The death drive fantasy

The It War Death wish and death drive are mistakenly confused. Very badly named in addition because they are neither desire nor impulse but solutions. Shockingly poor solutions, yes, but when you’re on a devastated battlefield, sometimes you liquidate the last opponent standing, which is yourself. A battle, that’s what it is. Battle between unconscious … Read more

Why can’t we confront death face to face?

A question of bumpers? Philomag tackles death that comes in front of us, or that has already hit a loved one, and we can’t overcome the disaster. Generalization hides strong inequalities: some enter a state of mental decomposition and others seem unaffected. Is death an unknown virus? A new vaccine in sight? The Epicurean and … Read more

Only ashes remain…

A closed point It seems to Sven Ortoli that mortuary cremations “lack an end point, a moment when we recognize that the door is closed. This is what happens in a cemetery, or on a pyre on the banks of the Ganges. ‘The sacred goes with the closure’, notes Régis Debray.” Many endings are missing … Read more