the scandal of the speaking body
“to seduce is to produce felicitous language”
“…the promise is symptomatic of the noncoincidence of desire with the present”
“both psychoanalysis and performative theory have in fact as their object the rethinking of the human act.”
“if the problem of the human act thus consists in the relation between language and body, it is because the act is conceived…as that which problematizes at one and the same time the separation and opposition between the two. the act, an enigmatic and problematic production of the speaking body, destroys from its inception the metaphysical dichotomy between the domain of the ‘mental’ and the domain of the ‘physical’….”
“the scandal consists in the fact that the act cannot know what it is doing…”
“failure, to be sure, pervades every performance, including even that of theory, which in turn becomes erotic for becoming nothing but a failed act, or an act of failing.”
“ …a pleasure in scandal, a performative pleasure if there ever was one…”
“the scandal…is always in a certain way the scandal of the promise of love, the scandal of the untenable, that is, still and always, the scandal—Donjuanian in the extreme—of the promising animal, incapable of keeping his promise, incapable of not making it, powerless both to fulfill the commitment and to avoid committing himself—to avoid playing beyond his means, playing, indeed, the devil; the scandal of the speaking body, which in failing itself and others makes an act of that failure, and makes history.”
“…truth is only an act…”
—shoshana felman
(via centerforpublicawesomeness)
why this is awesome:
1. rousing. it is rousing.
2. melanie griffiths body is super hot. in an “i work out once a week doing low-impact aerobics” kind of way.
3. i once got to mention the white sneakers in an important ethnography of underground street fashion.
4. han solo is in it.
5. carly simon is the best. if you dont believe me, read girls like us. she is totally fucked up in the same way as everyone you know. plus, she never got over james taylor. i bet her kids watch this video and CRINGE. in the midst of a depressing stretch of summer ‘08 marisa said, “i think i feel like carly when she’s at some shitty newsweek job and spending all her money on psychotherapy.” i responded, “i know. like, i might be carly thinking i am drinking 90 calorie shakes but they are 900 calories. its dark.” carly is the ultimate baby boomer mom and also the ultimate proto-90swoman.
11 Mar 2010 / 1 note / 1980s girl culture 1960s second wave feminist
(tama janowitz and andy warhol)
“i hate writing, ive never made any money from it, and i cant get published.”
thats what tama janowitz said during a reading i went to two winters ago.
i appreciated her refusal to pander to the audience and pretty up the truth. but that truth was so depressing. especially since so many 90swomen aspired to a life like or hers. or what we thought her life must be like, having read about her in sassy (or elsewhere) or romanticized the boho life she chronicled in slaves of new york.
i was thinking about this story while getting pissed at last weeks nyt article chastising female artists for not making art about violent women. ada says that female artists have been talking about women as aggressors since the 90s. i say that the article was a backlash-y excuse to make feminism look boring. and that if we want more art by women, we need more women artists. who can make a living wage. (or maybe more? so they can buy awesome clothes, like tama.)
in other news on 90swoman:
lady gaga and cyndi lauper: mac + safe sex + intergenerational feminism = super 90s
proof that the 90s are back (like you needed any)
