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ALIENATION; RAHEL JAEGGI

So Incredibly dense but really interesting, some parts I enjoyed:

PART ONE THE RELATION OF RELATIONLESSNESS: 

RECONSTRUCTING A CONCEPT OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

Alienation means indifference and internal division, but also powerlessness and relationlessness with respect to oneself and to a world experienced as indifferent and alien. Alienation is the inability to establish a relation to other human beings, to things, to social institutions and thereby also—so the fundamental intuition of the theory of alienation—to oneself. (ch.1. pp2) 

“Alienated” describes relations that are not entered into for their own sake, as well as activities with which one cannot “identify.” (ch.1. pp2) 

An alienated relation is a deficient relation one has to oneself, to the world, and to others. Indifference, instrumentalization, reification, absurdity, artificiality, isolation, meaninglessness, impotence (ch1.pp.5)

A distinctive feature of the concept of alienation is that it refers not only to powerlessness and a lack of freedom but also to a characteristic impoverishment of the relation to self and world (ch1.pp.6)

 Diagnoses of alienation in their modern form always concerns (for example) freedom and self-determination and the failure to realize them. Understood in this way, alienation is not simply a problem of modernity but also a modern problem. (ch1. pp.6)

 Rousseau represents the continually recurring form of alienation critique that turns away from the “universal” and, embracing an ideal of unfalsified nature or primitive self-sufficiency, regards sociality and social institutions as inherently alienated. On the other hand, he is the inspiration not only for the Kantian idea of autonomy but also for Hegel’s conception of the social character of freedom. (pp.8)

In the “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts” of 1844 Marx distinguishes four results of the “national-economic fact” of alienated labor: alienated labor alienates the worker, first, from the product of his labor; second, from his own activity; third, from what Marx, following Feuerbach, calls species-being; and fourth, from other human beings. Alienation, then, can be understood as a disturbance of the relations one has, or should have, to oneself and to the world (whether the social or natural world). (pp.12)

Alienation also means that the object must appear to her as fragmented : laboring under conditions of specialization and the division of labor, the worker has no relation to the product of her work as a whole (pp.12)

The same pairing of powerlessness and loss of meaning (or impoverishment) marks the worker’s alienation from her own activity. Alienated labor is, on the one hand, unfree activity, labor in which and into which one is forced. In her labor the alienated worker is not the master of what she does. (pp.13)

 Of great importance for the concept of alienation is the following twist: if a successful relation to self and world, via labor, is viewed as a process of the externalization, objectification, and appropriation of these essential human powers—as an appropriative relation to one’s own objectified labor power— then alienation can be seen as a failure of this process, as an impeded return out of this externalization (pp.15)

Marx’s analysis of capitalism—concerns itself with subtle forms of structural heteronomy or with the anonymous, dominating character of objectified relationships that appear to take on a life of their own over and against individual agents. Formulated differently, the concept of alienation posits a connection between indifference and domination that calls for interpretation. (pp. 23)

1. Alienation is tied to the problem of a loss of meaning ; an alienated life is one that has become impoverished or meaningless, but it is a meaninglessness that is intertwined with powerlessness and impotence. 2. Alienation is (therefore) a relation of domination , but of a kind that is not captured by standard descriptions of unfreedom and heteronomy. 3 .Alienation means disconnectedness or alienness , but an alienness that differs from simple relationlessness. (pp.22)

CRITIQUE OF THE CRITIQUE OF ALIENATION

 If, beginning with Rousseau, alienation is conceived of as a mismatch between the nature of human beings and their social life, then the return from an alienated condition back to an unalienated one obviously means a return to this essence, to the human being’s purpose or nature. In this case the critique of alienation would always presuppose an (objectively grounded) shape or purpose of true human existence from which one has become distanced in the alienated condition. (pp.27)

PART THREE ALIENATION AS A DISTURBED APPROPRIATION OF SELF AND WORLD

self-alienation as an inadequate power and a lack of presence in what one does, a failure to identify with one’s own actions and desires and to take part in one’s own life. (pp.155)

Works Cited with particularly interesting ideas:

E. Fromm (2004) ‘Marx’s Concept of Man.’ London:Continuum 

 [The bourgeois human being] produces a world of the greatest and most wonderful things; but these, his own creations, confront him as alien and threatening; although they have been created, he no longer feels himself to be their master but their servant. The whole material world becomes the monstrosity of a giant machine that prescribes the direction and tempo of his life. The work of his hands, intended to serve him and make him happy, becomes a world he is alienated from, a world he humbly and impotently obeys.

