#toddmcgowan — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #toddmcgowan, aggregated by home.social.
-
Psychoanalysis and infrastructure
When reading Todd McGowan’s Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan I was suddenly struck by how interesting it would be to think about infrastructure from a Lacanian perspective. Consider how he talks about the Lacanian notion of the Imaginary on loc 2060:
The imaginary can present an illusion of completeness because it appears to involve just two parties – someone looking and what is seen. The imaginary relationship is a dualistic one that fails to account for the influence of a third party on this dualistic interaction. From within the imaginary perspective, I consider only what’s on my computer screen, not the structure that makes it possible for me to view this screen, including the labor that produced my computer in the first place and the coding that mediates my encounter. Seeing a direct, one-on-one relationship with the image amounts to falling for an imaginary lure. Lacan wants to bring the symbolic and real to light to counter the blinding power of this lure.
What he terms the third party here can equally be framed as infrastructure: “the structure that makes it possible”. I had a conversation with Richard Sandford yesterday about algorithmic folklore which was lingering in my mind as I read this. Could the stories we tell about algorithms be framed as attempts to incorporate the infrastructure into the imaginary? They turn the absent structure into a real presence which evokes stories and ideas in us about what it is and what it wants. It turns the third into a dyadic relationship in which I am directly confronting the algorithm and trying to decipher its desire. In doing so we lose contact with the negativity inherent in grappling with the limits of the Imaginary, as Todd puts it on loc 2078:
Enthralled by the imaginary, we can’t see what we can’t see. We can’t see that we can’t see everything. While the subject allows itself to be captivated by images, absence disappears in the surfeit of presence. The problem with the imaginary is that it is too visible: We see the imaginary as a whole and never see what it’s missing – namely, the symbolic order and the real.
I wonder what happens to the notion of sociotechnical imaginaries, which I’ve never liked, if we read it through this frame? The Imaginary is comforting because it forecloses a deeper engagement with a reality which is disorientating and beyond our full comprehension. Rather than sociotechnical imaginaries being essentially a synonym for ‘shared vision’ we can read them as a defence mechanism through which engagements with infrastructure are transposed into a more comforting register. What would sociotechnical Imaginaries (the capital marking the Lacanian spin) look like if we see them as operating in this way? What’s their relationship to, say, moments of breakdown when the infrastructural bursts into conscious awareness through its sudden mode of failure? What would this framing mean for the repair and care work involved in sustaining infrastructure?
#algorithmicFolkelore #imaginary #infrastructure #Lacan #sociotechnicalImaginaries #ToddMcGowan -
In this episode of the Why Theory podcast, Todd McGowan points out that when a French radio broadcast talks about ICE, they add an article in front of the word, making it
L'ICE.
This is perfection.
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Why-Theory-p1969700/?topicId=529701678
#ICEisLICE
#ICE
#French
#WhyTheory
#WhyThworyPodcast
#ToddMcGowan
#ILoveLanguage -
In this episode of the Why Theory podcast, Todd McGowan points out that when a French radio broadcast talks about ICE, they add an article in front of the word, making it
L'ICE.
This is perfection.
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Why-Theory-p1969700/?topicId=529701678
#ICEisLICE
#ICE
#French
#WhyTheory
#WhyThworyPodcast
#ToddMcGowan
#ILoveLanguage -
Next up, in my #TheoryRedux series with @politybooks: "Self-Sabotage" by the great #ToddMcGowan. Stay tuned.
-
This is it, y'all.
We have arrived at my favorite line in the whole book.
Are you ready for it?
Here we go.
"The great virtue of failure is that everyone can do it...."
-- #ToddMcGowan,
#EmbracingAlienationHe's serious. And so am I. That's my favorite. Boom.
17/
-
This is it, y'all.
We have arrived at my favorite line in the whole book.
Are you ready for it?
Here we go.
"The great virtue of failure is that everyone can do it...."
-- #ToddMcGowan,
#EmbracingAlienationHe's serious. And so am I. That's my favorite. Boom.
17/
-
...while forcing the subject to pay for the security with strict obedience. No community offers identity for free."
#ToddMcGowan
in #EmbracingAlienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find OurselvesWhat do we have and/or want: #community, #commons, or #communion?
(In which I define "communion" a lá #PeterRollins: gathering around shared Lack/alienation. Ftr, that's what I want.)#fedizens
#Americans
#Democrat
#Republican
#liberal
#conservative
#progressive
#totalitarian
#socialist
#anarchist16/
-
...while forcing the subject to pay for the security with strict obedience. No community offers identity for free."
#ToddMcGowan
in #EmbracingAlienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find OurselvesWhat do we have and/or want: #community, #commons, or #communion?
