<div dir="ltr">Alan, <br><br>Here is the opening section of my essay "Eleven Septembers Later: Readings of Benjamin Hollander's <i>Vigilance</i>" which was included in Benjamin's poem book <i>Vigilance</i> in 2005. It related directly to what you are saying and also connects with the discussions we started here last week:<br><br>"
<p class="MsoNormal">I. Love and State<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>The genius of
fascism is that it is based on love. <span style="color:black">Here the
leviathan of state turns into a performer of gentle punishment, loving duress.
In most fascisms, the public at large –for a short and brute period at least-
is in love with its leader. Freedom is falling politically out of love. In
capitalist fascism the eye –<i>petit-pointed</i>
with pain, and yearning- is the sine qua non tool of love. By his images, the
leader ogles the public into his erotic, protective, parental embrace; the
public responds also with his eyes to this embrace. T.V. is a pornographic
contraption of communal fuck, a bait and switch, double-mirrored peep show,
while looking being looked at,<span> </span>seeing
while being seen into. A colossal move on our clits. Freedom starts with an
aversion of the eyes -a <i>moral modesty</i>!-
a decision not to see, the eye blurring in mist, choosing a mournful blindness,
which puts a stop to the erotic synergy. Freedom is a vigil towards stasis –an
action against flow – a “seeing” into oneself, transforming the eye into an
ascetic guerilla weapon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><span>
</span>Freedom is photographic contemplation,<sup>1</sup> contra incest. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">send home
my long strayed eyes to me.</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">which
(oh) too long have dwelt on thee (John Donne, <i>The Message</i>)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">But now I
have drunk thy sweet salt tears,</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><span> </span>And though thou pour more I’ll depart; </span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">My
picture vanished, vanish fears,</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">That I
can be undamaged by that art<span> </span>(JD, <i>Witchcraft by a Picture</i>)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Photographic
seeing wrests a trace of time into a process of perception, on time. <span style="color:black">The computer is the supreme sublime dialectical medium.
Born out of military seamen, it is the womb of chaos. It is the <i>asymmetric</i> weapon of subversion and the
tool of extreme vigilance of the state. Pornography is of its essence, sites of
secret communication, loci of yearning, condensations most monitored by the
state, the place where the eye is the common denominator of eros and control.
Computer is where both the extremely private and extremely public fuse, and are
in mortal conflict with each other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Born out of a
belief in the freedom of light,<span>
</span>photography is the anti-digital medium, the awakener from the capital’s
illusion that anything can be converted into anything, that gravity, the
process by which objects hit the ground, does not exist. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Thinning time and
space out of air, computer points to both the illusion, and truth, of the
Oneness of God.<span> "</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Ciao,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Murat<br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 11:21 AM, Murat Nemet-Nejat <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:muratnn@gmail.com" target="_blank">muratnn@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Alan, It is closer to me to a phenomelogy of abjection, of humiliation and being overlooked. (Not that what you are referring to is not true or relevant.) This election tilted in the rust belt states where for at least twenty years the blue collar population was in a rut, economically stuck with little expectation of improvement. Nobody did anything for them (with the possible exception of the saving of the auto industry). He spoke to them, and they elected him. The unfortunate thing is that nothing in the <u>concrete</u> policies he is offering, as far as I can see, has anything that will improve the blue collar lot. In fact, it will do the opposite. The gigantic tax cuts (the easiest and fastest laws the congress will put through) will aggravate the vast divide. They seem to have been taken by a snake oil salesman. I hope I am wrong. Of I am, it will make the result maybe a bit more bearable.<br><br></div>As for the rest of the awful consequences of this result, you are right --desire (or hatred) will probably be the emotions stoked to get the engine running. Personally, I have been very reluctant to use the word "fascist" when I didn't like someone or some decision. But what happened here is so similar to what happened in the thirties in Europe, particularly in the case of Mussolini. A leader who jutted his chin out and projected sexual prowess, who inflamed the grievances (some of it justified) of the populaca, while at the same time making alliances with the privileged, the captains of industry, the Pope. A divided polity and spineless politician who supported him believing they could control the guy. Then a militia group that will "protect" the movement. Does it all sound similar?<br><br></div>A year ago, I would have said all this is not possible in this country. There are laws, the constitution, etc. etc. But the open, unabashed contempt for the law that Trump showed without any punishment and rejection. Politicians for their venal purposes (a tax break here, a safe congressional seat there, etc.) supported him. <br><br></div>Ciao,<br></div>Murat<br><div><div><div><div><div><br><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 3:14 AM, Alan Sondheim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sondheim@panix.com" target="_blank">sondheim@panix.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
<br>
<br>
Not that it matters, but I've talked about a Trump win for the past fourteen months; I thought it inevitable - not because of policy, but because of a violent phenomenology of desire he played through. This is covered somewhat in the splatter text below. I'm too distraught to have an empyre discussion on aesthetic issues, at least at this point; I'd like to discuss what a phenomenology of desire might be - not only in terms of economic/sexist/racist fury, but also in relation to bodies and virtual attacks upon them. The public misogyny was nothing I've seen before; I want to understand this. We must learn how to resist, now, or at least open a discussion about this.<br>
<br>
Apologies if I'm wrong on this; it's difficult to think of anything else.<br>
<br>
- Alan<div><div class="m_-8844443185532027862h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Tue, 8 Nov 2016, Alan Sondheim wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
<br>
<br>
My name is Alan Sondheim and I approve this message. I'm an<br>
artist, writer, and musician, working in entangled media.<br>
<br>
Recently, I've been think of "semiotic splatter" - fragmented<br>
and chaotic semiosis (the process of signification in language<br>
or literature, the production of meaning), and splatter both as<br>
control and dissolution. I use this term to indicate that<br>
semiosis is never totalized, that it falls apart, fails,<br>
coagulates and clumps; it's related to an incessant presencing<br>
of material which appears more and more stale and derogated.<br>
Semiotic splatter is related as well to strange attractors in<br>
chaos theory and leads to the problematic of semiosis and<br>
"coagulative hardening" - for example the rise of<br>
totalitarianism out of (political, economic) chaos.<br>
<br>
The semiotic splatter work is at<br>
<a href="http://www.alansondheim.org/splatter.txt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.alansondheim.org/sp<wbr>latter.txt</a> - a good introduction<br>
to my work in general.<br>
<br>
A word about my practice - to write and produce as continuous<br>
praxis; ; I've been doing daily pieces (text/music/image/video)<br>
since 1994, as an ongoing meditation - first, on 'cyberspace,'<br>
but now extended elsewhere. The pieces are organized through a<br>
series of texts; the most recent are at<br>
<a href="http://www.alansondheim.org/uf.txt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.alansondheim.org/uf<wbr>.txt</a> and<br>
<a href="http://www.alansondheim.org/ug.txt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.alansondheim.org/ug<wbr>.txt</a> .<br>
<br>
Thanks to Murat, Renate, and Timothy, for the invitation to<br>
participate for the week!<br>
<br>
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<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div></div>
==<br>
email archive <a href="http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.o<wbr>rg/</a><br>
web <a href="http://www.alansondheim.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.alansondheim.org</a> / cell <a href="tel:718-813-3285" value="+17188133285" target="_blank">718-813-3285</a><br>
music: <a href="http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.espdisk.com/alanson<wbr>dheim/</a><br>
current text <a href="http://www.alansondheim.org/ug.txt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.alansondheim.org/ug<wbr>.txt</a><br>
==<div class="m_-8844443185532027862HOEnZb"><div class="m_-8844443185532027862h5"><br>
______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>