Tugendhat, E (1986) ‘Antike und Modern Ethik’ In Probleme der Ethik 

‘self-alienation can be understood as a way of not having oneself at one’s command . Being alienated from oneself means, in other words, being inaccessible to oneself in what one wants and does.’

Phrase I liked: 

 It was this diagnosis that Marx captured in his theory of alienation and put to work in his critique of capitalism

Alienation: interpretive schema, a concept with whose help one understands and articulates one’s relation to oneself and to the world.

The depersonalization and reification of relations among humans

the concept of alienation is bound to an entire bundle of intertwined topics.

Chapter 9 systematizes the conception of the self that has been implicit in my analysis up to now into an “appropriative model” of the self and defends it against various objections. I will show that alienation critique can dispense with essentialist presuppositions without thereby becoming arbitrary

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Kuhn. A (1994) ‘Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema’    2nd Ed 

‘Opeidal process carries over into the representation of women.’  (pp.60)

‘Such a cinema addresses itself to male spectators. The notion of representations of women evoking castration anxiety -.’ pp62 

‘Female characters in film might be considered in terms of roles and stereotypes’ (pp.73) - ‘assessed according to the degree of their truthfulness the extent to which they either reflected or constituted a smoothing over of contradiction and conflicts in the real lives of women. Or changes over time in the way in which women have been portrayed in films might be viewed as in one way or another reflective of changes in wider society.’ (pp.73)

‘Bearing in mind the frequently taken for granted character of assumptions about women and images of women in society, the relevance of ideological readings of text to any feminist approach to cultural analysis is immediate and clear.’

‘Films potential for representing the appearances of the filmed world.’ 

‘Every film as well as being part of an economic system, is also part of an ideological system , but that ideology does not necessarily operate similarly in all films. On the contrary it is suggested that even in dominant cinema films may construct a variety of ideological relations.’ (pp.84) 

‘What is being suggested here is that certain classic films lend themselves particularly readily to ideological analysis - are already disjunctures of some kind in their relation to ideology.’ (pp.84)

‘In other words, in dominant cinema, women do not tell their own stories or control their own images, but are ideologically positioned in patriarchal terms.’

Instrumental in building up an understanding of the specific ways in which sexism operates as an ideology. 

‘Female sexuality and the discourse of the women may in concrete instances operate in conjunction with each other through textual repressions. This is implied in the notion of woman's desire as informing a film's text. If female sexuality and female discourse are regarded as together posing the threat of disruption to the linear process of the classic narrative, then that threat must be recuperated or repressed if the story is to have any finding of satisfactory resolution.’ (pp.101)

‘In an address to the male spectators the body of the woman is constructed as a spectacle and the mise en scene of representations of women's bodies coded in various ways as both to be looked at by the spectator and in the same process to evoke sexual arousal in him.’ (pp110)

Realism / Documentary stuff pp128-29

‘Seem to duplicate spectators' everyday ways of experiencing the world.’ 

‘This process works rather differently with non-fiction than it does with fictional realism. The defining characteristics of fiction as against non fiction film lie in the ual operations of narrativity and characterisation.’ 

‘The cinematic image constitutes itself as a record of reality.’ 

‘Documentary film thus always makes implicit reference not only to its profilmic event-’ 

‘A voice from a source outside ad apparently above (On voice overs) the world of the film speaks a discourse which directs the spectators reading of the film.’ - acts as a ‘metadiscourse which order the potentially erratic signifiers of image and diegetic sound. In this case the guarantee of the truth of the film lies in the relationship between voice-over and image in that the litter may be read as illustrating the former.’ 

‘During the 1960’s Hollywood films became increasingly violent, women characters were increasingly represented as victoms and that the days of the powerful female star and the independent woman as character were gone.’ 

