Hi Alan I found the book a few weeks ago in a bookstore Bernhard-Henri Lévy, Gefährliche Reinheit, Wien: Passagen Verlag, 1995, the french original was written during the war in Bosnia (Sarajevo), 93, and published as La pureté dangereuse. I have not come across an english translation; Random House later in 2009 published Levy's Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism, which is not the same text but probably an expansion, of his critique of all totalitarianisms, the will to purity (that you have also addressed in your poetic-critical texts), the invention of the other, our (western) confusion, our weak democracies and left politics, etc. He also asks: "Does anti-Semitism have a future, and, if so, what will it look like"? & what is this unthinking loathing of Israel; combined with an obsessive anti-Americanism; and an idea of “tolerance” that, in its justification of Islamic fanaticism, for example, could become what he calls the “cemetery of democracies”. This I suspect could be French philosophy at its best, or most intellectually febrile. He recommends giving up all ideas of integration (united europe), embracing the tragic, welcoming all atheisms. Hmm, the idea of the tragic without the transcendental.
regards Johannes -- >>>> Johannes, thank you, where is the Henri-Levy reference, would greatly appreciate it. I keep thinking about the 'they' and that blankness of terror, taking the nightmare in, transforming it. it's not only this, it's what is human, there is too much of it, Israeli war machine, Libya, _our_ cancers are everywhere - yours, Alan On Mon, 25 Aug 2014, Johannes Birringer wrote: > > > Dear Alan > you are very brave to take on the ISISmachine; > I am trying to grapple with your texts > the images are startling (your images), I gather the silence response > is due to the unspekableness of the images relayed from/by IS, and the > relentless expansion of their anarchist destruction war on all others not > believing; thus we reach from a distance, moving closer, a new dimension > that defies our logic but nor theirs; somewhere I read, this is the real > islamic > spring, forget the arab spring. your texts dissolve with this unspeakableness > that western philosophies (Bernard Henri Levy had written on the "dangerous > purity" a while back) > won't easily manage to integrate because it can't be. > > ____________________________ > From: [email protected] > [[email protected]] on behalf of Alan Sondheim > [[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 2:23 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [NetBehaviour] ISIS-is: the signal > > isis-is: the signal > > http://www.alansondheim.org/thesignal1.png > http://www.alansondheim.org/thesignal.mp4 > http://www.alansondheim.org/thesignal2.png > http://www.alansondheim.org/thesignal3.png > > Alan Sondheim trying to come to grips with annihilation when for > example beheading occurs, not only to foment terror, but as an > act of piety, as part of the natural order of things - > > Alan Sondheim a signal is sent, becomes furious, begins to > dissolve, the dance is violent and sexual like a machine gun > > Alan Sondheim amounting to firing a gun but now up close, the > taste of the gristle, trophy of the severed head, chopped > hands, gouged eyes > > Alan Sondheim anything that can be removed > > Alan Sondheim what does this, what is a response, what is this? > > ===== > > [for all]X{not X --> 0} > Therefore not X is taken to 0 (null set) > Therefore not X is always already processed to 0 > Therefore not X is equivalent to 0 > Therefore not x is identical to 0 > Therefore X --> V (universal set) > Therefore X is always already processed to V > Therefore X is equivalent to V > Therefore X is identical to V > > Alan Sondheim this came on the heels of a first post I wrote > thinking about ISIS and the idea of exclusion - from for all x > not x tends towards zero - to x is identical with the universal > set, not x is identical with the null set. I'm playing off ideas > of purity and exclusion - things like the Pale etc. or the > theory in Kristeva's Powers of Horror or the earlier Mary > Douglas' (sp?) Purity and Danger. that which is not for me, in > other words, is against me, and must be annihilated, and > annihilation must be carried out to the limit. so for me the > movement is from 'sending' or projecting not-x into the null > set, to making it equivalent, to making it identical - a > movement maybe from epistemology to ontology - the not-x become > - _are_ inherently non-being, eliminated. - > > Alan Sondheim X doesn't equal not-X. The world divides and > hardens between X and not-X; it's a classical division so that > the intersection of X and not-X is the null set. What I'm trying > to present is the idea of an expulsion and an annihilation of > what's expelled. ISIS wants a purified caliphate with only > believers; non-believers are expelled or murdered. Could you > elaborate on the rest of your post? I'm trying to say then that > the annihilation is that of the Other - the Other isn't > permitted to survive, and with the death of the Other, the Other > becomes identified with 0. > > Alan Sondheim because it's about ISIS and this is the second in > the series - > > Alan Sondheim trying to come to grips with annihilation when for > example beheading occurs, not only to foment terror, but as an > act of piety, as part of the natural order of things - > > Alan Sondheim in the above, a signal is sent, becomes furious, > begins to dissolve, the dance is violent and sexual like a > machine gun > > Alan Sondheim amounting to firing a gun but now up close, the > taste of the gristle, trophy of the severed head, or there were > hands chopped, eyes gouged > > Alan Sondheim at times anything that can be removed > > Alan Sondheim what does this, where is a response, what is this? > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > == email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285 music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/st.txt == _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
