Me loves non-me. Othelo loves Desdemona.But Desdemona loves the black thing as well.The round goes on.The lamb loves its wolf.The wolf turns all white and starts quivering out of love for the lamb.The lamb loves the wolf's fragility, and the wolf loves the frail one's force.The wolf is now the lamb's lamb and the lamb has tamed the wolf.Love blackens the lamb.
Wolf, whom do you love?
If only I knew!...
Love-that's it.That's id.That idself [ca meme].And it/id loves me [Ca m'aime].And the fable is called the Wolf is the Lamb.
Monday, 30 June 2008
The Wolf is the Lamb
Knowledge from experience: the heart goes blind because the need is stronger than anything else.Your ego is blind, your id is eager.It will get to the point of smashing everything.When there is a danger from outside, you bolt, but when the danger comes from inside, how can you bolt?The danger from inside is that complicated thing , the love of the wolf, the complicity that attaches us to that which threatens us.
We love the wolf.We love the love of the wolf.We love the fear of the wolf.We're afraid of the wolf: there is love in our fear.Fear is in love with the wolf.Fear loves.Or rather: we are afraid of the person we love.Love terrorizes us.Or else the person we love we call our wolf or our tiger, or our lamb in the manger.We are full of trembling and ready to wolf down.
[H.Cixous, Love of the Wolf]
We love the wolf.We love the love of the wolf.We love the fear of the wolf.We're afraid of the wolf: there is love in our fear.Fear is in love with the wolf.Fear loves.Or rather: we are afraid of the person we love.Love terrorizes us.Or else the person we love we call our wolf or our tiger, or our lamb in the manger.We are full of trembling and ready to wolf down.
[H.Cixous, Love of the Wolf]
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Components of gender
There are actually four components of gender: identity, presentation, performance, and role. Gender identity concerns how you think about yourself, gender presentation describes how you look physically and sartorially, gender performance pertains to how you act or comport yourself, and gender role refers to what you do for a living and what you contribute to the domestic sphere. Taken together, the last three components comprise gender expression. Gender identity is internal, whereas gender expression is external.
There are actually four components of gender: identity, presentation, performance, and role. Gender identity concerns how you think about yourself, gender presentation describes how you look physically and sartorially, gender performance pertains to how you act or comport yourself, and gender role refers to what you do for a living and what you contribute to the domestic sphere. Taken together, the last three components comprise gender expression. Gender identity is internal, whereas gender expression is external.
Plato_Symposium excerpt/myth of the Androgynous
...for the original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were
not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was
man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding
to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now
lost, and the word "Androgynous" is only preserved as a term of reproach.
In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides
forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with
two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely
alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond.
He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased,
and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his
four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and
over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.
Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because
the sun, moon, and earth are three;-and the man was originally the
child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the
moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and
moved round and round: like their parents. Terrible was their might
and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they
made an attack upon the gods;
...At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He
said: "Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve
their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in
two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in
numbers.
...And when one of them meets with his other
half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or
a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love
and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight,
as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their
whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire
of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards
the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse,
but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and
cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment
..human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.
not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was
man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding
to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now
lost, and the word "Androgynous" is only preserved as a term of reproach.
In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides
forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with
two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely
alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond.
He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased,
and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his
four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and
over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.
Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because
the sun, moon, and earth are three;-and the man was originally the
child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the
moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and
moved round and round: like their parents. Terrible was their might
and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they
made an attack upon the gods;
...At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He
said: "Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve
their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in
two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in
numbers.
...And when one of them meets with his other
half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or
a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love
and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight,
as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their
whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire
of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards
the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse,
but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and
cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment
..human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.
Sunday, 22 June 2008
phase_a/the limbic lobe
perirhinal area_recognition memory
hippocampus_spatial memory
amygdala_emotional memory
Cortical organization
The sex differences described by MacCoby and Jacklin have often been described as a “spatial” advantage for males and a “verbal” advantage for females, but more recent research has indicated that this dichotomy is too simple; there is a broader pattern of differences that cannot be labeled easily as verbal and spatial. Thus females excel at both perceptual speed and visual memory, whereas males are better at perceptual closure, the disembedding of visual patterns from complex arrays, map-reading, and target-directed skills such as guiding or intercepting projectiles…males appear to excel at chess and musical composition.In music, women appear to be as competent in performing as men, but fewer excel in composition.It has been suggested that men have an advantage in these fields, as well as in mathematics, because all involve spatial ability.
