In Cape Fear, we find “evil” in the character of Robert de Niro threatening the family romance by tempting its teen-age daughter with sin (sexuality, smoking dope etc.). He is the stranger, the threat from the outside that throws the hegemony of the family unit apart or besides itself in a diabolical way (diabolos means “throwing apart/aside”).
response () tagged: patriarchy :: abomination filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other
What’s a community? is a question I’m asking myself after having spent a few months working at the local community center. The answer I arrive at is that a community by definition is fenced in by common ideals, goals, social structures etc that foreclose the other.
It’s not very different from the American ‘neighbourhood’ mentality - the world is no larger than your immediate surroundings - what goes beyond is a potential threat. God knows what’s waiting around the corner - a sociopath, a serial killer, a member of al-qaida, or simply yourself - and chaos.
response () tagged: patriarchy :: the other filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other
Read in the paper the other day that women's self-esteem is not increased by breast implants. Insightful - how do they arrive at such insights? Implants and other cosmetic surgery remind me of Cinderella's ugly and wicked sisters maiming themselves to fit into Cinderella's shoes, desperately seeking the Prince's approval - a happy foreverafter. And cosmetics - be it a pill, an injection, an incision or an implant - is still nothing but cosmetics - cosmetics of social approval.
response () tagged: patriarchy :: the spectacle filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other
Political idealism and psychological illiteracy tend to go hand and in hand - both eschew reality - the reality of the world and the reality of being human.
Idealism is perhaps what a crude world needs, but naivety is its neighbour.
response () tagged: neoliberalism :: the spectacle filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other
Speaking From the Other is an essay that is now available on Apple Books and other stores.
Read an excerpt for free here!freewheelin.nu is a site where e-lit, installations, digital art, blogs and other texts are linked in a hyperdimensional space of underpasses, highways, rivers, bridges, tunnels that intersect in the art project Plastic Spaces whenever possible.
And there is more. Image music text and technology intertwined in digital art and textual [dis]pleasures - in the erratic vibrancy, evanescence and intangibility of the text/work - that interfaces with the erotic body [electrified].
