March 24, 2007
-
The Aesthetic Object:
Savage Scrutiny“They sang desiring an object that was near,
In face of which desire no longer moved,
Nor made of itself that which it could not find…
Three times the concentred self takes hold, three times
The thrice concentred self, having possessedThe object, grips it in savage scrutiny,
Once to make captive, once to subjugate
Or yield to subjugation, once to proclaim
The meaning of the capture, this hard prize,
Fully made, fully apparent, fully found.”– “Credences of Summer,” VII,
by Wallace Stevens, from
Transport to Summer (1947)Clifford Geertz on Levi-Strauss, from The Cerebral Savage:
“Savage logic works like a kaleidoscope whose chips can fall into a variety of patterns…. “
Related material:
The kaleidoscope puzzle and “Claude Levi-Strauss and the Aesthetic Object,” a videotaped interview with Dr. Boris Wiseman.