‘The specificilifty of feminist documentaries, I have argued, lies in their autobiographical character and in their organization around the resources of women appearing in them.’ (pp178) 

‘Fantasy as it is at stake in consideration of masochism as a physical component of cinematic identification. The concept of masochism permits the admission to consideration of fantasies associated with the pre-oedipal rather than the oedipal stage, thus offering a model of cinema as capable of producing meaning and pleasure without the cinema as capable of producing meaning and pleasure without the meditations of castration, sexual difference and feminine lack

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The Meaning of Art - Herbert Read

Read. H ‘The Meaning of Art.’ (2017) Faber and Faber Ltd. 

I II III 

I 

“There are at least a dozen current definitions of Beauty but the merely physical one is the only essential one.’ (pp.19)

‘Most of our misconceptions of art arise from a lack of consistency in the use of the words art and beauty.’ (pp.19)

‘The art of a period is a standard only so long as we learn to distinguish between the elements of form.’ (pp.25)

‘Distortion may mean a departure from regular geometrical harmonium or more generally it implies a disregard for the proportions given in the natural world. Distortion of some kind, we may therefore say, is present in a very general and perhaps paradoxical way in all art.’ (pp.29) 

‘All these departures from exact imitation are purposive. They are dictated either by the artists will form, his desire for  a balanced pattern, or they are dictated by his desire to make a symbol for something super-real, something spiritual.’ (pp.31)

‘What we really expect in a work of art is a certain personal element - we expect the artist to have, if not a distinguished mind, at least a distinguished sensibility. We expect him to reveal something to us that i original, a unique and private vision of the world.’ (pp.33)

‘The Work of art, is in some sense a liberation of personality ; normally are feelings are inhibited and repressed. we contemplate a work of art and immediately there is a release; not only a release - sympathy is a release of feelings - but also a heightening, a teetering, a sublimation.’ (pp.39) 

‘Here is the essential difference between art and sentimentality; Sentimentality is a release but also a loosening, a relaxing f the emotions. art is a release but also a bracing. art is the economy of feeling. t is emption cultivating good form.’ (pp.39)

‘In a perfect work of art all the elements are interlaced; they cohere to form a unity which has a value greater than the mere sum of these elements.’ (pp.65) 

‘These structural motives are very important in the making of a picture or any other plastic work of art, though they are not necessarily a deliberate choice of the artist. they reveal more clearly than anything the predominating rhythm of the period.’ (pp.68) 

II

‘The theory that art is self-expression will not carry us far; for what is the self’ that is expressed?’ (pp.83) 

‘The answer to the question whether great art can exist independently of religion will therefore depend on our scale of values. The court of judgment is sooner or later the community.’ (pp.83) 

‘Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of peasant art is universality. Th same motives same modes of abstraction, the same form, techniques seem tp spring up spontaneously out of the soil in every part of the world.’ (pp.88)

‘Throughout its history Chinese art convenes nature as animated by an immanent force, and the object of artists is to put themselves in communication with this force, and then to convey its quality to the spectator. Such an aim in Western art would lead to all kinds of dubious romanticism and mysticism, but as if by a miracle the Chinese artists is always saved from such troughs of sentimentality.’ (pp.102)

‘The success of the picture depends upon its final fusion or cohesion in the mind of the spectator.’ (pp.126)

‘For the main tendency of modern art, in spite of certain romantic exceptions has been toward a re-integration of the intellect. (Intelligence as a basis for art) The intelligence can never be regarded as the finished material of art; nor can the unorganized emotions of the subjective painter.’ (pp.128)

‘Impressionism was moving toward the static. We murder to dissect and you cannot analyze without at the same time arresting.’ (pp.179)

‘material medium’ 

III

‘Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements which the painter uses to express his sentiments.’  (pp.220)

‘A work of art implies harmony of everything together (une harmonie d’ensemble); every superfluous detail will occupy in the mind of the spectator, the place of some other detail which is essential.’ (pp.220)

‘The real function of art is to express feeling and transmit understanding.’ (pp.222)

‘Nothing is more absurd than the spectacle of an ardent young snob trying to cultivate an emotion before a great work of art.’ (pp.222)

- profound relationship between artist and community 

‘his tone, his tempo, his intensity from the society of which he is a member. But the individual character of the artists work depends on more than these/ It depends on a definite will-to-form which is a reflection of the artists personality, and there is no significant art without this act of creative will.’ (pp.224)

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Comments on the society of the Spectacle .

