Re: Stoning -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 19:54:50 02/17/08 Sun
Author: Jfish
Subject: Re: Stoning
In reply to: Hwaet! 's message, "Re: Stoning" on 17:24:27 02/16/08 Sat

Ok. In the Girardian system, the blame is arbitrary. So any onlooker would see the conflict between the victim and the crowd and not really consider a Manichean distinction between the two. In Violence and the Sacred, Girard writes:

"If pushed toward one camp, he seeks refuge in the other. Men always find it distasteful to admit that the 'reasons' on both sides of a dispute are equally valid--which is to say that violence operates without reason" (46).

He says on the next page that you cannot distinguish, even in subtlety, between good and evil characters of a tragedy.

Now, if one were to leave the spectators seat and enter into the conflict, one has to pick a perspective. Since the argument is always arbitrary, when you pick a perspective, you'll be convinced in their manner of assigning guilt and innocence. You can no longer see your wall-to-wall sameness. Thus, your side (or perspective) is always the innocent side and the other is the guilty party.
Make sense?

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