The Enchantment of Modern Life Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics

219 Pages·2001·16.438 MB·English

by  Jane Bennett

THE ENCHANTMENT OF
MODERN LIFE
ATTACHMENTS, CROSSINGS,
AND ETHICS
Jane Bennett
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PR!:-lCETON A�D OXFORD
Copyright it 2001 by Princeton Unh'crsi�' Pres
Put>lisllc:J by Princ�'l<>n Cni.-ersin· Pres�, 41 \Vi!Jian1 Stn:ct,
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Library gf C1Jn,CfPTS1< tnloghi.q-h1PublDni&tln tign
&nnttt, Jane 1957-
The enchJntment of n1odern lifr : Jllachments. �-rossings.
and ethics/ /Jne Benneu.
p.cm.
lndudcs bit>JiogrJphkJ.1 n.-ti:rences and index.
ISBN 0-691-08812-8 (alk. paper I
ISBN 0-691-08813-6 (pbk.: alk. f'lrierl
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Acknowledgments vii
I. The Wonder ofM inor Experiences
Queariners 3
A Briej.PIJen11mc11ology of E11c1Jantmcnt 5
Rruse and Rcrycle 6
Encha11tmt11t without Desi._rpt 9
Jo:iful Attac!Jmrnt 12
H11n• the Story Goes 13
2. Cross-Species Encounters 17
Crorsi11gs and E11d1antmtnt 17
A11doar'r Tranrccndtiitt 18
Rotpttrr's Way Out 19
Alex G1angn t/Jo Snbjcct 21
BtJd}' 1ritbo11t Oi;ga1 24
j{v Wager 28
l'.iarvcls a11d Mo11stcn 30
3. The Marvelous Worlds of Paracelsus, Kant, and Deleuze 33
T11e Sntyrion Root 34
E11cha11rment and Repetition 36
Kantia11 Wo11d,rs 40
Becoming-Animal, Bccoming-Ibinker 49
4. Disenchantment Tales 56
"!f's a Calculable R'Orld,,, by Max Weber 57
«Disenchantlnent withont Rcgnt,,, !J.y Hans Bh1111nibt1lf 65
«An Ethics 11/ Finit11dt" by Simon Critthle.v 75
TOward an Encha1ited Materiali.mi 80
5. Complexity and Enchantment 91
7b11rea11's Nature 92
Latour's Network 95
T11e Return oftlu Swerve 99
Lawful Nature as a Regulati-re Ideal 102
The Bifureation Point as a Swerve 103
Social Clmplexity a11d Kafoaesq11e E11thanN11e11t 104
\'i CONTENTS
6. Con1n1odit Fetishisn1 and Conunodity Enchantn1ent Ill
S11'i11._11i11_1 KhaL·i.< Ill
T7Jc D1111._1c1-s 11f Co11111111d ii)• C11lt11rc 114
T71c C1111111111dir:i· ''" Fcrifb 116
.1I11r.1: a11d thr Sw<'rl'< 119
T71t Cr-itic11/ Pot,·11tial of /On111ncrcial) Art 121
A,{1Cct 1111tl T71011.1_1ht 124
126
R,·p.·titi1111
127
Y.·a S11yi11g
128
T71<" Li111ir s c_fR t:fi1sal
7. Ethical Energetics 131
131
TlH Acsrh,·ric Disp11siri1111
Jfm'lfl Sc11ti,,1cnt.< 133
At'rtbt"tic Pin.\' anti thc B111·b11ri$111 tifR caso11 137
Sd1i!I.·r tti F1111ea11lt: ,,Jicr11pr11cticc.< �fE thics 144
Tl1c D1111n._ c1-s �(A ,·,q!J,·rici!!ll tio n 148
Lt11._n11al'" 1111d rlh: Code Di111<71si1111 "/Ethics 152
Tlic Erbirs 11[E 11d1nJJt•·d Jlatf1'i11/i1111• 156
8. Attachn1ents and Refrains 159
E11c/J11111111t'11t as 11 ll;·nk 011t{)fO._ff..1' 160
166
Tl1<" So11nrti1t.< Co.r111os
Attach11101t as a Gijt 168
Pln11ts, A11u, Roboptn, a11d Orbtr E11cb1111ti11g Thill._fls 169
Notes 175
Index 209
THIS BOOK owes its existence to a lively group of colleagues \vho believe
that theory matters. Over the past five years or so, they have responded to
developing versions of my story \Vith provocative criticisms, thoughtful
elaborations, and encouraging interest. I am very fortunate to be engaged
with them. My thanks to Anne Brown, John Buell, Eloise Buker, Penny
Cardish, Ned c�rthoys, Joshua Dienstag, Thomas Dumm, Blake
Ethridge (who also prepared the index), Chris Falzon, Kathy Ferguson,
Kennan Ferguson, Richard Flathman, Michael Gibbons, Katherine Gib­
son, Judith Grant, Bonnie Honig, Barry Hindess, Steven Johnston, Ann
Kaplan, Thom Kuehls, Alessandra Lippucci, Tim Luke, Mary Marchand,
Lori Marso, Sid Maskit, Sara 11onoson, Pat Moynagh, David 0\ven, Dav­
ide Panagia, Paul Patton, George Shulman, Andre\V Seligsohn, Jon Simon,
David Snyder,David Tait, Michelle Tokarczyk, Mark\Varren, Fred White,
Nathan Widder, and Harlan Wilson.
