Sex Appeal of the Inorganic: Philosophies of Desire in the Modern World (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers) [Paperback]

Mario Perniola (Author), Massimo Verdicchio (Author)

Book Description

Series: Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers | Publication Date: March 26, 2004

We live in a world where the one-time opposition between things and humans has been transformed, where the center of contemporary sensibility is the encounter between philosophy and sexuality, where sex extends well beyond both the act and the body. We live in a world where to be sexy is to ignore the distinctions between animate and inanimate objects of desire, where the aesthetics of sex are being revolutionized. An organic sexuality, based on sex difference and driven by desire and pleasure, is being replaced by a neutral, inorganic and artificial sexuality, a sexuality always available but indifferent to beauty, age or form, a sexuality freed by thought from nature. The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic takes the reader on a radical, new tour of Western philosophy—from Descartes, Kant and Hegel to Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Sartre—to reframe our understanding of personal experience and the aesthetic, to examine how, if we are to remember how to feel, we must become a thing who feels, we must think ourselves closer to the inorganic world and move further from our bodies.

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About the Author

Mario Perniola is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata. His books in English include Enigmas: The Egyptian Moment in Society and Art and Ritual Thinking: Sexuality, Death, World. He has also written for Art Forum, Zone and Traverses and is editor of the journal of aesthetics and cultural studies, Agalma. Massimo Verdicchio, the translator, is Professor of Italian in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (March 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826462456
• ISBN-13: 978-0826462459
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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