There is evidence that at least four significant cognitive differences are sex-related:verbal differences, visuospatial differences, differences in mathematical ability and differences in aggression.Although the causes of cognitive sex related differences are unknown, it is likely that they are at least partly biological. Consider the following data. Harshman and his associates, in a very ambitious study of the interaction of sex and handedness in cognitive abilities, report a significant interaction between sex and handedness; that is, sex-related differences in verbal and visuospatial bahavior varied as a function of handedness.It is difficult to imagine how social or environmental factors alone could account for this type of result.It is thus very plausible to account for sex-related differences at least partly by neurological factors that may be modulated by the environment.
[Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology, ch.10 Variations in cerebral asymmetry/ Kolb, Whishaw]
The Stage backdrop_Human Brain and Architecture
Core themes
Neurophysiology and architecture
The social construction of gender
Ideology and spatial patterns of built environments
Gender, sexuality and space
Neurophysiology and architecture
The social construction of gender
Ideology and spatial patterns of built environments
Gender, sexuality and space
The Love of Lies
L'Amour du mensonge
When I see you pass by, my indolent darling,
To the sound of music that the ceiling deadens,
Pausing in your slow and harmonious movements,
Turning here and there the boredom of your gaze;
When I study, in the gaslight which colors it,
Your pale forehead, embellished with a morbid charm,
Where the torches of evening kindle a dawn,
And your eyes alluring as a portrait's,
I say within: "How fair she is! How strangely fresh!"
Huge, massive memory, royal, heavy tower,
Crowns her; her heart bruised like a peach
Is ripe like her body for a skillful lover.
Are you the autumn fruit with sovereign taste?
A funereal urn awaiting a few tears?
Perfume that makes one dream of distant oases?
A caressive pillow, a basket of flowers?
I know that there are eyes, most melancholy ones,
In which no precious secrets lie hidden;
Lovely cases without jewels, lockets without relics,
Emptier and deeper than you are, O Heavens!
But is it not enough that you are a semblance
To gladden a heart that flees from the truth?
What matter your obtuseness or your indifference?
Mask or ornament, hail! I adore your beauty.
When I see you pass by, my indolent darling,
To the sound of music that the ceiling deadens,
Pausing in your slow and harmonious movements,
Turning here and there the boredom of your gaze;
When I study, in the gaslight which colors it,
Your pale forehead, embellished with a morbid charm,
Where the torches of evening kindle a dawn,
And your eyes alluring as a portrait's,
I say within: "How fair she is! How strangely fresh!"
Huge, massive memory, royal, heavy tower,
Crowns her; her heart bruised like a peach
Is ripe like her body for a skillful lover.
Are you the autumn fruit with sovereign taste?
A funereal urn awaiting a few tears?
Perfume that makes one dream of distant oases?
A caressive pillow, a basket of flowers?
I know that there are eyes, most melancholy ones,
In which no precious secrets lie hidden;
Lovely cases without jewels, lockets without relics,
Emptier and deeper than you are, O Heavens!
But is it not enough that you are a semblance
To gladden a heart that flees from the truth?
What matter your obtuseness or your indifference?
Mask or ornament, hail! I adore your beauty.
Arcades Project excerpt_4
Baudelaire, in the section, "Les Femmes et les filles" in his essay on Guys, cites the words of La Bruyere: "Some women possess an artificial nobility which is associated with a movement of the eye, a tilt of the head, a manner of deportment, and which goes no further." Compare Baudelaire's "Le Mensonge."-In the same section, Baudelaire cites the concept of the "femina simplex of the Roman satirist" (L'Art romantique [Paris],p.109)
[Z2a,2]
Baudelaire, in the section, "Les Femmes et les filles"
[Z2a,2]
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Monday, 16 June 2008
Quartett
Valmont I thought your passion for me extinguished. Whence this sudden rekindling. And with such youthful violence. Too late in any case. You will no longer set my heart aflame. Not even once. Not anymore. I’m telling you this not without regret, Valmont. In any case there were minutes, perhaps should I say moments, a minute, that’s an eternity, where I was happy thanks to your company. I speak on my behalf, Valmont.What do I know of your feelings. And perhaps I should rather speak of minutes, in which I could use you for this, you, that was your capacity to feel something in the operation of my physiology, which seems in recollection to be a feeling of happiness. You haven’t forgotten how to operate this machine. Don’t take your hand away. Not that I would feel anything for you. It is my skin which remembers.
