The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic: Philosophies of Desire in the Modern World

ISBN-13: 9781350018150 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 152 str.

Mario Perniola

Opis

In The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic, Mario Perniola puts forth the radical argument that we are shifting away from organic sexuality, based on desire and pleasure, and moving towards a more neutral inorganic and artificial sexuality, a sexuality always available but indifferent to beauty, age or form. Perniola takes the reader on a tour of Western philosophy, from Descartes, Kant and Hegel to Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Sartre, to reframe our understanding of personal experience and the aesthetic world around us. In order to realize the sex appeal of the inorganic Perniola argues that we must become 'things that feel', we must think ourselves closer to the inorganic, creating an alliance between senses and things. Examples from contemporary culture that, for Perniola, are emblems of the sex appeal of the inorganic, include progressive rock music, fashion, deconstructive architecture and the novels of Georges Perec.

Spis treści

1. Senses and Things2. Sex Plateaux3. God, Animal, Thing4. Descartes and the Thing that Feels5. Becoming Extraneous Clothing6. Exemplary Addictions7. Kant and the Spouse as Thing8. Sadism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic9. Philosophical Cybersex10. Kant and the Feeling of the Thing in itself11. Masochism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic12. Bodies and Clothes13. Hegel and the Thing as 'not this'14. Fetishism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic15. Hardcore Sonority16. Hegel and the Thing as 'also'17. Vampirism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic18. Plastic Landscapes19. Hegel and the Thing 'all of one piece'20. Desire and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic21. Overflowing Installations22. Heidegger and the Thing as Reliability23. Division and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic24. Inclusive Metawritings25. Wittgenstein and the Feeling of 'this thing'26. Pleasure and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic27. Perverse PerformanceNotesIndex of Names

O autorze

Mario Perniola is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, Italy. His books in English include Enigmas: The Egyptian Moment in Society and Art and Ritual Thinking: Sexuality, Death, World. He has also written for Art Forum, Zone and Traverses and is editor of the journal of aesthetics and cultural studies, Agalma.