is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Limits, Corruption.
Today I accomplished something great. No, I didn�t finish anything on my To-Do list. No. I just finally got to the point where I acknowledged�or really saw, even�the reason why it is so freaking difficult to write this Levinas/Nietzsche essay. There is too much to say! There is so very much to say! And I want to say it all! But to say it all would be a book in two or three 400-page volumes, methinks.
And so I have to do the heartbreaking but wise thing: I have to chose to do one thing, and do it well, rather than try to do everything irresponsibly. No one likes to see half an ass all over an academic paper.
And that means I have to write the thing that I am most suited to write, the thing that no one else of my fifteen contributors will possibly do as well (hello hubris, my name is jill).
And that means I have to write about how the relationship between will to power and eternal recurrence in Nietzsche�s philosophy mirrors the relationship between synchrony and diachrony in Levinas�s philosophy, that both show us the limits of what the will can accomplish, and both do so by making cruel demands on us, asking of us things no one wants to hear or do (that being one reason why both philosophers are so often misunderstood� because they are resisted!). And then both philosophers, once they inscribe you with a trauma (if you let them get that far, o resistant ones), lead you into a different world, where what was first experienced as constraint reveals itself to be the condition of a more meaningful freedom. The end, in 6000 words or less.
This means I can�t compare Nietzsche�s use of aphorism to Levinas�s decision to stop using the verb �to be� in his later work. And I can�t talk about how much �suffering� is in both thinkers� works. I only get to touch on how both thinkers want us to be �homeless� rather than comfortable (but at least I get to show this, since it is related to the temporality thing, believe it or not). And I really don�t even get to talk about how these are both philosophies of the body, that don�t let you separate mind from body to make idealist claims. However, I console myself that some of those things, at least, will be done very well indeed by some of my other contributors. I look forward to rereading all of the contributions so I can remind myself of how very much MORE there is to say about Nietzsche and Levinas, so much more than I would ever think of on my own!
But I hope I�ll get to return to the homeless thing more thoroughly, as well as the cruelty thing, and the trauma thing, and, hell, maybe even the structural argument about aphorism and verbal constraint (in which I was even going to use OULIPO as an example in discussing Levinas�s grammatically bizarre late essays).
No. It�s all about temporalities of interruption, and what that has to do with ethics. The end, in 6000 words or less.
Oh, did I mention this essay was �due� three months ago? Ha. I am the policewoman who brandishes her billy club constantly at others but then is very lenient with herself about all the rules. You�ll find me every night in my bed wearing confiscated silk, rolling around in piles of shady money, and eating the finest foods paid for by everyone but me. When you find me like that, I like it when you call me �professor of ethics.�
5:47 p.m. - July 21, 2007
josiah leet - 2007-07-22 16:48:32
" confiscated silk "...? Gracious me...
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