[by Heiner Mueller , 1980 ]
Arcades Project excerpt_3
In his study "La Mante religieuse:Recherches sur la nature et la signification du mythe"
Sunday, 15 June 2008
arcades project excerpt
Baudelaire_ Fusées2
Throughout Baudelaire's writings, from the early novella La Fanfarlo, to an article on Mme Bovary, published in 1857, to the intimate journals, Fusées, and the prose poems, Le Spleen de Paris, there are allusions to fluid or mixed gender identities in contexts that are themselves a mixture of approval and anxious fascination. The motifs of androgyny and hysteria are intermixed and associated with heightened capacity for imagination, hypersensitivity, various forms of impotence and an inclination to excess. The hysterical or androgynous figure, whether male or female, is thus paradoxically assumed to have an increased capacity to enter into expanded states of consciousness that nourish the poetic imagination and to suffer from the inability to give them verbal form through the exercise of the "male" imagination and its "voice."
Throughout Baudelaire's writings, from the early novella La Fanfarlo, to an article on Mme Bovary, published in 1857, to the intimate journals, Fusées, and the prose poems, Le Spleen de Paris, there are allusions to fluid or mixed gender identities in contexts that are themselves a mixture of approval and anxious fascination. The motifs of androgyny and hysteria are intermixed and associated with heightened capacity for imagination, hypersensitivity, various forms of impotence and an inclination to excess. The hysterical or androgynous figure, whether male or female, is thus paradoxically assumed to have an increased capacity to enter into expanded states of consciousness that nourish the poetic imagination and to suffer from the inability to give them verbal form through the exercise of the "male" imagination and its "voice."
Arcades Project excerpt_2
At a certain point in time, the motif of the doll acquires a sociocritical significance .For example : ”You have no idea how repulsive these automatons and dolls can become, and how one breathes at last on encountering a full-blooded being in this society.” Paul Lindau , Der Abend (Berlin, 1896) [Z1,5]
Metamorphosing the Automaton to Medusa to a human being
Cixous explains that if women dare to "look at the Medusa straight on," female explorations will result in the discovery that the Medusa "is not deadly, she's beautiful and she's laughing."
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/English295/albright/monster.htm
Z_ The Doll, The Automaton
Arcades Project excerpt_1
From the Ombres Chinoises (Chinese Shadows) of the Palais-Royal: “A…demoiselle gave birth on stage, and the children could immediately scamper about like moles . There were four of them, and they danced together a few moments after the birth in a pleasant quadrille . Another young woman started tossing her head vigorously, and in the twinkling of an eye a second demoiselle had stepped fully clothed from out of her head . This latter at once began dancing but, the next minute, was seized in turn with head –shaking; these were labor pains, and a third demoiselle stepped out of her head . She, too, immediately began dancing but soon took to tossing her head like the others, and out of her arose the fourth demoiselle .It continued in this manner until eight generations were there on the stage-all related to one another through spontaneous generation, like lice.” J.F.Benzenberg, Briefe geschrieben auf einer Reise nach Paris (Dortmund, 1805 )
[Z1,4]
From the Ombres Chinoises (Chinese Shadows) of the Palais-Royal: “A…demoiselle gave birth on stage, and the children could immediately scamper about like moles . There were four of them, and they danced together a few moments after the birth in a pleasant quadrille . Another young woman started tossing her head vigorously, and in the twinkling of an eye a second demoiselle had stepped fully clothed from out of her head . This latter at once began dancing but, the next minute, was seized in turn with head –shaking; these were labor pains, and a third demoiselle stepped out of her head . She, too, immediately began dancing but soon took to tossing her head like the others, and out of her arose the fourth demoiselle .It continued in this manner until eight generations were there on the stage-all related to one another through spontaneous generation, like lice.” J.F.Benzenberg, Briefe geschrieben auf einer Reise nach Paris (Dortmund, 1805 )
[Z1,4]
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