Overview

In The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic, Mario Perniola puts forth the radical argument that we are shifting away from organic sexuality, based on desire and pleasure, and moving towards a more neutral inorganic and artificial sexuality, a sexuality always available but indifferent to beauty, age or form. Perniola takes the reader on a tour of Western philosophy, from Descartes, Kant and Hegel to Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Sartre, to reframe our understanding of personal experience and the aesthetic world around us. In order to realize the sex appeal of the inorganic Perniola argues that we must become ‘things that feel’, we must think ourselves closer to the inorganic, creating an alliance between senses and things. Examples from contemporary culture that, for Perniola, are emblems of the sex appeal of the inorganic, include progressive rock music, fashion, deconstructive architecture and the novels of Georges Perec.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mario Perniola (University of Rome, Italy)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 13.60cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 21.40cm
Weight:   0.400kg
ISBN:  

9781350018150

ISBN 10:   1350018155
Pages:   152
Publication Date:   23 February 2017
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

1. Senses and Things 2. Sex Plateaux 3. God, Animal, Thing 4. Descartes and the Thing that Feels 5. Becoming Extraneous Clothing 6. Exemplary Addictions 7. Kant and the Spouse as Thing 8. Sadism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 9. Philosophical Cybersex 10. Kant and the Feeling of the Thing in itself 11. Masochism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 12. Bodies and Clothes 13. Hegel and the Thing as 'not this' 14. Fetishism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 15. Hardcore Sonority 16. Hegel and the Thing as 'also' 17. Vampirism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 18. Plastic Landscapes 19. Hegel and the Thing 'all of one piece' 20. Desire and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 21. Overflowing Installations 22. Heidegger and the Thing as Reliability 23. Division and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 24. Inclusive Metawritings 25. Wittgenstein and the Feeling of 'this thing' 26. Pleasure and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 27. Perverse Performance Notes Index of Names

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Author Information

Mario Perniola is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Italy. His books in English include Art and Its Shadow (2004) and 20th Century Aesthetics (2012) among many others.

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