He was a face you'd know. The mere contours, no colors included, and you'd have the name at the ready. Hell, even the colors, no contours, of a particularly lustrous and illustrious costume, and you might know him. And he was a voice that was heard somewhere, in some part of the world, in every…
Reading One’s Body: On the Speed of Observation, pt. V.2
Previously, I have tried to explain the simultaneity of presence/absence in desire, and have tried to demonstrate how both Benjamin's understanding of aura and his definition of translation relate to that understanding of desire. Here, I will try to explore that interrelation of aura and translation even further, to explain why the search for an…
Reading One’s Body: On the Speed of Observation, pt. V.1
"We are lived by powers we pretend to understand: They arrange our loves;...but existing is believing We know for whom we mourn and who is grieving." -W.H. Auden, In Memory of Ernst Toller We are reaching, by means of this inquiry on desire, the limits of our capacity as human beings to explain the forces…
Reading One’s Body: On the Speed of Observation, pt. V
Defined as both presence and absence, desire is a peculiar entity. Presence: a firm pressure on one's gut, begging for release; a wind pressing one's sails forward. Absence: a ghost, a mirage, a memory no longer here, a future of unknown location. The everyday mentality with which one resolves this presence/absence dilemma is as follows:…
A Particular Date, Remembered
The rain had ceased before you ever saw it. The clouds were low; you dodged puddles that reflected the grey of sky and black of pavement. You wondered if you had better grab a coat, but thought that to turn back home might risk your never leaving. You kept walking, already a few minutes late,…