Guy Debord .

Debord. G (1998) ‘Comments on the society of the Spectacle’ Verso Publishers, London

‘A good half of this interested elite will consist of people who devote themselves to maintaining the spectacular system of domination.’ (pp.1)

‘The spectacle would be merely the excess’s of media, who’s nature, unquestionably good since it facilitates communication , is sometimes driven to extremes.’ (pp.7)

‘The society whos Modernisation has reached the stage of the integrated spectacle.’ (app.11)

On ww2 - ‘it has greatly reinforced spectacular authority by surrendering everybody to the mercy of specialists, to their calculations and to their judgements which always depend on them. The integration of state and economy is the most evident trend of the century. It is at the very least the motor of all recent economic developments.’ (Pp.12)

‘Generalised society stands behind the spectacle as the decisive complement of all it displays.’ (pp.12)

‘contemporary art can no longer exist, it becomes difficult to judge classical art. Ignorance is only created in order to be exploited.’ (pp.50)

‘What is false creates taste and reinforces itself by knowingly eliminating any possible reference to the authentic. And what is genuine is reconstructed as quickly as possible to resemble the false.’ (pp.50)

‘Our society is built on secrecy. From the front organisations which draw an impenetrable screen over the concentrated wealth of their members to the official secrets which allow the state a vast field of operation free from any legal constraint. From the often freight ending secrets of shoddy production.’ (pp.52)

‘It is always a mistake to try and explain something by opposing Mafia and state: they are never rivals.’ (pp.67)

‘Surveillance would be much more dangerous had it not been led by its ambition for absolute control of everything to a point where it encountered difficulties created by its own process.’ (pp.81)

‘There is a contradiction between the mass of information collected on a growing number of individuals and the time and intelligence available to analyse it, not to mention actual interest.’ (pp.81)

‘Management of surveillance and manipulation is uncoordinated.’(pp.81)

‘Each control comes to overvalue his agents, as well as his opponents.’(pp.81)

Phrase I like:

- bourgeoise has widely disseminated

- tendency to replace the real with the artifices

- fruitful union of the two has learnt to employ both these qualaties on the grander scale

- erasure of the personality - permanent self denial is the price individual pays for tiniest bit so social status

- ‘autocratic reign on the market economy’

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springing in the uk

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the quiet life

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‘Cosmetics, Fashion and The Exploitation of Women.’

- Joseph Hansen , Mary-Alice Waters , Evelyn Reed. 1986

‘The capitalists want women go blame themselves not the social relations of production for the economic problems they face everyday’ (pp.16)

‘Since women are getting jobs that men ought to have they are alleged to be responsible for the high rate of unemployment of black males.’ (pp.17)

‘The class distinctions of women transcend the sex identity of women. This is above all true in modern capitalist society, the epoch of the sharpest polarisation of class forces.’ (pp.58)

‘In the competitive sex market which features capitalism,women are obliged to compete with other women for economic security, whether it is in the form of jobs or husbands. Therefore,women do not "indulge" in cosmetics. We are under social compulsion to use them.’ (pp.57)

‘As we have frequently pointed out, the past fourteen years of war boom and prosperity have produced a conservatizing effect upon the working class which we describe as a "bourgeoisitica-tion." One of the forms this takes is the readiness of the workers to accept bourgeois opinions and propaganda as scientific truthand adapt themselves to it.’

‘Let me say, first of all, that working-class women do not "in-dulge in"cosmetics. Our use of cosmetics is far from an indulgence it is basically an economic necessity and from this has become an aesthetic necessity.’

