Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
read.lukeburgis.com
Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
1–10 of 73 posts
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#2I don't think that the author has fully outlined the case for cultural anorexia.
If I was going to try and prove the premise: that people are now shedding a wide cultural "diet" for one consisting of a few mass produced, single sourced things.
But I don't see evidence of that. If anything its the reverse.
What I will concede is that locality of the cultural "sources" have gone. You're not going to find your next life changing art exhibit at the local gallery, you'll find it online, and then seek it out in person.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#3Remember, these are just random opinions of some random person..
Education, institutions, politics, technology, sex, work, art, and media. This seems like a very random categorization of "things".. Why is food or religion or violence or consumerism there?
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#4Anorexia means without appetite.
We are demonstrably full of hunger for culture. But the quality and nature of that culture is changing rapidly with modern tech.
I think the author's metaphor is better framed around nutritional value. Modern culture is rich in and dominated by junk. Consuming it builds junk values and junk ideas.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#5The piece overly relies on the metaphor to the point of almost being incomprehensible. From the title and opening example I assumed it had something to do with literal human bodies. But then the definition of a thick desire is vague to the point of uselessness - "enduring, sustainable, and ultimately fulfilling desires", especially because it calls Putin's desires thick - as if megalomania is sustainable and fulfilling? This largely seems like an overly broad fluff piece, rather than rigorous and well thought out writing.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#6The piece overly relies on the metaphor to the point of almost being incomprehensible. From the title and opening example I assumed it had something to do with literal human bodies. But then the definition of a thick desire is vague to the point of uselessness - "enduring, sustainable, and ultimately fulfilling desires", especially because it calls Putin's desires thick - as if megalomania is sustainable and fulfilli…
Agreed. It seems the author is selling training courses, and perhaps this article and its vague style are part of a sales/marketing approach for its target audience.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#7The piece overly relies on the metaphor to the point of almost being incomprehensible. From the title and opening example I assumed it had something to do with literal human bodies. But then the definition of a thick desire is vague to the point of uselessness - "enduring, sustainable, and ultimately fulfilling desires", especially because it calls Putin's desires thick - as if megalomania is sustainable and fulfilli…
Putin’s desire, whatever you may think of it, is glory and a place in the history books, a hallowed, “thick” desire covered in the greatest oldest epics. Just read his recent, infamous essay on “unity”.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#8The piece overly relies on the metaphor to the point of almost being incomprehensible. From the title and opening example I assumed it had something to do with literal human bodies. But then the definition of a thick desire is vague to the point of uselessness - "enduring, sustainable, and ultimately fulfilling desires", especially because it calls Putin's desires thick - as if megalomania is sustainable and fulfilli…
No post body was provided.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#9I remember reading Girard's "Things hidden since the foundation..." and feeling the way it's used now to reason around human desires to be incomplete.
Looking back at my grandfather's living as a simple peasant, he did many things mimetically, yet there were long periods of nothingness where his internal desires sprung forth: one day I remember he just weaved basked because he wanted new baskets. There was no need for them, there was nobody among our neighbors that was doing this, he was free and decided to make some baskets.
That's why I'd relabel desires as internal or external originating instead of thick and thin. True internal desires come out best when there aren't any externally generated desires, and modern life seems to overload our capacity for generating internal originated desires. Internal desires now only seem to show up in times of crisis, and then we've got a much harder time to actually work with them.
Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world
#10this reads to me as a rant of someone who just finished their undergrad degree in sociology and wants to show it.
some specifics aside, the same article might as well been a topic some 10, 30, 60 years ago. re-packaging an old opinion that our society is degenerating for whatever contemporary reasons without actually providing any constructive solutions does not feel very productive to me. ironic that the not very fitting metaphor of anorexia is used here.