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Paradisical Pessimism: On the Crucifixion Darkness and the Cosmic Materiality of Sorrow

Paradisical Pessimism: On the Crucifixion Darkness and the Cosmic Materiality of Sorrow Paradisical Pessimism On the Crucifi xion Darkness and the Cosmic Materiality of Sorrow nicola masciandaro Sunt lacrimae rerum —Virgil, Aeneid 1.462 All men have matter of sorrow; but most specially he feels matter of sorrow that knows and feels that he is. —The Cloud of Unknowing “The contours of cosmic pessimism,” writes Eugene Thacker, “are a drastic scaling- up or scaling- down of the human point of view . . . shadowed by an impasse, a primordial insignifi cance, the impossibility of ever adequately accounting for one’s relation- ship to thought.” By intellectually elevating the worst to universal magnitudes, cosmic pessimism forces the question of the relation between what ultimately is and how one feels about things. More specifi cally, it necessarily entertains— with utmost due skepticism— the problem of whether human sorrow, our volitional and affective sensor for what is wrong, has any universal validity. This essay fi nds in cosmic pessimism the conceptual starting point for a mystical reinterpretation of the most radical represen- tation of cosmic sorrow in the Christian tradition: the crucifi xion qui parle 23:1 articles 184 � darkness. As an ultimate fi gural conjunction of the pessimal and the optimal, this event provides http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences University of Nebraska Press

Paradisical Pessimism: On the Crucifixion Darkness and the Cosmic Materiality of Sorrow

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University of Nebraska Press
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1938-8020

Abstract

Paradisical Pessimism On the Crucifi xion Darkness and the Cosmic Materiality of Sorrow nicola masciandaro Sunt lacrimae rerum —Virgil, Aeneid 1.462 All men have matter of sorrow; but most specially he feels matter of sorrow that knows and feels that he is. —The Cloud of Unknowing “The contours of cosmic pessimism,” writes Eugene Thacker, “are a drastic scaling- up or scaling- down of the human point of view . . . shadowed by an impasse, a primordial insignifi cance, the impossibility of ever adequately accounting for one’s relation- ship to thought.” By intellectually elevating the worst to universal magnitudes, cosmic pessimism forces the question of the relation between what ultimately is and how one feels about things. More specifi cally, it necessarily entertains— with utmost due skepticism— the problem of whether human sorrow, our volitional and affective sensor for what is wrong, has any universal validity. This essay fi nds in cosmic pessimism the conceptual starting point for a mystical reinterpretation of the most radical represen- tation of cosmic sorrow in the Christian tradition: the crucifi xion qui parle 23:1 articles 184 � darkness. As an ultimate fi gural conjunction of the pessimal and the optimal, this event provides

Journal

Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences – University of Nebraska Press

Published: Oct 9, 2014

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