Being and Neonness, Translation and content revised, augmented, and updated for this edition by Luis de Miranda

by Luis de Miranda, Michael Wells (Translator)

A cultural and philosophical history of neon, from Paris in the twentieth century to the perpetually switched-on present day. For most of us, the word neon conjures images of lights, colors, nightlife, and streets. It evokes the poetry of city nights. For Luis de Miranda, neon is a subject of philosophical curiosity. Being and Neonness is a cultural and philosophical history of neon, from early twentieth-century Paris to the electric, perpetually switched-on present day Manhattan. It is an inspired journey through a century of night, deciphering the halos of the past and the reflections of the present to shed light on the future. Invented in Paris in 1912, neon first appeared on a modest but arresting sign outside a small barbershop; the sign lit up number 14, Boulevard Montmartre, attracting so many passersby that the barber's revenues soon doubled. A century later, neon is no longer just a sign; it is a mythic object—a metonymy of contemporary identity and a metaphor for the present, signifying the ubiquity of commerce and the tautology of hypermodernity. But perhaps the noble gas of neon whispers something more, something deeper? In ten short, poetic yet precise chapters, de Miranda explores the neon lights of the twentieth century. He considers, among other historical curiosities, the neon compulsions of the Italian Futurists; the Soviet program of “neonization”; the Nazi's deployment of neon for propaganda purposes; Baudelaire's “halo” and Benjamin's “aura”; neon as a gas and crystallized chaos; neon and power; neon and capitalism—all of this backlit by an original reading of Sartre's Being and Nothingness . This English edition has been thoroughly revised and adapted from the French edition, L'être et le neon .

Genres: Philosophy

136 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2012

About the author

Luis de Miranda, (born 1971) is a philosopher and novelist. Born in Portugal, he grew up and has lived most of his life in Paris. He began travelling the world alone at the age of sixteen including Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States where he lived for two years. While living in New York, he wrote his first novel, Joy (Joie).

Reviews

[Isaac Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting but largely unoriginal ideas. The author basically has two quotations on every page and then just explains the quotations. I was really interested in how Neon would be used as a glue to hold all the thoughts together but the connections are pretty weak. He talks about neon a bit but at a certain point the only connection becomes like “this philosopher was born in 1913 which was the year after neon was invented”

[Mind the Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

På Camden Arts Centre fastnade mitt urbana öga på en gul bok. Being and Neonness, en Sartre-parafras. Snobbig som jag är ville jag läsa den i originalspråk.

Den handlar ungefär om hur neonet genomsyrade 1900-talets urbana historia. En aning elitistsk essä där förstås ordet 'hégémonie' ingår konstaterar jag med ett frankofilt fniss.


https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/being-...

[Masha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must-read series of passages for today's lost world.

Luis De Miranda:

“What is the difference between identity and integrity? If we aspire to harmony, we need to know what to give up, along which lines to travel, so that self-restriction is fertile rather than deadly. Integrity is the gathering structure around a particular tonality, self-critical, and modulated, the passion of destiny incarnate... We might say of a person that she is integral when she behaves coherently—that is, when she is loyal to an axiology, a microsystem of principles, an internal sense of rightness, or a motto. People are integral if they aim to be honest with themselves, which does not necessarily mean accommodating others. There is a becomingness of integrity for she or he who subordinates the apparent hubbub of the cosmos to their own tempo. Human integrity is a constant discipline, a martial art, not a given…. Integrity is a filter, a style, a motto, an iterative truth, a magic spell, an act of self-legitimation or self-institutionalization that must be tested over and over against reality… Power alone is not enough to become integral; it is very much a matter of remaining as unified as possible through a constant effort of spiritual purge, a discipline of listening, hearing, and understanding. Not all nourishment feeds individuation. There is integral power and social power. The latter may be a perversion of the former—and even its momentary negation Some souls only reach social power once they have lost their integrity. Others are too immersed in the Creal to even seek or be able to obtain approval.”

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

So disappointed with what it promised to be