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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
fast-paced
It is difficult for me to relate what he is saying to the practical life I see and feel. The discrepancy between these two robbes me from a useful understand going beyond a theoretical framework. Additional literature might be a cure, but my incentive to seek it out is not motivated enough.
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I feel contemporary German philosophers don't often come my way, so Byung-Chul Han is refreshing and noticeably German, I would say (rhyme). This is a short text- somewhere between an extended essay and a book, but I think BCH is perfectly restrained in achieving what he sets out to.
In a sense, The Agony of Eros functions as an extension of Georges Bataille's Eroticism, read through Hegel and I think secularised? There is a degree to which TAOE feels a completion of Bataille's project updated with love as it is known in the present and this Hegel emphasis (with the Other, atopos more fully realised. Very nice). Han more effectively links eros to politics, through the concept of autoexploitation, which seems to arrive in this text through a negation of Foucault's notion of freedom, though I'm not entirely convinced by his critique of the above. Is the auto-exploiting body so far from Foucault's docile body? hm hm hm
So I'd recommend! Though with caution - certainly it would be good to have read Eroticism, or at least have a good familiarity of Freud's love/death drives as GB synthesised them. I think encountering Hegel enriches this text (also makes one sceptical, plausibly. I do not claim it is an impeccable reading of GWFH). A text for the era. Pair it with Badiou's In Praise of Love.
In a sense, The Agony of Eros functions as an extension of Georges Bataille's Eroticism, read through Hegel and I think secularised? There is a degree to which TAOE feels a completion of Bataille's project updated with love as it is known in the present and this Hegel emphasis (with the Other, atopos more fully realised. Very nice). Han more effectively links eros to politics, through the concept of autoexploitation, which seems to arrive in this text through a negation of Foucault's notion of freedom, though I'm not entirely convinced by his critique of the above. Is the auto-exploiting body so far from Foucault's docile body? hm hm hm
So I'd recommend! Though with caution - certainly it would be good to have read Eroticism, or at least have a good familiarity of Freud's love/death drives as GB synthesised them. I think encountering Hegel enriches this text (also makes one sceptical, plausibly. I do not claim it is an impeccable reading of GWFH). A text for the era. Pair it with Badiou's In Praise of Love.
The strength of the book is the intensity and brevity of its argument.
The weakness of the book is the intensity and brevity of its argument.
I find myself agreeing with most of Han's assessments of modern afflictions - the commodification of love, the smoothing of emotional corners, the grand mediocrity of contemporary life - but for that same reason I do wish he'd spend more time with his own beliefs on the page.
All the same, not one word is a waste of your time.
The weakness of the book is the intensity and brevity of its argument.
I find myself agreeing with most of Han's assessments of modern afflictions - the commodification of love, the smoothing of emotional corners, the grand mediocrity of contemporary life - but for that same reason I do wish he'd spend more time with his own beliefs on the page.
All the same, not one word is a waste of your time.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
The Agony of Eros presents a robust portrait of erotic love. As someone who experiences and pursues love, I did feel that there were valuable messages and ideas to mull over and that really changed my approach to the experience of love. However, the prose was highly typical of academic texts. It was challenging and dense, which I don't necessarily oppose, but I do feel the intended audience was unclear.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
إننا نعيش اليوم داخل مجتمع نرجسي مفرط . حيث تستثمر الغريزة الجنسية بشكل أساسي داخل الفرد . غير أن النرجسية ليست هي نفسها حب الذات . فالذات في هذا الأخير تكون قادرة على رسم حدود سلبية بين نفسها وبين الآخر . أما الذات النرجسية ، فلا تتمكن أبدا من وضع حدود واضحة ، لأنها لا ترى الآخر أساساً . نتيجة لذلك ، تغدو الحدود بين النرجسي والآخر ضبابية . لا يظهر العالم إلا بوصفه مدخلات داخل ذوات النرجسيين ، وهي غير قادرة على الاعتراف بأن هناك ما يسمى بالآخرية -وهذا أقل بكثير من الاعتراف بالآخر كوجود متحقق . الذات النرجسية لا تعترف بمعاني الأشياء سوى تلك التي تكتشفها داخل نفسها بطريقة ما . تتمرغ الأشياء في ظلها حتى تغرق بداخلها ؛ داخل ذاتها .
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بيونغ - شول هان
معاناة إيروس
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بيونغ - شول هان
معاناة إيروس
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Han is the perfect example of how to say nothing while saying absolutely everything. This was a painful read.