Thank you, Maria!
I wonder, remembering Amanda Todd's video, if remose in the sense of
biting might also be connected to cutting? I remember teaching a class at
an artschool at one point; the course was about contemporary art, the
body, etc. - and almost everyone in the class was a cutter. It was
incredibly sad; it seems the ultimate risk/control of the body by the
self, the ultimate collapse. And I remember also Acconci's biting piece,
mapping his body with his teeth - but more abject than that, an uncanny
surplus of meaning -
On Tue, 23 Oct 2012, Maria Damon wrote:
Dear all,
I've been very moved by the range, quality, and seriousness of the
inquiries and revelations here in these past weeks. The intensity of the
participants' commitment to exploring these questions posed by Sandy,
Alan and us guests has left me wondering what I can add. I keep
returning to the experience of remorse, which I first mentioned some
time ago. The bitingly anguished regret that often has no basis in
wrongdoing, that is, no precedent (but that doesn't mean no cause) for
which remorse is the appropriate response, is one of those existential
enveloping conditions that swoop down like a weather system but that
feels personal. Remorse is connected to death, it is a wanting to follow
someone into the grave, a form of survivor guilt. Remorse,
etymologically to "bite again," or "re" in the sense of emphasis,
redoubled self-biting, only one letter (mord) away from death (mort),
and a very close letter at that. Biting oneself as a symptom of mourning
or grief. Somehow remorse is connected to abjection, to "bare life," to
stripping away the comforts of denial, creature comforts that enable a
turning-away from the basic unease and suffering that characterizes our
experience of life. As if we were to blame. Are we? Remorse is a hangup,
a habit, a deceitful friend that tears your flesh at the first
opportunity, just so s/he can comfort you afterwards.
On a different but related note, I read an account of Brian Kim Stefans's
talk at one of the EPoetry conferences, in which he exhorted epoetry and
digital arts to "embrace the dark side." Yes, yes, and yes. Fewer slick
surfaces, more abrasions, more acknowledgment of wounds.
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