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A review by ben_smitty
Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure by René Girard
5.0
This is my first introduction to Girard, and I'm already a huge fan. I have to admit, some of the things he said went over my head, but the gist of his message has already changed the way I think about desire and envy.
Girard is famously known for coining "mimetic theory," which claims that all desire is triangular; it includes the subject, the object, and the mediator. For example, if you were the subject and your object of desire is to be rich, you would think that it's just a straight line from you to your desire (subject-object). Girard disagrees by saying that there is always a mediator, in this instance, a rich person, whom you want to imitate (subject-mediator-object). But the object of your desire is really just an illusion. You don't really want to be rich. You just want to become the person who is rich.
Now if the mediator is someone who is wayyy out of your league, you will be satisfied in following his footsteps towards becoming like him (ahem, Christ). But if your mediator is on the same level as you are, you will see him as a hindrance to your object of desire. Thus, envy is formed.
Since the rise of individualism, Romantics have been tricked into believing that desire comes from "inside of themselves," but this is faulty according to Girard because it hides the social nature of desire. He brings up Cervantes, Stendhal, Proust, and Dostoevsky as exemplars of "novelistic geniuses" because they understand the triangular nature of desire.
The book goes through asceticism, sadism and masochism, double triangular desire (where both sides imitate one another), and so much more! This is definitely a dense read, but I highly recommend it!
Girard is famously known for coining "mimetic theory," which claims that all desire is triangular; it includes the subject, the object, and the mediator. For example, if you were the subject and your object of desire is to be rich, you would think that it's just a straight line from you to your desire (subject-object). Girard disagrees by saying that there is always a mediator, in this instance, a rich person, whom you want to imitate (subject-mediator-object). But the object of your desire is really just an illusion. You don't really want to be rich. You just want to become the person who is rich.
Now if the mediator is someone who is wayyy out of your league, you will be satisfied in following his footsteps towards becoming like him (ahem, Christ). But if your mediator is on the same level as you are, you will see him as a hindrance to your object of desire. Thus, envy is formed.
Since the rise of individualism, Romantics have been tricked into believing that desire comes from "inside of themselves," but this is faulty according to Girard because it hides the social nature of desire. He brings up Cervantes, Stendhal, Proust, and Dostoevsky as exemplars of "novelistic geniuses" because they understand the triangular nature of desire.
The book goes through asceticism, sadism and masochism, double triangular desire (where both sides imitate one another), and so much more! This is definitely a dense read, but I highly recommend it!