NERD YOUR ENTHUSIASM (15)

By: Miranda Mellis
November 18, 2021

One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of (one of) their nerdy obsessions.

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Man Hanging Out (Freud) by David Černý, 1996, installation in Prague, Czech Republic; photo by Matthew Browne

GREAT DOUBT

Caterwaul, O analysand, of psychoanalysis. How we analysands love to scratch our backs on its trees, how delighted we are to roll in the grasses of psychoanalytic thought, to paddle its curious tributaries, to wander sporadically, promiscuously, and in an entirely undisciplined manner the ‘timeless unconscious’ of psychoanalysis itself, with its fairy dust, crumbling statuary and wolves in trees; its studious infinity of dreams, diligent intuitions, and poetries of negation; its comedies of lesser salvation and liberating lack of optimism.

I particularly like the space “the analysis” makes for ambivalence. As the years wear on, I am even enthused (from en theo, ‘possessed by a god’) by ambivalence! I find I can get behind doubt. Though doubt tends to undermine spatial coordinates, so getting behind it can suddenly turn into getting under it, or even in front of it, where it can push you right over (onto the proverbial couch).

Getting waylaid by doubt may be the inevitable aftermath of being ‘possessed by a god’ – possessions are, after all, temporary. Perhaps the only lasting possession is ambivalence.

Can there be a god of ambivalence? There’s Greek Proteus, ever-changing, or Yoruba Ogun, sometimes depicted wearing sunglasses with just the one lens.

And then there’s Hélène Cixous who writes, “I anoint what cannot be fixed.”

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Featured image for this post on HILOBROW home page by Stephen Vacher.

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NERD YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Peggy Nelson | Andrew Sempere on NERDING | Blanca Rego on RAIN | Lucy Sante on PSEUDO-AMERICAN PSEUDONYMS OF FRENCH PULP WRITERS DURING WWII | Heather Cole on AMERICAN GIRL | Nicholas Rombes on OLD GEOLOGY SURVEY BOOKS WITH MAP INSERTS | Susan Roe on TIME | Mark Kingwell on SCALE MODELS | Jessamyn West on THE POST OFFICE | Josh Glenn on ARDUIN | Vanessa Berry on NEWSAGENCY AESTHETICS | Toby Ferris on BRITISH/EALING WW2 FILMS | Annie Nocenti on MOSS | Adam McGovern on JOAN SEMMEL | Gabriela Pedranti on ILLUSTRATED BOOKS | Miranda Mellis on DOUBT | Tom Nealon on PAGE EDGES | Mandy Keifetz on KLINGON CONFIDENTIAL (NOVEL EXCERPT) | Eric Weisbard on SUMMATIONS | Kio Stark on LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION CODES | Charlie Mitchell on REPO MAN | James Parker on SEINFELD | Heather Kapplow on NOTHING | Russell Bennetts on MODE 7 | Vijay Parthasarathy on VIRTUAL TRAVEL | Marc Weidenbaum on NERD PROXIMITY.

MORE ENTHUSIASM at HILOBROW

MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM (1Q2024): ENTER SANDMAN | BORN TOO LATE | MILQUETOAST | GAS BURNER PANIC | CHRISTBAIT RISING | & 20 other Eighties (1984–1993) Metal songs. STOOGE YOUR ENTHUSIASM (4Q2023): MOVE ON FAST | 96 TEARS | SHE CRACKED | WHAT A WAY TO DIE | PSYCHOTIC REACTION | & 20 other Sixties (1964–1973) proto-punk songs. JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!

Categories

Enthusiasms