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“Something escapes us, and we are escaping from ourselves, or losing ourselves, as part of an irreversible process; we have now passed some point of no return, the point where the contradictoriness of things ended, and we find ourselves, still alive, in a universe of non-contradiction, of enthusiasm, of ecstasy - of stupor in the face of a process which, for all its irreversibility, is bereft of meaning.”
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
“Everyone seeks their look. Since it is no longer possible to base any claim on one's own existence, there is nothing for it but to perform an appearing act without concerning oneself with being - or even with being seen. So it is not: I exist, I am here! but rather: I am visible, I am an image -look! look! This is not even narcissism, merely an extraversion without depth, a sort of self-promoting ingenuousness whereby everyone becomes the manager of their own appearance.”
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
“For everything that has not successfully transcended itself can only fall prey to revivals without end.”
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
“The only benefit of a Campbell's soup can by Andy Warhol (and it is an immense benefit) is that it releases us from the need to decide between beautiful and ugly, between real and unreal, between transcendence and immanence.”
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
― The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
“Strange people. The kind that leave the merest blur behind them, soon vanished. Hutte and I often used to talk about these traceless beings. They spring up out of nothing one fine day and return there, having sparkled a little. Beauty queens. Gigolos. Butterflies. Most of them, even when alive, had no more substance than steam which will never condense.”
― Missing Person
― Missing Person
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