My special gratitude to Kathryn Trevenen, \vho mer \Vith me at t!"te
Daily Grind, enabled me to clarify my voice, and introduced n1e to Hork­
heimer and Adorne's work, and whose sensitive and insightful commen­
tary has contributed so much to the book. I am grateful to 1'.1clissa Orlie
for our ani1nated conversations, her careful reader's report, and her
thoughtful \variness of certain elements of my project. John Docker read
much of the manuscript, channcd and inspired me \vith his \\'it and in­
sight, and pushed me to say things straight out. Ann Curthoys helped me
to think about the disenchantment tale as a historical event, and I thank
her for all our serious and playful discussions. I am also grateful to Donald
Bennett for reading the manuscript and liking it and tOr his and Constance
Bennett's love and support.
Stephen White read the entire manuscript and I hope that this \'ersion
responds to his perspicuous con1ments about the ethics of enchanted n1a­
terialism. I am indebted to his thinking about "'.veak ontology" and am
the beneficiary of his exemplary generosity Wade Sikorski contributed
much to my understanding of mind-body relations and I am lucky to have
his friendship and his thoughtful commentaries on several chapters. The
book also has profited from Bill Chaloupka's encouragement and his in­
sights about contemporary political culture. My sincere thanks, as \veil,
to Brian Massumi for his thinking about affect, tOr his acute reading of
the entire manuscript, and for pressing me to think about the conception
ofpo wer employed in my story.
\'iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Debor:ih Connolly helped n1e to figure out 'vhat enchantment is, and
she pro,·ides a n1odel of the engaged intellectual and caring friend. I am
indebted to l\.lort Schoolman and l\.1ichael Shapiro for their ideas about
aeschecics and policies and about ho\v to do theory in interesting ways.
The book has also benefited from \Vendy Brown's thoughtful skepticism
about con1n1odity enchantn1ent and from Robert V\'elch's thoughts on
\\'onder and talent for practicing both philosophy and deanship. Rom
Coles and Paul Saurette gaye nie their close and smart readings of severaJ
chapters and their prO\'Ocath·e orientations to Kant. I am grateful ro Lisa
Disch fOr her helpful commentary and for reminding me that sometimes
less is more. My heanfelt thanks to l\.i1oira Gatens for her thinking about
corporeality and ethics, tOr her generous and astute reading of the manu­
script, and tOr encouraging me to elaborate the relationship bet\Veen a
moral code and an enchanted sensibility.
I am grateful to Ian 11alcolm of Princeton University Press for being a
most supponive and effective editor. Blac�·ell Publishers Limited granted
permission to reprint materials in ChaptCr 3 from "The Enchanted World
of Modernity," in C11lt11r11! Values, \'Olume 1, number l, April 1997, 1-28,
and Carfax Publishers, Taylor and Francis Limited, allo"'red me to reprint
sections of"De Rerum Narura," Sn·ntegies, volume 13, number 1, 2000:
9-22, in Chapter 4.
Finally, I thank Bill Connolly, n1y partner in everything. for the inspira­
tion of his lV/� I AJ11 Not n Sec11lnrist, for his timely and thoughtful read­
ings of the n1anuscripr, tOr the seminars \Ve taught together on Kant, De­
leuze, Lucretius et al., and for the joys of our daily lite.
THE ENCHANTMENT OF MODERN LIFE

1
The Wonder of Minor Experiences
Queasiness
"Tereza \Vas born of the rumbling of a stomach." 1 That is ho\\' the novelist
Milan Kundera describes the genesis of one of his characters. I take Kun­
dera to be referring to his O\VIl affective state as he sat at his type,vriter
one da}'· Queasiness is something he t<:h, hue it also participated in
thought: the quivering sac in his abdon1en helped to conceive the nervous,
needy persona ofTereza. Indeed, a discomfiting affect is often \''hat initi·
ates a story, a claim, a thesis.
