For the first in his adult life, Gabriel heard a shout. Like us all, of course, he had heard his televised cries. But he had never been the one on the ground, responding and responsible. It had been so long, indeed, since he had heard a human wail, that the mere fact of Gabriel's registering…
The Untold Chronicles of Cindy Renoir
She had a rather awkward nose. But a sensible midsection. Or so the boy thought, tensing his calves against the legs of his chair, leaning back and forth to the rhythms of his thoughts. Thankfully for her, she didn’t give a fuck what he thought. Not many people did. He kept thinking anyway. She sold…
Affection as Resonance Among Agents
What follows is the third part of the Violence of Empathy series, which begins here. It is the sequel to Empathy as an Act of Reading, which can be accessed here. 1: Resonance is the antithesis of loneliness, which may be summarized with the common phrase “the feeling of being understood,” “of being seen.” Counseling…
Empathy as an Act of Reading
What follows is a series of hypotheses that continues a project which I have begun in The Violence of Empathy, which may be accessed here. 1: One must remember that empathy takes place always within the symbolic order: a body must have the means for recognizing and internalizing another’s pain; such recognition is prone to…
The Violence of Empathy
The inspiration for this essay came after writing, on another occasion: “My suffering becomes unbearable if ever I have to suffer alone. Misery loves company. There is a selfish, plaintive plea in each complaint, as one begs the other to hurt as well—even as one hopes that this may be just commiseration, rather than wrathful…