Obscenity, Anarchy, Reality

by Crispin Sartwell

Examines the consequences of utter affirmations of our world as it is, exploring the themes of transgressive sexuality, political anarchism, addiction, death, and embodiment.

"Sartwell invokes and comments in detail on selected texts of Emerson, Nietzsche, Havel, various anarchists, and Oglala Sioux. His book has made me examine more closely the relationship between my own philosophical concerns and the way I live my life. The book is clear, impassioned, personal, and engaging."--Cutrofello, Loyola University of Chicago

"The book is astonishingly honest. Sartwell does not shy away from telling us anything about his past behaviors or attitudes. He manages to do this without posturing or pointing to his honesty. I also find the anti-interpretation of reality shocking and interesting. I like the book even though I disagreed with something on nearly every page. I think that that is always a sign of a book worth reading. I read it in two sittings in between which I wanted to get back to it. This seems something of a tour de force! "--Leigh Brown, Northern Arizona University

Sartwell presents an extreme and provocative philosophy of life. He explores what happens if we love this world precisely as it is, with all of its pain, with all of its evil, with all of its bizarre and arbitrary and monstrous thereness. In a highly personal and brutally direct style, Sartwell explores the themes of transgressive sexuality, political anarchism, addiction, death, and embodiment.

The author engages contemporary and historical debates in cultural criticism, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy, and expresses deep suspicions about them. He asserts that scientific philosophical conceptualization is a movement toward death, a rejection of reality.

Moral and political values--the ethical rejection of the particular precisely from within the particular--are, Sartwell claims, an assault on human authenticity. Thus, transgression--which is described as the affirmation of embodiment through obscenity--is something we radically require.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction

191 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Crispin Sartwell was born 6.20.58 in DC. His Dad (and his and his) were DC newspapermen. His Mom and Step-pa were high school teachers and later organic farmers. He got kicked out of the public school system in tenth grade for fomenting revolution, and attended the New Education Project, aka Bonzo Ragamuffin Prep, then U Maryland, Johns Hopkins, UVA. He worked as a copy boy in 1980-81 at the Washington Star, where he started writing about pop music. He was a freelance rock critic through the eighties for, among others the Balt City Paper, Record Mag, High Fidelity, and Melody Maker.

He lives in Glen Rock, PA with his wife, the writer Marion Winik, and their five children. He's Visiting Associate Prof of Political Science at Dickinson College. He writes a weekly op-ed column, distributed by Creators Syndicate. He has also appeared in Harper's, the Washington Post, and on Weekend All Things Considered.

He is the author and editor of a number of books, and he's taught philosophy and communications at Vanderbilt, the Unversity of Alabama, and Penn State Harrisburg.

Reviews

[Memduh Er · Rating 4 out of 5]

Böyle kitaplar okuduğumda bedenime ne kadar yabancı olduğumu anlıyorum. O kadar ki yazılanların arkasında derin bir farkındalık olduğunu seziyor olsam bile kafamda oturtamıyorum, tam yakalayacak gibi olduğumda kaçıveriyor.

Belki daha çok okumak lazım...

[Conor Brummett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this book as a finale to my Moral Theory and Philosophy class. After reading the ridgid, dogmatic and oftentimes abstract concepts of philosophers like Locke, Hobbes, Kant and other moral theorists it was quite literally a smack in the face. Sartwell attempts to tear down all preconceived notions of good and bad, saying that to deem one part of ourselves "superior" to another is inherently pervese. He claims what makes us human is not only our proprensity for good, but evil as well. I sometimes grew weary of his "shock and awe" tactics of philosophy but really enjoyed the book over all. It is truly unlike any piece of philisophical literature that I have ever read. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys philosophy-- traditional or contemporary-- as well as people fed up with any kind of system or dogma.

[Uğur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that affirms what is. It is an opposition to every thought that tries to transform reality. With this feature, it contains very good determinations about what we will encounter when we free ourselves from these illusions by connecting the phenomenon of reality to anarchist philosophy and taking the illusions created by today's neoliberal period against them.

Here, the author clearly draws the distinction between saying what should happen and being able to love what is. and in fact, people as well as the system were constantly isolating themselves from what is, by accepting "what should be" as real.

At this point, the most important philosophical problem is: Should the world be affirmed? Do we accept the world as it is or as it should be?

There is no single answer to this philosophical question. And here is the root of the problem. The author approaches this problem by saying that there is no such thing as "necessary".

