facehood

Mademoiselle Jacinthe

The Selenophile

there are two main ways one can hide from death while keeping death unhidden: the sublime and the erotic.

the sublime is the pleasure from contemplating a dangerous or vast entity from a point of safety.

when it is derived from the dangerousness of an entity, e.g. volcanoes and mountains, it corresponds to kant’s dynamical sublime.

when it is derived from the vastness of an entity, e.g. oceans and starry skies, it corresponds to kant’s mathematical sublime.

additionally, the point of safety is created using physical objects, e.g. glass panes and concrete walls.

for example, an ocean storm, which is both dangerous and vast, is terrifying if one is drowning in it.

however, if one is watching it from a safe distance e.g. from a cliff, then it becomes mathematically and dynamically sublime.

the erotic is the pleasure from interacting with a dangerous or vast entity from a point of safety.

when it is derived from the dangerousness of an entity, it corresponds to bataille’s discontinuity i.e. wanting to dissolve one’s bodily boundary.

when it is derived from the vastness of an entity, it corresponds to bataille’s continuity i.e. merging into something boundless.

additionally, the point of safety is created using symbols, e.g. boundaries and taboos.

for example, an orgasm is both dangerous and vast.

the dangerousness comes from the vulnerability resulting from one’s loss of self-control. for example, bataille pointed out that the french call an orgasm as la petite mort i.e. the little death.

the vastness comes both from the orgasmic high and post-orgasmic bliss, as well as from the idealization of the partner as boundless.

therefore, if the resulting vulnerability is not exploited, e.g. through open communication or safe words, then the high, bliss and boundlessness are satisfied, and the erotic is felt.

there is a common entity that contains both the sublime and the erotic: emmanuel levinas’ concept of the face.

when one encounters the face of another person, it demands two things.

i

absolute vulnerability

the first demand a face expresses is “do not kill me”.

this is because the face reveals the mortality of a person, their ability to suffer, and their nakedness i.e. unprotectedness.

an example of this demand is the trope of a cold assassin choosing not to kill someone after they see their face.

ii

absolute command

the second demand a face expresses is “you are responsible for my mortality, and should be guilty for surviving or focusing only on your survival”.

the former means that, the person who encountered the face is responsible for their death or suffering even if someone else inflicts it.

for example, in subway stations or streets, if an accident happens to someone, or a beggar walks around, and if one was avoiding looking at their faces, it implies they were avoiding the absolute command of their faces.

overall, the second demand follows from the first demand, with the consequences respectively being,

the face imposing an infinite amount of moral demands,

and the face not being indebted to any moral demands to the person looking at them.

since this is an asymmetry, levinas stated the encounter will be symmetric, both people will owe moral demands to each other when both encounter the face of the other.

he called this encounter as the face-to-face encounter, and stated that it is the basic unit of ethics.

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it is these demands that create the feeling of observing or being observed by a face.

because of this, a face need not be a human face.

generally, the two demands can be projected by any entity, provided it satisfies being an erotic and sublime entity respectively.

i

erotic

projects absolute vulnerability.

this is because it is the experience of exposure, nakedness, and the dissolution of boundaries.

for example, paraphilias involving nonliving entities, such as symphorophilia, the sexual attraction to man-made accidents such as car crashes.

ii

sublime

projects absolute command.

this is because it is the experience of something so vast, powerful, and infinite that it humbles the ego.

this satisfies the latter.

the former i.e. “you are responsible for my mortality”, is satisfied when the person is aware that they have an effect on or concern for its existence.

for example, simply looking at the night sky or a mountain does not evoke the sublime.

it is the act of contemplating, i.e. looking at the entity while being concerned as to how long it will last, or being motivated to act to preserve it, that evokes the sublime.

overall, this corresponds to being hidden from death while keeping the death of the entity unhidden.

for example, in the modern world, new forms of the sublime exist, such as,

the toxic sublime, which is derived from the vast scale of pollution, e.g. the photography of edward burtynsky.

and the technological sublime, which is derived from the vast scale and power of the largest artifacts, e.g. the large hadron collider.

