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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

brushing history against the grain « Previous | |Next »
July 5, 2007

A quote from Rough Theory:

Theorists seem to be very reluctant to take seriously the question of what it might mean for a social system to produce the conditions for its critique and transformation. Very common “unmasking” moves - where, for example, particular values are debunked by demonstrating the role they play in the reproduction of capitalism - end critique too soon, from the standpoint of the kind of approach I’m trying to outline: the issue becomes one of taking seriously, with Benjamin, that transformative political action involves brushing history against the grain - recognising that something (an ideal, a form of practice, a means of producing material wealth) may in fact have arisen historically precisely as a moment in the reproduction of a form of domination - but also recognising that such things can also represent alienated historical achievements: things that can be torn out of the context in which they originated, and consciously seized and turned to other, more emancipatory purposes.

I love that phrase--brushing history against the grain.Can photographs do that?

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 12:22 AM | | Comments (1)
Comments

Comments

Benjamin at least seemed to think that photographs, physical artefacts, quotations - anything that could be torn from its original context - could be used to brush history against the grain :-) Somewhere on the blog, I have something on Benjamin's notion of the collector: in Benjamin's reading, someone who takes material objects completely out of context, who "uses" objects, but idiosyncratically, with regard for neither their exchange value nor their use value - his way of pointing beyond capitalist dualisms. I've always liked that metaphor for critique.

Thanks for the links :-)