I totally forgot to mention that I am very interested in seeing your doco as well!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 11:12 am (UTC)I'm still thinking about These Lacustrine Cities... will respond later.
And... have you ever seen the movie The Rapture, btw? It's on that list of movies-that-I-loved-when-I-saw-them-but-fear-that-I-would-not-love-if-
I-saw-them-again.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 12:03 pm (UTC)Then, of course, there is this, although this is more documentation than material culture:
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm
Yes, I HAVE seen The Rapture, actually! I kind of think it's an excellent, if very weird movie. It certainly blew my mind when I first saw it, since I really didn't expect the Rapture to happen, and then in light of it happening, her choice at the end is truly subversive and shocking. Wow, what a critique! (also I really like Mimi Rogers and naked David Duchovny is always a plus).
no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-02 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-18 02:43 am (UTC)