‘The cosmetics industry and their hucksters do not thrive on the natural beauty which is the birthright of youth of whatever class.’ It thrives on the lilies who have begun to fade, a phenomenon of nature which strikes every woman in her thirties. And in days of yesteryear, a woman was rated old by the time she reached herforties. It is an inherent part of every normal female ego to strive toward the preservation of youthful beauty, and this is a proper female goal worthy of the considered attention of a revolutionist.’ (pp.49)

‘once the fresh bloom of youth is gone, the working-class woman has neither the means to patronise the beauty shops nor the energy after wrestling with pots,bpans, and children to devote to the preservation of personal beauty, and soon she has joined the ranks of the drab millions.’ (pp.49)

‘Art is no longer restricted to formalistic classifications, but is diffused and coordinated in the beauty and the unity of all objects in the environment of the wealthy.’ (pp.47)

‘Rather, the revolution in art forms will no longer be just for those who can afford them, but will be the rightful heritage of every citizen in the communal world. Communist man will make an art of his waybof life, surrounding himself with the creative outpourings of his inherent talent.’ (pp.47)

‘socialism will extract the hypocrisy and the mysticism out of bourgeois morality and leave the universal ideals of buman brotherhood.’ (pp.46)

‘socialism will free this revolution from the bonds of the profit system, and cities will be planned for the use, convenience, and beauty of living, rather than for the profit of the realtors, speculators, and contractors.’ (pp.46)

‘The wealthy are beautiful only by their own standards which in the long run assign women the roles of mother and plaything. For this, youth is considered paramount.’ (pp.41)

‘Capitalist standards of feminine beauty are established primarily by men who, corrupted by an exploiting society, cannot see women as anything more than methers and playthings.’ (pp.41)

‘Let me say, first of all, that working-class women do not "indulge in"cosmetics. Our use of cosmetics is far from an indulgence it is basically an economic necessity and from this has become an aesthetic necessity.‘

‘The artists hold up the mirror to life in a reflective mood or in anger or compassion or sardonic humor. They seek to capture the joy and sorrow of life.’ pp.68)

‘It is only in class society that the myth has grown up that labor is identical with exploited labor.’ (pp.70)

‘Through the identity they make between labor and exploited labor, they perpetuate a split between producers and consumers, glorifying the latter at the expense of the former.’ (pp.70)

‘Not labor but the conspicuous waste of the products of labor is the mark of capitalist social distinction.’ (pp.70)

‘Social value and distinction were registered in the realm of production, and that is why the women of primitive society were so valuable and regarded so highly.’ (pp.70)

‘As the capitalist commodity market expanded, more and more attention was directed toward the population of women as important buyers of consumer goods of all kinds.’ (pp.71)

‘The propaganda machine as a whole is a vast institution. It has control of the mass arenas for selling commodities and bourgeois ideology: the radio, television, but above all the press. Capitalist newspapers and magazines are built around and maintained by the pages of advertising.’ (pp.72)

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ALL ABOUT LOVE - Bell Hooks

Hooks.B (2001) ‘All About Love’ HarperCollins Publishers.

‘Heterosexual women are often schooled by other women in the art of lying to men as a way to manipulate.’ (Pp.43)

‘Sexist socialisation teaches females that self-assertiveness is a threat to femininity. Accepting this faulty logic lays the groundwork for low slf-esteem’ (Pp.57)

‘Work occupies much of our time. Doing work we hate adults our self-esteem and self-confidence’ (Pp.62)

‘On the surface it appears our nation has gone so far down the road of secular individualism, worshipping the twin gods of money and power, that there seems to be no place for spiritual life.’ (Pp.71)

‘Interest is constantly co-opted by the powerful forces of materialism and hedonistic consumerism.’ (Pp.71)

‘The cultural emphasis on endless consumption reflects attention from spiritual hunger.’ (Pp.72)

‘Every need can be satisfied by material increase’ (PP.72)

‘Our national spiritual hunger springs from a keen awareness of the emotional lack in our lives. It is a response to lovelessness’

‘Spiritual practice does not need to be connected to organised religion in order to be meaningful. Some individuals find their sacred connection to life communing with the natural word.’ (Pp.81)

‘Awakening to love can happen only as we let go of our obsession with power and domination’ (Pp.87)

‘As a Culture we are obsessed with the nation of safety. We do not question why we live in a state of extreme anxiety and dread. Fear is the primary force upholding structures of domination. It premieres the desire for separation, the desire to not be known.’ (Pp.93)