(In which I define "communion" a lá #PeterRollins: gathering around shared Lack/alienation. Ftr, that's what I want.)#fedizens
#Americans
#Democrat
#Republican
#liberal
#conservative
#progressive
#totalitarian
#socialist
#anarchist16/
-
"...To receive the support that the community offers, I must submit to the implicit demands that hold it together. Members of any community, without exception, must obey its implicit demands.... Sometimes the implicit demands tell members how to relate to the explicit rules--which ones to obey completely, which ones to disregard.... The community's implicit demands create a bond through a shared secret that divides those in on it from those on the outside."
-- #ToddMcGowan
14/
-
"...To receive the support that the community offers, I must submit to the implicit demands that hold it together. Members of any community, without exception, must obey its implicit demands.... Sometimes the implicit demands tell members how to relate to the explicit rules--which ones to obey completely, which ones to disregard.... The community's implicit demands create a bond through a shared secret that divides those in on it from those on the outside."
-- #ToddMcGowan
14/
-
"(T)he community provides protection from the unanswerable questions that subjectivity poses for itself. Subjectivity's nagging question receives a comforting answer in the form of a symbolic identity undergirded by the community. But one must look closely and see how every community ultimately fails to deliver the goods. The more I invest myself in a community the more I sense that I don't belong. This alienation is what we must pay attention to."
#ToddMcGowan
in #EmbracingAlienation12/
-
"(T)he community provides protection from the unanswerable questions that subjectivity poses for itself. Subjectivity's nagging question receives a comforting answer in the form of a symbolic identity undergirded by the community. But one must look closely and see how every community ultimately fails to deliver the goods. The more I invest myself in a community the more I sense that I don't belong. This alienation is what we must pay attention to."
#ToddMcGowan
in #EmbracingAlienation12/
-
...it...then what's the point of any of our talk?
#election2024
#existentialism
#PeterRollins
#SimoneWeil
#ToddMcGowan
#HannahArendt
#DietrichBonhoeffer
#Bonhoeffer
#socialism
#anarchy
#antifascism
#fascism
#misogynoir
#misogyny
#homophobia
#antitrans
#ProForcedBirth
#christofascism
#ChristianNationalism
#NationalistChristianity
#DoNotComply
#DoNotPreComply
#WeAreAliveAndWeDoNotAgree
#WEAREALIVEANDWEDONTAGREE -
...it...then what's the point of any of our talk?
#election2024
#existentialism
#PeterRollins
#SimoneWeil
#ToddMcGowan
#HannahArendt
#DietrichBonhoeffer
#Bonhoeffer
#socialism
#anarchy
#antifascism
#fascism
#misogynoir
#misogyny
#homophobia
#antitrans
#ProForcedBirth
#christofascism
#ChristianNationalism
#NationalistChristianity
#DoNotComply
#DoNotPreComply
#WeAreAliveAndWeDoNotAgree
#WEAREALIVEANDWEDONTAGREE -
From #EmbracingAlienation by #ToddMcGowan:
"The struggle against racism requires the translation of symbolic identities back into the acts of alienated subjects. Where race appears, we must see the racist act that creates this racial difference. Racism offers subjects a way of avoiding the confrontation with alienation. To challenge racism is to thrust oneself directly into the position of the alienated subject.
"...Racism only works so long as at least one group of people...
6/
-
From #EmbracingAlienation by #ToddMcGowan:
"The struggle against racism requires the translation of symbolic identities back into the acts of alienated subjects. Where race appears, we must see the racist act that creates this racial difference. Racism offers subjects a way of avoiding the confrontation with alienation. To challenge racism is to thrust oneself directly into the position of the alienated subject.
"...Racism only works so long as at least one group of people...
6/
-
From Todd Mcgowan’s Embracing Alienation, loc 1998:
The lure of overcoming alienation entraps subjects in the pursuit of a false possibility that deforms their perspective on existence. Existence becomes the struggle to transcend the obstacles standing in the way of achieving happiness. Unhappiness becomes a state to flee rather than the normal state of existence. Burdened by the image of an unalienated future, one finds oneself fleeing from existence itself. In such a position, there is no possibility for finding satisfaction in the everyday variegations of one’s life.
Which I think is pretty much as simple as Oliver Burkeman makes out here in loc 483 of his new book. The images of an unalienated future inevitably obscures what it is we can do meaningfully in the present: today rather than tomorrow, this morning rather than this afternoon, now rather than in an hour:
Almost nobody wants to hear the real answer to the question of how to spend more of your finite time doing things that matter to you, which involves no system. The answer is: you just do them. You pick something you genuinely care about, and then, for at least a few minutes – a quarter of an hour, say – you do some of it. Today. It really is that simple. Unfortunately, for many of us, it also turns out to be one of the hardest things in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88SE8yiWPM
And Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
Always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis
And in my head there's all these classic cars and outlaw cowboy bands
I always kinda sorta wished I was somebody else -
From Todd Mcgowan’s Embracing Alienation, loc 1998:
The lure of overcoming alienation entraps subjects in the pursuit of a false possibility that deforms their perspective on existence. Existence becomes the struggle to transcend the obstacles standing in the way of achieving happiness. Unhappiness becomes a state to flee rather than the normal state of existence. Burdened by the image of an unalienated future, one finds oneself fleeing from existence itself. In such a position, there is no possibility for finding satisfaction in the everyday variegations of one’s life.
