SPINE

Friday, November 8, 2013

Dissolving the "I" in an era of narcissism


The above is an image of the Budapest Jewish Memorial, made by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay.

The presence of this memorial was brought to my attention by a friend of mine, Bruce Bromley, and Mr. Bromley had the following to say about this unique rendering of a memorial in empty space:

I think of Simone Weil on evil, in her Gravity and Grace (La Pesanteur et la grace), written in 1943, thick in the grasp of a war that she would not outlast:
Monotony of evil: never anything new, everything about it is *equivalent*. Never anything real, everything about it is imaginary. It is because of this monotony that quantity plays so great a part. [. . .] One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
[But] there is no trace of 'I' in the act of preserving. There is in that of destroying. The 'I' leaves its mark on the world as it destroys. (69-70)

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