.

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Sunday, January 29, 2012

...and Another for Sisyphus

...is Sisyphus happy?
Examples like this indicate an approach to uptopias which leaves behind the usual focus on content (on the structure of society proposed in a utopian vision). Perhaps it is time to step back from the fascination with content and reflect upon the subjective position from which such content appears utopian. On account of its temporal loop, the fantasmatic narrative always involves an impossible gaze, the gaze by means of which the subject is already present at the scene of its' own absence. When the subject directly identifies its own gaze with the objet a, the paradoxical implication of this identification is that the objet a disappears from the field of vision. This brings us to the core Lacanian notion of utopia: a vision of desire functioning without an objet a and its twists and loops. It is utopian not only to think that one can reach full, unencumbered "incestuous" enjoyment; for it is no less utopian to think that one can renounce enjoyment without this renunciation generating its' own surplus-enjoyment.
- Slavoj Zizek, "Living in the End Times"

10 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I have paperwork to get together for my 2011 tax return. So, I can relate to Sisyphus.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Well, I hope you're happy at least. ;)

Always On Watch said...

If I were paid by the hour for getting all these papers and receipts together, I'd have a nice little nest egg.

Thersites said...

oh, but you are. Your recompense lies in a dimunition of the money's stolen from you to be used to buy the loyalties of others to our benevolent masters.

nicrap said...

we must imagine him to be happy whether he is or not... :)

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

...or else generate a little 'surplus happiness' of our own through its' renunciation. ;)

nicrap said...

They would start squabbling about it, too ... like they do about any surplus value. ;)

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

:)

nicrap said...

Perhaps you would like a look, FJ ... though i am not very happy with the end result. :)

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

I am always happy to sample fruits not meant for the multitude. ;)