A review by seasized
The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication Today by Byung-Chul Han

4.0

with these being my first ever fully read philosophical books, i really appreciate that his writing instills a state of awe in me. 

some quotes:

Violence of the Same is invisible because of its positivity. The proliferation of the Same presents itself as growth. At a certain point, however, production is no longer productive but destructive, information is no longer informative but deformative, communication is no longer communicative but merely cumulative. 

The expulsion of the Other produces an adipose emptiness of fullness. What is obscene is the hypervisibility, hypercommunication, hyperproduction and hyper consumption that lead to a rushing standstill of the Same.

The object is primarily an Against, something that turns against me, throws itself at me, opposes me, contradicts me, goes against me and offers resistance. […] The digital order is the oppos of the terrestrial order, the order of the Earth. […] As a commodity it does not reproach me, does not accuse me, does not oppose me. Instead it seeks to flatter and please me, to elicit a ‘like’ from me.

Voice and gaze are the medium in which Being manifests itself as that which is other than Being, yet attunes and determines it.

Listening:

Listening has a political dimension. It is an act, an active participantion in the existence of Others, in their suffering too. Today, everyone is somehow on their own with themselves, with their suffering, with their fears. [..] No connection is established between my suffering and your suffering. Thus the sociality of suffering is overlooked. 

One felt ill at ease only as long as one had not expressed oneself fully.

Listening is a bestowal, a giving, a gift. It does not passively follow the speech of the Other. In a sense, listening precedes speaking; it is only listening that causes the Other to speak.