Opacity
- Crone
- Jan 6
- 1 min read
So, I've been reading... or trying to read... or reading with the help of ChatGPT... Poetics of Relation by Edward Glissant.
Now I like it because he talks about opacity. He asserts that the Other is always opaque. You do not have the right to "understand", in the sense of "grasping". Instead he uses the French term donner-avec, which is translated as gives-on-and-with... he means something like how a tree "gives" in the wind... it stresses a generosity of perception rather than the seizing and absorption of the other.
He opposes universals, instead stressing the conjectural, latent and open. I just wish I could understand... or give-on-and-with... better.
Failing that, I offer birds. Again.
Lovely birds! Thanks for including a link to the book pdf.