However, western philosophy constantly tells us what should be. Author Sartwell also states that "every escape from the world as it is expresses a pain caused by that world". In other words, our judgments and every attitude that we accept as a value is either fed by fear or produced by cowardice. At this point, the author asks another question. “When we affirmed this world, what would happen to the values?”
What would be the consequences when we evaluated the whole of the values ​​that we developed based on fear by going beyond fear?
Because human fear is real. Every fear that developed about this world was a reflexive defense. What will happen to the person who creates religion out of fear of death, the state with the rush of survival, and the family in order to protect themselves, when they get rid of these fears? Here, the author sees the "destruction" that Nietzsche talks about with a deep ontological suspicion... Likewise, humanity was developing a fear-based reflex even while avoiding facing it :)

Our author considers all moral claims to be unrealistic because they constantly tell what "should be" and how. The phrase "following the devil" is actually an attempt to avoid the truth - an illusion that people do with their own will, but put all the blame on the devil with a fear-based reflexive attitude. Therefore, not to obey the devil is to comply with "what should be", that is, to eliminate the truth. In this sense, our author says that breaking the moral rules can be like a ritual. It also handles this with the phenomenon of rudeness.

In this life and perception of reality, which we will continue for a short time, it is possible to be suffocated with meaning while searching for its meaning. I think this is a problem we live in in our "neoliberal image" universe. Author Sartwell reminds us that the situation created by the shock moment is not relativism but reality itself, that shock calls us to get rid of our neoliberal lives shaped around perception, and how fragile life can be. The shock effect reminds us of our physical reality as well as makes us feel, he says. The bowling ball example he gave is really good, by the way. I think it should be one of the must read books.

[Merve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bazı kitapların bazı insanların karşısına bazı zamanlarda çıkması tesadüfle açıklanabilir mi? Güzellikler tesadüfen mi gerçekleşir peki? En güzel sıcacık yerel kitapevlerinden birinde tesadüfen gözüme çarpan, görür görmez beni heyecanlandıran ve hemen almama yol açan ve buna pişman etmeyen kitaplardan biri.
Kitapların şifa olma özellikleri vardır. Özellikle de en “dayanamadığınız koşullara” ve “kısır döngü”bir yaşama sıkışıp kaldığınız dönemlerde sadık bir dost oluverirler.
Bana iyi gelecek, kendimi genişlemiş hissettiren ve bütün dünyayı içime sığdırabiliyor olduğumu bir kez daha bana gösteren hislere bile yabancılaştığım, duygularımla, yaşadıklarımla ve görmezden gelmeye çalıştığım gerçeğimle barışmaya, sonu hayalkırıklığı bile olsa beni eylemeye kışkırtan kitaplar ben onları aramazken gelip beni buluveriyorlar. İyiki böyle yol gösterici kılavuzlarım var.💜 Kışkırtıcı bir kitap. Sizi eylemeye, harekete geçmeye zorlayabiliyor. En azından bende öyle bir etki yarattı özellikle de kendi gerçeğim yalanım kaçışlarım üzerine düşündüğüm şu dönemlerde. Psikologumun önerdiği psikoterapötik kitaptan daha yardımcı oldu düşüncelerimi ayarlamamda. Kitap bana acı verse de gerçekliğin içinde yaşamanın yalanın içinde kaybolmaktan daha değerli olduğunu gösterdi. Diyor ki gerçekliği seçin. Belki her zaman bu geçerli olmasa, hayal gücü ve fantazilerin öğretici gücüne sırt çevirmeden gerçekle anlaşmanın bir yolu bulunabilir.
Kendi Gerçekliğini kabul etmek duygularına, savunmasızlığına ve kırılganlığına sahip çıkmak demektir. Hislerini yaşamak ve kendini dünyaya açmak demektir.
Gerçekliği, edebi, anarşizmi devleti ve politikayı felsefi bir noktadan tartıştığı için herkesin ilgisini çekmeyebilir. Fikirleri kesinlikle tartışmalı. Ama kışkırtıcı. Şeytan tüyü var kitabın. Kesinlikle bir şansı hak ediyor. Fikirlerine katılmayacak olsanız bile. Hatta yazarı ile tartışmanın keyfine vararak okuyabilirsiniz bile.
Sizin de okuma deneyiminizin benimki kadar keyifli (ama bir o kadar hırpalayıcı olmamasını) olmasını diliyorum(:
Dipnot: Gerçekleri kabul etmek zor zanaat. Hele depresyonla birleşince. Ama bir kere kabul ettiğinizde göğüs kafesinize çöktüğünü hissettiğiniz büyük kaya parçasını biraz yerinden oynayabiliyorsunuz.
Çok uzattım ama okuma deneyimimi ve hislerimi birlikte paylaşmak istedim
Sevgilerle:)

