This paradox of the carnival—which in the most general sense is the paradox of emotion, but in the most specific sense is the paradox of sacrifice- ought to be considered with the most critical attention. As children, we have all suspected it:perhaps we are all, moving strangely beneath the sky, victims of a trap, a joke whose secret we will one day know. This reaction is certainly infantile and we turn away from it, living in a world imposed on us as though it were “perfectly natural,” quite different from the one that used to exasperate us. As children, we did not know if we were going to laugh or cry but, as adults, we “possess” this world, we make endless use of it, it is made of intelligible and utilizable objects. It is made of earth, stone, wood, plants, animals. We work the earth, we build houses, we eat bread and wine. We have forgotten, out of habit, our childish apprehensions. In a word, we have ceased to mistrust ourselves. Only a few of us, amid the great fabrications of society, hang on to our really childish reactions, still wonder naively what we are doing on the earth and what sort of joke is being played on us. We want to decipher skies and paintings, go behind these starry backgrounds or these painted canvases and, like kids trying to find a gap in a fence, try to look through the cracks in the world.
✖ Via The Cruel Practice of Art (L’Art, exercice de la cruauté) by Georges Bataille, originally published in Médecine de France, June 1949, reprinted in Georges Bataille Oeuvres Complètes, vol. XI, Paris: Gallimard, 1988. English translation by Supervert.com, 2003. [PDF]

About Supervert.com :

If he were alive today, would the Marquis de Sade have a web site? (120 Days of Sodom, ancestor of the sex blog.) Would Charles Baudelaire employ venture capital for a sinister new internet startup, Fleurs du Mal Inc? Would Arthur Rimbaud use information technology to disorder the senses? Would any of them, were they alive today, find some way to advance literature by means of artificial intelligence?

Supervert is what an author can be when amplified by technology. Creator of books, web sites, and CD-ROMs, Supervert stands at the intersection of literature, technology, and perhaps also abnormal psychology — for in all its endeavors, Supervert utilizes the techniques of vanguard aesthetics to research the pathology of novel perversions. A sort of deviant Bauhaus, Supervert strives to create new experiences through the synthesis of art, technology, pornography, and philosophy. (more)


• Aug 07, 2010 link notes tagged: art  literature  Bataille  paradox  sacrifice  carnival  author  book  world  representation  order  chaos  apprehension  trust  mistrust  anxiety  childhood  adulthood  society  community 

Willard Van Orman Quine wrote his doctoral thesis on a 1927 Remington typewriter, which he used ever since. However, he “had an operation on it” to change a few keys to accommodate special symbols. “I found I could do without the second period, the second comma – and the question mark.” “You don’t miss the question mark?” “Well, you see, I deal in certainties.
✖ Via A Brief History of The Paradox: philosophy and the labyrinths of the mind by Roy A. Sorensen, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 349.

About Willard Van Orman Quine:

“Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) (known to intimates as “Van”) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was continuously affiliated with Harvard University in one way or another, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as a professor emeritus who published or revised several books in retirement. He filled the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard, 1956–78. A recent poll conducted among philosophers named Quine as one of the five most important philosophers of the past two centuries.” (wikipedia)


• May 24, 2010 link notes reblogged from fuckyeahphilosophy  [via] tagged: communication  logic  grammar  Quine  paradox  certainty  uncertainty  anxiety  anguish  order  chaos 
communication contradiction humor logic pathology science bateson paradox
✖ Via

Wikipedia: “Double bind”



• Sep 25, 2009 link notes tagged: communication  contradiction  humor  logic  pathology  science  Bateson  paradox 

skandalon


1 2



ARCHIVE / TUMBLTAPE / RSS / CONTACT / Theme based on D&D