The story I tell is of a contemporary world sprinkled >vith natural and
cultural sites that have the power to "enchant." It is a story born of my
own discomfort in the presence of t\vo images circulating in political and
social theory. The first is the image of modernity as disenchanted, that is
to say, as a place of dearth and alienation (when con1pared to a golden age
of community and cosmological coherency) or a place of reason, freedom,
and control (when-compared to a dark and confused premodemity). For
me the question is not whether disenchantment is a regrettable or a pro­
gressive historical development. It is, rather, \Vhether rhe very character­
ization of the world as disenchanted ignores and then discourages affective
attachment to that \vorld. The question is important because the mood of
enchantment may be valuable for ethical life.
The second source of my queasiness is the image of ethics as a code to
which one is obligated, a set of criteria to \vhich one assents or subscribes.
In this picture, the affective dimensions of ethics are dra,\'n too lightly.
Codes and criteria arc indispensable parts of ethics, and surely they \viii
not \York without a sense of obligation or subscription. But these last
things are still not sufficient to the enactment of ethical aspirations, \Vhich
requires bodily movements in space, mobilizations of heat and energy,
a series of choreographed gestures, a distinctive assemblage of affective
propulsions. Nor can they nurture the spirit of generosity that n1ust suf­
fuse ethical codes if they are to be responsive to the surprises that regularly
punctuate life.2
This book tells a story of contemporary lit(: that accentuates its n10-
ments of enchantment and explores the possibility that the atlC:ctive fOrce
of those moments might be deployed to propel ethical generosity. It claims
CHAPTER l
both that the conn:n1p-0rary \Yorld retains the po\\'Cf to enchant humans
and that hun1a1is can culti\·at<: thcn1selves so as to experience n1orc of that
eftect. Ench.1ntn1ent is son1cthing that '"c encounter, rhat hits us, but it
is .i.lro a con1portn1ent that can be fostered through deliberate strategies.
One of those strategics 1night be to gi\'e greater expression to the sense of
play. another to bone sensory receptivity to the marvelous specificity of
things. Yet another \Yay to enhance the enchantment etl:"<:ct is to resist the
story of the disenchantment of modernity.
For that story has itself contributed to the condition it describes. Its
rhetorical po"·er has real efl: The depiction of nature and culture as :cts.
orders no longer capable of inspiring: deep attachment inflects the self as
a cr<:ature of loss and thus discourages discernment of the marvelous vital­
ity ofbodies human and nonhuman, natural and artifactual. While I agree
that there are plenty of aspects of contemporary life that fit the disen­
chantment story, I also think there is enough evidence of everyday en
chantn1ent to \\'arr.1nt the telling of an alter-tale. Such sites of enchantment
today include, tOr example. the disco\ery of sophisticated modes of con1-
munication ;1n1ong nonhu1nans, the strange agency of physical systems
at tar-fron1-equilibrium states, and the animation of objects by video tech­
nologies-an anin1ation "·hose etfects are not fully captured by the idea
of"con1n1odity tetishisni."
To be enchanted is to be struck and shaken by the extraordinary that
li\'es an1id the farniliar and the eyeryday. Starting from the assumption that
the "'orid has become neither inert nor devoid of surprise but continues to
inspire deep .\nd pO\\·erful attachn1ents, I tell a rale designed to render that
attachment more palpable and audible. If popular psychological wisdom
has it that you haYe to loYe yourselfbetOre you can love another, my story
suggests that you haYe to loYe lite betOre you can care about anything.
The \\�ager is that, to some sn1all but irreducible extent, one must be e11am­
ored \\·ith existence and occasionally even e11chanted in the face of it in
order to bo: capable of do11ating some of one's scarce mortal resources to
the service of others.
In the cultural narrative of disencha11m1ent, the prospects for loving
lik--or saying ilyes" to the \vorld�are not good. What's to love about a11
alienated existence on a dead planet? If, under the sway of this talc, one
does encounter eYents or entities that provoke joyful attachme11t, the
mood is likely to pass \Yithout comment and thus without more substantial
embodin1ent. The disenchantment tale does reserve a divine space for en
chantment; in my alter-talc, eYen secular life houses extraordinary goings­
on. This lit<: pro\'okes moments of joy, and that joy can propel ethics.3 I
experiment in this book ""ith a fable of C\'eryday marvels in order to un
coYer and to assess the ethicaJ potential of the mood ofe nchantment.