[Jessada Karnjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

นี่เป็นหนังสือปรัชญา ปรัชญาชีวิตที่แตะต้องหลายแขนง อาทิ Metaphysics โดยเฉพาะ Ontology ... Sartwell อ้างว่า สิ่งที่มีอยู่จริงคือสิ่งที่มีโดยไม่ถูก transform, Ethics ... Sartwell ปฏิเสธการให้คุณค่าของสิ่งต่าง ๆ เพราะมันจะยิ่งทำให้สิ่งนั้นห่างออกจาก reality จริยศาสตร์ของเขาคล้าย ๆ กับจริยศาสตร์ของ Emerson (to be sincere turns out to be to be), Political philosophy ... Sartwell เป็น anarchist เขาตั้งคำถามถึง logical ground ว่าด้วยการดำรงอยู่ของรัฐแบบเดียวกับ Nietzche กับ Thoreau เขาว่า สุดท้ายแล้วรัฐก็เป็นเพียงความพยายามที่จะแปลงคนไปเป็น concept เช่น ฆาตกร ผู้มีสิทธิออกเสียง คิง ทั้งนี้ทั้งนั้น เพราะ abstraction คือที่ที่เราใช้หลบหนีโลกแห่ง concrete particulars ยามที่เราทนมันไม่ไหว ในด้านการเมือง เราจะได้อ่าน Havel เป็นหลัก ...

ดูรีวิว https://www.jessada-k.com/single-post...

[Quiver · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be playful is to let go; it is to seduce and to be seduced, though perhaps in a small way. Finally, solemnity is the virtue from which we may someday perish, while playfulness is the vice that may yet redeem us.

Playful is light-hearted, or light of heart.

It means jumping up because you can; it means embracing the uncertainty of landing because nothing can be absolutely certain; it means reaching for the stars even though physics says you'll end up grabbing handfuls of air. Air is, after all, what we breath.

Playfulness, a vice?

In a goal-oriented world, jumping up and down the street, unless paid to do so, is seen as a waste of resources (energy, time, sanity). We take ourselves way too seriously, and yet we defect from the reality of our bodies into the realms of our minds.

Crispin Sartwell, American philosopher, is radical: he'd have you dancing outside, open to life's thunderstorms as well as to its rainbows, keeping it real, rather than escaping into (or exploring) the "safe" worlds of science, media, literature, where we study or observe the raging of life from the coziness of our protective cocoons. His book aims towards affirmation of what is, precisely as it is, with the goal of having you love the world as it is—black, white, colour, and shades—rather than as it ought to be. This means accepting you're addicted to something nasty or accepting that your friends are unpleasant, if that's the case, or accepting that you'll never learn a foreign language or own a penthouse. It means accepting that you have minuscule control over your dealings with the world. And so, rather than living in imaginary alternative realities where you're a princely other, you ought to make the best of your lot immediately, as it stands now.


Naturally, Sartwell acknowledges the paradoxical nature of his suggestion on page one: his book says you ought to affirm the world unconditionally, though he categorically stands against anything that ought to be. His starting point is the quandary: there ought to be not oughts. On a more fundamental level, Sartwell wrote a book which requires extensive rumination before its core ideas can be applied, and that rumination, in turn, requires removing yourself from the turbulent outside world for a while (not to mention a general literacy acquired by years of such removal). You withdraw to the safe world of his book so it can tell you not to withdraw to the safe world of books.

An ancient paradox.

Plato's condemnation of the written word, delivered through the mouth of Socrates in  Pheadrus, is similarly strange when you consider that Plato was such a prolific writer himself, and one which chose to deliver his condemnation in written form.


The best paradoxes serve as irritants that prod us into resolving them—as best we can—so that our level of self-knowledge may be increased as a result. Or perhaps I should say: the best paradoxes are also the best toys. Read Sartwell’s book. Play with the ideas.

[Kaplumbağa Felsefecisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crispin Sartwell nasıl büyük bir başarı ile beni kitabın etrafında dönenip dururken hayatımın tüm dalgalarından kıyıya vurup atmak istediğim sularına varmamı sağlıyor anlayabilmiş değilim. Yakın zamanda bu benim için bir başka özel kalacak kitabını daha uzun yazacağım...