Quando a casa queima

by Giorgio Agamben

Que casa está queimando? O país onde vive, a Europa, o mundo inteiro? Talvez as casas e as cidades já estejam queimadas, não sabemos desde quando, numa única e imensa fogueira que fingimos não ver. De algumas, restam apenas pedaços de muro, uma parede pintada, uma parte do teto, nomes, muitíssimos nomes já devorados pelo fogo. E, todavia, os recobrimos tão zelosamente com gesso branco e palavras mentirosas que parecem intactos. Vivemos em casas, em cidades queimadas de cima a baixo como se ainda estivessem em pé, as pessoas fingem viver aí e saem pelas ruas mascaradas entre as ruínas, como se ainda fossem os bairros familiares de outrora. E agora a chama mudou de forma e natureza, fez-se digital, invisível e fria, mas justamente por isso está ainda mais próxima, está ao nosso lado e nos circunda a todo instante.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Italian Literature, Theory, Essays

102 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2020

About the author

Giorgio Agamben is one of the leading figures in Italian and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life; Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive; Profanations; The Signature of All Things: On Method, and other books. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he treated a wide range of topics, including aesthetics, literature, language, ontology, nihilism, and radical political thought.

In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.

He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.

Reviews

[Alana]

my testimony (not the truth): ngl, i am the barer of a great weight, the weight of witnessing agamben out here really talking. he really be out here talkin but that isn’t to say he said but if one were to say he said he would cease to be a witness without a proposition to compliment my whole house literally burning down to the ground. and he didn’t even help put it out cause he was baring witness and no one can witness the witnesser, but i saw him and i read it and i’m saying it but not like really saying it cause idk i’d rather not. a door could be an opening or a closing until u lay it flat on the ground and submerge it in water.

so, everything burnt to the ground but i didn’t do anything either cause i was too busy watching the flames worrying that no one else noticed what i did.

[Lorenzo]

Per noi da soli non ci può essere salvezza: c’è salvezza perché ci sono altri.

[gallizio]

Non faccio la mia cosa nella casa

[Angi]

A book of reflections that invites one to reflect as well. It is more of a collection of notes rather than a philosophical book, which makes it easy to read and gives thoughts time to sediment. It's an aesthetic book and at times maybe too abstract, but very lyrical and thus, pleasant.
A reminder of who and what we are, putting into question our power (why is this "house" really burning), how aware we are of our truths (how is the truth said, what is it, do we even know how to say it) or how small we are:
" è il luogo in cui il vivente e la lingua per un attimo coincidono - cioè cadono insieme - in una voce. Ma dire , assumere in una lingua la posizione del locutore, non è ancora testimoniare".

[B .]

The title essay was great, such wonderful poetic philosophy almost gesturing toward posthumanism and affirmative ethics, being so close to life the abstractions fall away. The other three essays were good-pretty good, all in some way relating to beingness, the ineffectuality of language and the limits that reduce being to facticity. The threshold is porous, always open to a pure state of feeling that flows on in an endless state of becoming, free from the impurities of the word to pass judgment. The cessation of thought ends in silence, and in silence I begin. Do not label and reduce, experience it all and allow life to be without naming it.

~ 3.5

[cds]

“Humankind today is disappearing, like a face in the sand erased on the shore. But that which is taking its place no longer has a world; it is only a bare life, mute and without history, at mercy of the calculations of power and science. Perhaps it is only beginning with this ruin that something else can one day slowly or suddenly appear—not, to be sure, a god, but neither another human—a new animal, perhaps, an otherwise living soul. . . .”

[thaís bambozzi]

Recebi o que não esperava desse livrinho. O primeiro ensaio é lindo, o segundo me deixou obcecada com a porta em horizontal do Scarpa em Veneza, e também com a expografia do Palazzo Abatellis (passei mais tempo buscando as imagens do que lendo). O último fecha com um tema que me interessa bastante e é isso.

[Fernando Javier]

Excelente conjunto de ensayos. Al mejor estilo de La potencia del pensamiento o de Lo abierto Agamben vuelve al ruedo con una interpelación a la actualidad desde otro tiempo. El ensayo sobre La puerta es un verdadero juego topologico del límite, de las fronteras, de los umbrales.

[Cole Donovan]

As poetry, this is probably a five star book—in terms of its quality compared to Agamben’s other works, it’s just okay. Short and characteristically thoughtful, just doesn’t reach the same heights he so frequently ascends.

[Bohemian Bluestocking]

I really loved the first two essays. I found them beautiful and insightful, inspiring. The last two seemed a bit empty to me, following a method of prose that superficially would claim genius and be impressive but in actuality just ends up flat with nothing much that grabs.

[David McGrogan]

A book more of prose poetry than philosophy, it strikes me as something that, while opaque on first reading, will gradually sink in over time and become important. With that said, I feel a mild sense of outrage that about 50 pages of very sparse text cost me nearly £15; I don't blame Agamben himself for this, but rather his rapacious English language translator and publisher.

[Mateus Martins-Silva]

O subtítulo do livro é: Sobre o dialeto do pensamento

Sumário
Quando a casa queima - p.9
Porta e limiar - p.25
Lições nas trevas - p.41
Testemunho e verdade - p.59

Acredito que é bom pra texto de entrada, mas não é nada parecido com a escrita analítica dele.

Primeiro trata do atual e lembra Benjamin, depois discorre sobre porta e limiar e lembra o Tarkovski, apesar de citar só Carlo Scarpa. Segue no Lições nas trevas tentando diferenciar dialeto de língua num plano performativo-inconsciente-artístico e termina acrescentando a dimensão de testemunho aos 'dialetos'.

As duas linhas: Silêncio-testemunho-verdade e Logos-sujeito-conhecimento correm num mesmo plano e se cruzam em todos os pontos.

[mauro di carlo]

hace unas semanas le pegué una relectura y lo agradezco. sigo sin entender completamente todo (como siempre) pero llegue a ver una línea q atraviesa todo el libro y es la conexión que mantiene uno como individuo con el mundo, ya sea en la casa que compartimos todos, en la figura del testimonio o en las palabras del poeta
debería haber escrito la reseña antes porque ahora mismo no recuerdo nada pero volveré al libro

[somehispanicindividual]

Great essays ranging from philosophy as a dialect to the discussion of the truth in a witness. Brings theology into alot of the text and makes connections where I wouldn't have thought. Out of the three essays, the door 🚪 was the least engaging, but nonetheless interesting.

[Jared]

95% brilliant and then 5% unhinged but that 95%!!!