I’m getting back on track with regards to layouts. I’ve been sitting on this classic piece for a while and finally finished it: COVID malaise damnnnnn. It is well enough known, but not distributed too widely, except maybe by Enemy Combatants via LBC. Hopefully, this will drive more engagement with this important text.
This heavy-hitting essay is a pessimist interrogation of the approach to the problem of consciousness; the split between spirit and matter. The immanentization of God thru the earthly body of Christ, transcendence, oceanic feeling, dissolving the borders of the self, and many other historical/religious techniques: these are all methods to produce the reunion, or abolish the suffering of consciousness. Zapffe offers his own analysis of and shocking conclusions to the ur-myth and eternal problem of consciousness. 10/10.
From the text:
“The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment. In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.”