“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Jacobs, Benjamin, Objects


“I can't believe you conceded my Benjamin question so easily!” said one questioner at Rutgers the other day. Why not? Benjamin sits quite nicely in the wider configuration space of OOO. And philosophy, if it is indeed a love of wisdom, is profoundly non-violent.

In any case HT Dirk Felleman for showing me this piece by Tom Jacobs. He's brought up short by some objects:
“A shoe, a pack of cigarettes, a few scraps of letterheaded paper, a fireman’s oxygen tank, bits of twisted metal of inscrutable but portentous provenance.” And a bed soaked with George Washington's sweat.

I was just beginning to think about the historical dimension of hyperobjects.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I am so flattered and sillily euphoric that you've read my piece. I must say that I would like to read more of your stuff, since you, too, seem to share my sickness of being fascinated by Things. So, more, my good man! More! I would like to read more. I will check back soon.

All best, chief.

tom

Timothy Morton said...

You're welcome Tom, I really like that post.