Lack of Difference -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 07:16:16 01/28/08 Mon
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Lack of Difference

On page 22, Girard says that persecutors are obsessed, not with difference, but with "its unutterable contrary, the lack of difference." I wondered why lack of difference was so unutterable, and why cultures, according to Girard, go to such lengths to maintain them. It seems that lack of such difference reveals us as essentially imitative creatures. It reveals that we are truly not original, that our ideas had to come from somewhere else. Realizing this lack of differentiation seems equivalent to Adam realizing that he was naked in Genesis after eating the fruit. He is exposed, and therefore Adam picks a scapegoat - his wife (and indirectly, God) in order to set up some sort of boundary, some difference, which will allow him to regain his identity.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Lack of Difference, another question -- Erin Risch, 09:12:37 01/28/08 Mon
- Re: Lack of Difference, another question -- Kiernan, 14:07:26 01/28/08 Mon