Which I think is pretty much as simple as Oliver Burkeman makes out here in loc 483 of his new book. The images of an unalienated future inevitably obscures what it is we can do meaningfully in the present: today rather than tomorrow, this morning rather than this afternoon, now rather than in an hour:
Almost nobody wants to hear the real answer to the question of how to spend more of your finite time doing things that matter to you, which involves no system. The answer is: you just do them. You pick something you genuinely care about, and then, for at least a few minutes – a quarter of an hour, say – you do some of it. Today. It really is that simple. Unfortunately, for many of us, it also turns out to be one of the hardest things in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88SE8yiWPM
And Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
Always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis
And in my head there's all these classic cars and outlaw cowboy bands
I always kinda sorta wished I was somebody else -
For that matter, stop telling *people* who they are. Let them *show* you who they are, as they discover that, over time and with all the growth and transformation that goes along with living as a human in this universe.
#Identity is not static. And no matter what we call ourselves or identify with, it's all just symbolic anyway. None of us ever know who we truly are,because we are alienated from the things we identify with...and from ourselves.
Read EMBRACING ALIENATION by #ToddMcGowan.
2/2
-
For that matter, stop telling *people* who they are. Let them *show* you who they are, as they discover that, over time and with all the growth and transformation that goes along with living as a human in this universe.
#Identity is not static. And no matter what we call ourselves or identify with, it's all just symbolic anyway. None of us ever know who we truly are,because we are alienated from the things we identify with...and from ourselves.
Read EMBRACING ALIENATION by #ToddMcGowan.
2/2
-
After a long hiatus due to #Covid #brainfog, I am back to #EmbracingAlienation by #ToddMcGowan.
I'll share more thoughts as I go along. But for now, I'm all about this in the back of the book:
" #RepeaterBooks is dedicated to the creation of a new reality. The landscape of twenty-first-century arts and letters is faded and inert, riven by fashionable cynicism, egotistical self-reference and a nostalgia for the recent past. Repeater intends to add its voice to those movements that...
1/
-
After a long hiatus due to #Covid #brainfog, I am back to #EmbracingAlienation by #ToddMcGowan.
I'll share more thoughts as I go along. But for now, I'm all about this in the back of the book:
" #RepeaterBooks is dedicated to the creation of a new reality. The landscape of twenty-first-century arts and letters is faded and inert, riven by fashionable cynicism, egotistical self-reference and a nostalgia for the recent past. Repeater intends to add its voice to those movements that...
1/
-
I #amreading EMBRACING ALIENATION by #ToddMcGowan. Only a few pages in, and he's blowing my mind in some of the best ways possible. 🤯🤯🤯
#alienation
#identity
#LifeHacks
#philosophy
#existentialism
#psychoanalysis
#Hegel
#DeathDrive
#reading
#books
#bookstodon
#subversive
#resist -
I #amreading EMBRACING ALIENATION by #ToddMcGowan. Only a few pages in, and he's blowing my mind in some of the best ways possible. 🤯🤯🤯
#alienation
#identity
#LifeHacks
#philosophy
#existentialism
#psychoanalysis
#Hegel
#DeathDrive
#reading
#books
#bookstodon
#subversive
#resist -
#atheism for #lent, day 39: the call is coming from inside the house
http://courtcan.com/2023/04/01/atheism-for-lent-day-39/
#ToddMcGowan
#CadellLast
#Hegel
#PhilosophyOfContradiction
#HumanCondition
#relationships
#42 -
#atheism for #lent, day 39: the call is coming from inside the house
http://courtcan.com/2023/04/01/atheism-for-lent-day-39/
#ToddMcGowan
#CadellLast
#Hegel
#PhilosophyOfContradiction
#HumanCondition
#relationships
#42 -
#atheism for #lent day 33 (belated): turtles all the way down; or: THIS IS TERRIFYING
http://courtcan.com/2023/03/28/atheism-for-lent-day-33-belated-turtles/
#God
#faith
#theism
#Christianity
#JohnCaputo
#RichardBoothy
#SlavojŽižek
#ToddMcGowan
#love
#TurtlesAllTheWayDown -
#atheism for #lent day 33 (belated): turtles all the way down; or: THIS IS TERRIFYING
http://courtcan.com/2023/03/28/atheism-for-lent-day-33-belated-turtles/
#God
#faith
#theism
#Christianity
#JohnCaputo
#RichardBoothy
#SlavojŽižek
#ToddMcGowan
#love
#TurtlesAllTheWayDown