“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Friday, June 29, 2012

Realist Magic on Melancholy and Objects

I just edited this bit:

“melancholy doesn't imply anything about subjectivity. All you need for melancholy are various kinds of object. This is what makes it different, in traditional psychoanalytic theories, from other affects. Indeed, melancholy speaks a truth of all objects—recall that I here use the term “object” in a value-neutral way, implying any real entity whatsoever, not objectification or subject–object dualism. But melancholy doesn't require fully formed subjectivity. Indeed, subjectivity is a result of an abnegation of the melancholic abject (Kristeva). The melancholy coexistence of objects predates the existence of the ego. Egos presuppose ancient layers of beings, fossilized remains.”

1 comment:

cgerrish said...

For some reason this makes me think of Lucas Cranach, The Elder's painting from 1532, called Melancoly. (Based on Albrecht Durer's etching). Saturn, a dog, the soul of an artist, carpentry, an army with no opponents...