‘Greed and exploration become the norm when an ethic of domination prevails. They bring in their wake alienation and lovelessness. Intense spiritual and emotional lack in our lives is the perfect breeding ground for material greed and overconsumption.’ (Pp.105)

‘While emotional needs are difficult and often impossible to satisfy, material desires are easier to fulfill’ (Pp.106)

‘Widespread embrace of curroption undermined any chance that a love ethic would resurface and restore hope. By the late 70’s the worship of money was expressed by making curroption acceptable and the ostentatious parading of material luxury the norm.’ (Pp.109)

‘Her ethical values are eroded by the intensity of longing and lack. But she no longer sees herself as living at odds with the consumer culture she lives in. She has become connected, one with the culture of consumption and driven by its demands.’ (Pp.110)

‘Mass media is the primary vehicle for the pretoipm and affirmation of greed.’ (Pp.116)

‘Greed violates the spirit of connectedness and community that is natural to human survival.’ (Pp.117)

‘Self indulgently create unnecessary conflict as a way to avoid commitment.’ (Pp.159)

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The Culture of Narcissism - Christopher Lasch

American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations. 

Preface: 

The Awareness Movement and the Social Invasion of the self 

- Sense of Ending which has given shape to so much of twentieth century literature : as the twentieth century approaches its end, the conviction grows that many other things are ending too.’ . 

‘The contemporary climate is therapeutic not religious. people today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.’ (pp.7)

‘Having displaced religion as the organizing framework of American culture, the therapeutic outlook threatened to displace politics aswell.; (pp13)

- surrender yourself to the latest products of modern technology 

The Narcissistic Personality of Our Time 

- ‘every age develops its own peculiar form of pathology which express in exaggerated form its underlying character structure.’ In Freuds time hysteria and obsessional neurosis carried to extremes the personality traits associated with the capitalist order at an earlier stage in its development - fanatical devotion to work. 

- ‘The ethic of self preservation and psychic survival is rooted the, not merely in objective conditions of economic warfare, rising rates of crime and social chaos but in the the subjective experience of emptiness and isolation.’ (0051) 

- ‘The ideology of personal grown, superficially optimistic, radiates a profound disrepair and resignation. ‘(pp51)

Changing Modes of Making It

- Protestant work ethic was one of the most important underpinnings of American culture. according to the myth of capitalist enterprise thrift and industry held the key to material success and spiritual fulfillment.’ 

- ‘The self made man, archetypal embodiment of the American dream owed his advancement to habits of industry, sobriety, moderation self discipline and avoidance of debt.’

- In the age of diminishing expectations the protestant virtues no longer excite enthusiasm.’ (pp.53)

- ‘Self preservation has replaced self improvement as the goal of earthly existence.’ 

The Eclipse of Achievement: 

- ‘In a society in which the dream of  success has been drained of any meaning beyond itself, men have nothing against which to measure their achievements except the achievements of others.’ (pp.59)

‘Self-approval depends on public recognition and claim, and the quality of this approval has undergone.’ ‘Today men seek approval the kind of approval that applauds not their actions but their personal attributes. they wished not so much to be esteemed, but admired.’ 

‘They crave not fame, but the glamour and excitement of celebrity. they want to be envied rather than respected. pride and acquisitiveness, the sins of an ascendant capitalist have given way to vanity.’ 

‘Success in our society needs to be ratified by publicity.’ (pp.60) 

‘The propaganda of death and destruction emanating ceaselessly from the mass media, adds to the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity.’

- Absence of continuality in the converge of events .... 

Ironic Detachment as an escape from routine

- I’m our society, anxious self criticism only serves to regulate information signaled to others. It also established an ironic distance from the deadly routine of daily life.’ (pp94)

- ‘He takes refuge in jokes, mockery and cynicism. - by refusing to take seriously the routines he has to perform, he denies their capacity to injure him.’ (pp.95)

- ‘by demystifying daily life, he conveys to himself and others the impression that he has risen above it, even as he goes through the motions and does what is expected of him.’ (pp.95)

The socialization of reproduction and the collapse of authority

- ‘as the child begins to perceive his mothers limitations he relinquishes the image of maternal perfection and begins to take over many of her functions to provide for his own comfort. Any idealized version of the mother lives on the child’s subconscious. Diminished however by the daily experience of maternal fallibility’