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overall, the face combines the sublime and the erotic into a singularity.

if a human being, or any other entity, were only one or the other, ethics would break down because,

if the other were only sublime, they would be a tyrant, and hence, one would have to obey them by sacrificing their well-being.

and if the other were only erotic, they would be weak and defenseless, and hence, one would be tempted to master or destroy them.

the human face also satisfies levinas’ concept of the face.

the three main parts of a face are the nose, mouth, and eyes.

i

nose

projects absolute vulnerability.

this is because the nose is the organ of breath, and hence, maintains mortality.

additionally, it is defenseless, because unlike the eyes and mouth, it cannot close itself.

an example of this absolute vulnerability is the trope of a person being kidnapped and gagged, and only their ragged breathing is heard.

ii

mouth

projects absolute command.

this is because the mouth convey symbolic states, e.g. speaking, and emotional states, e.g. smiling.

the symbolic states convey the demand of being responsible for their mortality, because it corresponds to lacan’s statement that all demands, which are needs expressed in language, are demands for love.

the emotional states convey the demand of being guilty of surviving because they convey the physiology of a person.

additionally, while bataille stated that the mouth is involved in eroticism, e.g. through biting, it is the lips that are erotic, while the mouth is sublime, e.g. cannibalistic eroticism.

a mythological example of this is the god krishna opening his mouth to his mother, upon which she sees that the entire universe is contained in it.

iii

eyes

projects both absolute vulnerability and absolute command.

the iris project the former, and the sclera projects the latter.

hence, the ratio between the absolute vulnerability and absolute command of the eyes is proportional to the ratio between the sizes of the iris and sclera.

for example, bishojo and bishonen in anime having the iris overtake the sclera in size, and monsters and ghosts having the sclera overtake the iris in size.

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overall, the degree of the sublime-erotic projected by an entity can be called its facehood.

‘the selenophile’ i.e. the moon lover, is a poem about a speaker who is affected by grief and alcoholism, turning to the moon as a lover, muse, and source of hope, and ultimately realising that their self-annihilation makes the love futile.

the poem contains two faces: that of the speaker and that of the moon.

additionally, it describes the absolute command the moon has over the speaker, and the absolute vulnerability of the speaker itself.

My Queen’s whispered light spills through my bedroom window

And stumbles in a paleness adrift the silken, filmy air —

Yet the nauseous, inescapable scent pervading everywhere

Of bourbon-damp tears, deep-gullied destitution, and dizzy woe

Surrounds me —

An aphrodisiac bewitches me upon Her faraway, hallowed eye

In the muffle of grey night, dim glow, and hazy trees,

Her steadfast light through verdurous rain and misty leaves,

Fallen in the liquor-sodden shroud, fog frays my vision as I lie,

Fading into indistinct periphery, my sight a blurring ashen sea,

Whilst my gaze is only fixed upon the lantern hid amid the darkness —

And searching for glimmers somewhere in the grey-washed canvas,

I drown in empty bottles and unheard prayers of poesy.

i

erotic

the speaker projects their needs of intimacy onto the moon by describing it in tactile and sexual terms, e.g. “whispered”, “silken, filmy air”, “aphrodisiac”.

here, the discontinuity is them being trapped in a wretched, isolated existence.

for example, “bourbon-damp tears” and “deep-gullied destitution.”

to escape this pain, they long to dissolve their ego and merge with the moon.

moreover, the speaker’s desire is explicitly linked to self-annihilation, i.e. the little death.

for example, the light of the moon acts as an “aphrodisiac,” but it operates alongside a “liquor-sodden shroud”, a shroud being a burial cloth.

ii

sublime

usually, the physical point of safety for the sublime works by the person being safe inside e.g. their home, while the danger lies outside e.g. a storm.

but here, the danger is inside the room and their own body e.g. the bourbon, the squalor, the liquor-sodden shroud.

and the physical point of safety is outside, i.e. the faraway moon.

it is this inversion that makes the moon erotic, because since the point of safety is outside, the speaker has to reach it.

this in turn combines with the sublimeness of the moon.

i

the moon is the opposite of the sun, in that the former conceals reality, while the latter exposes it.

here, daylight would expose the reality of the speaker’s room, e.g. the squalor and the empty bottles.

however, the moonlight softens this reality due to its dim glow.

moreover, it turns their room into a dreamy, “silken, filmy” atmosphere.

ii

historically, the moon has been linked to madness and trances.

for example, the words ‘lunacy’ and ‘lunatic’ come from the latin word for the moon, ‘luna’.

here, the moon acts as an “aphrodisiac” that “bewitches” the speaker.

it mimics the intoxicating effect of alcohol by drawing the speaker into a twilight state between dreaming and passing out.

as a result, the moon makes them drive deeper into their obsession.

iii

the vastness of sublime entities usually make it indifferent or cold to those lesser than it.

as a result, sublime entities are usually chosen as objects of unrequited love.

here, the moon is always present and sacred, yet entirely “faraway” and emotionally indifferent.

additionally, the speaker suffers from profound human isolation, perhaps due to heartbreak.

so, unlike a real person, the moon will never reject, judge, or argue with the speaker.

but unlike a real person, she can never lower herself from the sky to actually save them, e.g. “unheard prayers.”

because of this, the moon becomes a melancholic object, with the use of “poesy” being a reference to romantic poets, who also treated the moon as a melancholic object.