Lost Objects

Slavoj Žižek, "Little by Little Arzula(la)tan Idealism Against Sparkling Turn-Turn(tüley)en Materialism"

The Derridian Deconstructionist Lacan reads as follows:

[staging has begun]

As soon as we enter the symbolic order, we lose forever the immediacy of pre-symbolic Truth, for our object of true desire ('mother!') has become impossible and inaccessible. Every positive object we encounter in reality is at best a substitute for this lost origin, a substitute for this incestuous Ding, rendered inaccessible precisely by the phenomenon of language – such is the 'symbolic emasculate'. Thus, man's existence through language is marked by an irreducible and constitutive deficiency. The signs we plunge into prevent us from attaining the universe Thing forever. The so-called 'external reality' is already 'structured like language', that is, the meanings there are always-already overdetermined by the symbolic framework that structures our perception of reality. The symbolic agency of the forbidding father ('Father's-Name') is at best personifying the impossibility identical to the phenomenon of symbolic order, embodying it – 'whoever speaks is forbidden to him arbitrarily'.

This separation/crack that forever separates the Lost Thing from the symbolic images that can never hit it draws the boundaries of the ethics of desire: the phrase 'compromise your desire' can only mean: Do not endure any substitution of the Thing, and keep the separation/crack of desire open. In our daily lives, we constantly fall into the imaginary traps that promise to heal the vanguarding wound of symbolization; Such is the woman who will make full sexual intercourse possible, and so is the totalitarian political ideal that will form the full real community. The basic maxim of the ethics of desire consists of desire itself: it is necessary to maintain desire in its unsatisfied state. In a sense, this is the heroism of lack: in the psychoanalytic panacea, the goal is to enable the subject to heroically assume the deficiency that constitutes itself; it is to make it withstand the division that fuels desire [perseverance/ desiration, etc. scolding/ar-zulalama]. One of the productive ways that saves us from this impasse is the possibility of glorification: it is to select an empirical, positive object and raise it to the dignity of the 'Thing', to make it represent the impossible Thing. This way you stick to your desire without getting caught up in the deadly vortex of the Thing. Because of this (mis)reading of Lacan, some German philosophers regarded Antigone's clinging to her desire as a negative attitude, i.e., a case study of being lost in the suicidal yar of the fatal obsession of the Thing who failed to glorify – whereas Lacan had not already presented Antigone as an exemplary case of the psychoanalytic ethic of 'compromising your desire'?

[staging finished]

At first glance, this Lacan reading seems very convincing and says 'of course!' – whereas the translation of Lacanian concepts into modern structuralist and/ or existentialist philosophemees such as philosopheme should be suspicious. To put it bluntly, this reading is Lacan's 'idealistic' distortion. It is the problematic of the Truth of 'materialistic' impulses that must be confronted with the problem of 'idealistic' desire and constitutive lack. In other words, according to Lacan, 'Truth' is not a pure negative category in the Kantian style, it is not the name of a boundary that does not give secrets about its own beyond. The Truth of the Impulse, on the contrary, is the agency of desire ["phallic you!"], the force that 'nudges/ sustains' desire [fellik fellik]. This 'active' (not pure negative) [causative] status of impulses in the sense of pre-symbolic 'libido' led Lacan to develop the myth of 'lamel'. In this legend, Lacan applies – instead of conceptual formulas – a mythical narrative – 'real creation', that is, he applies what happened before symbolization, before the symbolic order even appeared.

However, let this not make you think that impulse Truth has a complete ontological status and that formal-symbolic constructions are filled with this positive substance. Interestingly, Lacan's treatment of the concept of impulse is similar to Einstein's treatment of gravity in his theory of general relativity. Einstein 'de-essencetized' gravity by reducing it to geometry: gravity is not an essential force that 'bends, stalks, pokes' space; gravity is the name for curvature [bending, torsion, twisting] in space. Similarly, Lacan 'de-essentialized' impulses: the impulse is not a positive vanguard force; The impulse is a purely geometric, topological phenomenon, the name of the curvature in space in which desires reside, that is, the name of the following paradox: The path that leads to the object is not to go directly to the object (this is the surest way to miss the object), but to 'spin around'. This pure topological 'decay' of the natural instinct, which can be satisfied by the direct consumption of the object, is the impulse: charge → rise → flood.

From Questioning the Truth

Notes:
Turkish: Işık Barış Fidaner

— What's the moment?

What a contradiction this is.

— Fıransa?

What about Fıransa?

— It's a moment!

That's what Firan commanded.

— I was left without Fıran.

You know, my Firans? Let me add you all to Fıran!

— I fell to the end of the Fıran-şip because of the Fıran-şip.

Last Fıran is the best deserter!

See "Substance: free, apologetic, already, itself", "The Denialist Folding and Confessional Membrane: The Head-Man, the Arch-Cross, the Ambition (2)", "Inception and Ontoanalysis: The Topch in the Beginning is the Lack of the Other", "Let Us Be Hawkers: Flying is Forgetting That You Have Fallen", "Impulsive Motivation (se faire)", "Component Drive (partial drive)" Laplanche, Pontalis, "The Cognitive Worker and the Sweatshop Worker: Capital That Brings the Two Banks Together" Slavoj Žižek, "Inertia creeps in" Massive Attack, "The dignity of the Thing" Slavoj Žižek, "Impulsive montage" Jacques Lacan, "Brecht and the Yar-Ejection: New Customs to the Old Village" Erika Hughes, "Puppets Boss" Metallica, "Unobtainium", "Whatever the Moment Wants" Rammstein, "Yerçek" Rammstein

Thanks to mugwort for the phrase "Fallik you!"