- the Marcus stick mother incessant yet curiously perfunctory attentions go her c go of interfere with the mechanism of optimal frustration.’ Because she so often sees the child as an extension of herself she lavishes awkward out of touch attentions onto the child

- by treating her child as an exclusive Possession she encourages an exaggerated sense of his own importance.’ Pp173

- ‘co fixed her child deserves the best of everything she arranges every detail of his life with a zeal that undermines his initiative and destroys his capacity for self-help’ (pp.173)

-Women with "otherwise well-integrated personalities, according to Dr. Reich, unconsciously seek to please a narcissistic mother by replacing the missing father, either by elaborating grandiose fantasies of success or by attaching themselves to successful men.’ (pp.174)

The flight from feeling: sociopathology of the sex war

Russel once predicted that the socialization of reproduction - the super session of the family by the state- would make def move itself. Orr trivial ‘en courage a certain trivia Ty in all personal relate so

 ‘the cult of intimacy conceals a growing despair of finding it.’ (pp.188)

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Film as a Subversive Art . Amos Vogel

*Vogel. A ‘Film as a Subversive Art.’ 1976Random House Publishers. 

Preface

‘Contemporary America - a late capitalist colossus, owned by large corporations while parading as a democracy and dominated by rabid commercialism and consumerism - is attempting to dominate the world via transnationals, Hollywood cinema, the export of American cultural values and the Disneyfication of the globe..’ p5. 

World View 

- ‘Godard, an obsessed humanist constantly torn between radical bourgeoise liberalism and revolutionary impulses, is viscerally aswell as intellectually at war with contemporary capitalist society.’ (p.25)

On Masculin Feminine: 

‘A view of a generation; a portrayal of Parisian youth of the sixties - the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.’ ‘drifting senselessness of adolescent life in a big city, the inundation of consciousness by advertising, consumer goods, slogans etc - .’

‘Ossified ideological structure.’  

Aesthetic Rebels: 

Surrealism =  ‘more an instrument of cognition than of aesthetic movement. in fact, its aim was to destroy aestheticism. Its aim: to destroy alll censors and to liberate mans libidinal, anarchist impulses. 

On ‘The Cremator’ - provocative attempt to penetrate the origins of sado-sexual nazi mentality is made in this oppressive, strongly expressionist film. 

International Left and Revolutionary Cinema 

- ‘All these film, whether the intent is reformist or revolutionary, aim to change the viewers consciousness.’ (p.120)

‘Satirizing or demystifying of intittiounds - ‘ 

Subversion in Eastern Europe: Aesopian Metaphors. 

- complete control over the means of communication 

- ‘The constant state of tension between creative artist and government bureaucracy is basic to the eastern societies.’ (p.139)

‘ ‘Unable to pose questions head-on, the artist is forced into allegory.’ ( p.139)

- ‘Devoid of official ideology they are filled with unorthodox compassion for people.’ (p.139)

- suffused with existentialism. 

- ‘Stylistically they tended to be allegorical, symbolist, or even absurd.’ (p.140)

The end of sexual Taboos:

A Clockwork Orange: ‘Despite its stylized penises and vaginas, it’s an attack on a future fascism.’ Ironic Surrealism, weakened by ideological ambiguity. ‘It’s unconscious attitude toward violence is so complex that it serves to glamorize what it means to deplore.’ 

- Slated towards commercial sustainability. 

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Caliban and the Witch: Silvia Federici

Harvard Referenced: Federici S (2004) ‘Caliban and the Witch. Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation.’ Penguin Modern Classics. Great Britain.  

- Honestly just picked this book up on a whim and it ended up being one of the best Feminist texts I’ve ever read. So versatile too - cited it in an article about French women in Cinema lol. I really hope I get to revisit this text academically. 

Introduction:

. ‘Since Marx, studying the genesis of capitalism has been an obligatory step for activists and scholars convinced that the first take on humanities agenda is the construction of an alternative to capitalists society.’ 

All the World Needs a Jolt:

. ‘The social struggles of the Middle Ages must also be remembered because they wrote a new chapter in the history of liberation.’ 

. Serfdom = state of being a feudal laborer 

. ‘As women gained more autonomy their presence in social life began to be recorded more frequently.’ (pp28)

. Heretic = practicing heresy. non conformity. unorthodox thinking. 

. Church: ‘Clergy recognized the power sexual desire gave women over men and persistently tried to exorcise it by identifying holiness with an avoidance of women an sex. / ‘An object of shame - all these were the means by which patriarchal caste tried to break the power of women and erotic attraction.’ 

The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women:

. ‘Turned into an instrument for the reproduction of labor and the expansion of the workforce, treated as a natural breeding-machine functioning according to rhythms outside of women's control.’ (pp101)

.’Combined with land dispossession, the loss of power with regard to wage employment lead to the massification of prostitutions.’ (pp.105)

. ‘Looking at these phenomena from the vantage point of the present, after four centuries of capitalist discipling of women, the answers may seem t impose themselves.’

. ‘From the beginning of capitalism, the immersion of the working class began with war and and land privatization. this was an international phenomenon.’ 

The Taming of Women and the Redefinition of Femininity and Masculinity 

. ‘It is not surprising then in view of this devaluation of women's labor and social status that the insubordination of women and the methods by which they could be tamed were among the main themes in the literature and social policy of the transition. Women could not have been totally devalued as workers and deprived of autonomy with respect to men without being subjected to an intense process of social degradation.’ (pp.115)

.Taming of the Shrew ; ‘was the manifesto of the age. the punishments of female insubordination to patriarchal authority was called for and celebrated in countless misogynous plays. (p.116)

. ‘Women's refusals of victimization also reshaped the sexual division of labor.’ (pp.132)

The Great Caliban 

.’One of the predictions for capitalist development was the process that Michel Foucault defined as the ‘discipling of the body.; which in my view consisted of an attempt by state and church to transform the individuals power into labor-power.’ (pp139) 

(So from my understanding Foucault talks about this body-power as a sort of political technology of the body. where the docile body is malleable and disciplinary force enforces its way on to.)

The Great Witch Hunt in Europe

.’The Roman Catholic church provided the metaphysical and ideological scaffold of the which hunt and instigated the persecution of witches as it had previously instigated the persecution of the heretics.’ (pp181)

. ‘Contrary to stereotype the witch hunt was not just a product of popish fanaticism or of the machinations of the Roman Inquisition.; (pp181)

Devil Beliefs and Changes in the Mode of Production

. ‘Witch hunting was also instrumental to the construction of a new patriarchal order where women’s bodies, their labor, their sexual and reproductive powers were placed under the control of the state and transformed into economic resources.’ (183)

. ‘’Witch hunters were less interested in the punishments of any specific transgressions than in the elimination of generalized forms of female behavior which they no longer tolerated an had to be made abominable in the eyes of the population.’ (pp.183) 

Witch Hunting and Male Supremacy: The Taming of Women

. ‘Witches were accused simultaneously of rendering men impotent and arousing an excessive sexual passion in them.’ (pp.211)

. ‘- Physical manifestation of the erosion of male authority over women.’  (pp.211)

. ‘A sexually active women was a public danger, a threat to the social order as she subverted a man’s sense of responsibility.’  (pp.211)

. ‘It was the sexual nature of her crimes and her lower-class status that distinguished the witch from the Renaissance Magician.’ (pp.220)

[francesbeau]

a part of me does hope I’ll only experience surface-level, transactional relationships for the rest of my life. I have an intense alienating need to ostracise myself away from anyone who makes me feel anything at all. it feels so warm and comforting when I’m on a date and I feel entirely nothing at all, I feel so much calm when I’m laughing at nothing and telling people anecdotes about my life but only so I can hear about myself and watch people also pretend to be interested. I hate when I actually connect with someone, when I can really see them fitting into my strict little sphere of existence. it’s an overwhelming intensity that comes with human interaction that I’m not sure how to explore. less electrifyingly exciting and more taking place as a nervous wreck

[francesbeau]

the aesthetic of the eclectic

[francesbeau]

books, coffee, writing ♥️

[francesbeau]

first university term of the year coming to an end

17.12.22

[francesbeau]

December Mercurialism