Abstract
This chapter focuses on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a perfect example of Stiegler’s nightmare: a young man’s indoctrination into the capitalist-neoliberal system disguised as a necessary sacrifice for the good of Western civilisation. The desire to preserve the supremacy of the West is subtended by the suspension of democracy and the polis in favour of an elite group of heroes. Free will is postponed due to the state of emergency, while the young man has to accept that he is nothing to the father, a totally expendable object to be sacrificed to His desire.
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Notes
- 1.
In Greek mythology satyrs are half human half goat, usually having goat’s legs and hooves.
- 2.
For a psychoanalytic reading of the book with emphasis the classic hero’s journey, see Voela (2016).
- 3.
Although Stiegler relies heavily on Simondon for this very important concept, he critiques Simondon for failing to appreciate the role of technics in individuation.
- 4.
- 5.
For a lucid cinematic example of Stiegler’s use of Heidegger and Husserl and the role of memory, see Swiboda (2012).
- 6.
For a critique of Foucault, see Stiegler (2010).
- 7.
Stiegler has borrowed this concept from Deleuze (see, for instance, 2011: 80).
- 8.
See Hansen for a discussion of Stiegler’s attitude to different aspects of technology (2012).
- 9.
‘To fall’ has the flavour of lapsing or deterioration and connotes decay, decline, or wasting away. Falling is to be understood in relation to the Dasein ’s pursuit of authenticity. Heidegger insists that ‘fallen’ is not a term of moral disapproval and has nothing to do with the Christian fall from grace. The fall is an angst-driven ‘flight of Dasein from itself as authentic ability to-be-itself’ (Inwood 1999: 66–8).
- 10.
- 11.
In Deleuze, the plane of consistence or immanence is the plane of becoming, between (chaotic) events and structured thinking, on which some kind of unity can be thought (Parr 2011: 204–6).
- 12.
Stiegler ties the question of desire to the question of knowledge, emphasising that the noetic makes the difference between merely obeying-adapting and its opposite, adopting (see Ross 2011: 148).
- 13.
Stiegler uses the notion of desire to moderate the extreme historicity of the Marxist economic accounts of capitalist economy (Ross 2011: 147). He also tries to ‘correct’ the lack of historical specificity in Freud (e.g. the account of trauma) by bringing in Husserl’s notion of secondary and tertiary retentions. The combination of the two strands results in the concept of adoption (Ross 2011: 148).
- 14.
Desire is understood both as a property of the individual and as identification with community, affective relationships, and instrumental practices coming under the horizon of technics (Ieven 2012: 78).
- 15.
The Lost Spirit of Capitalism (2014b) is Stiegler’s most extensive discussion-critique of Marcuse’s work.
- 16.
In Winnicott, Stiegler also finds the notion of the false self, which chimes with the Heideggerian concept of the inauthentic self (2013a).
- 17.
See Stiegler (1996) for a discussion of the object and his use of the subject-object in relation to flux and ideal content (1996: 75). Stiegler speaks of an irreducible inadequation. This is not a relation of inadequation between subject and object but of inner perception to external facts that make up experience and intended ideality. Husserl shows that this does not concern an opposition of inner and outer realities but temporality. Stiegler relates this difference to radical lack or default within the flux, a temporality which works together with the prostheticity of memory.
- 18.
Sorge (care), besorgen (concern), and fürsorge (solicitude) are interrelated concepts. Sorge or care is the anxiety or worry arising out of apprehensions concerning the future and refers to both external cause and inner state. Besorgen means: (a) to get or acquire; (b) to attend to, take care of something; (c) to be concerned about something. Fürsorge is ‘actively caring for someone who needs help’. Sorge pertains to Dasein , Besorgen to its activities in the world, and Fürsorge to its being with others. All three modes have ‘concern’ as their kind of being. Care and concern are related to authenticity in the following manner: concern is guided not by knowledge or explicit rules, but by its informal know-how. Authenticity favours helping others to stand on their own two feet over reducing them to dependency. Moreover, care, rather than the persistence and self-awareness of an I or ego, or the continuity and coherence of experiences, makes Dasein a unified, autonomous self (Inwood 1999: 35–37). Stiegler does not elaborate how faithfully we should adhere to Heidegger ’s definitions of sorge and rather uses care as a relational priority with emphasis on becoming.
- 19.
Stiegler (1995) discusses the exceptional status of individuals like Socrates in the Platonic dialogues, discussing the ‘return’ of Socrates as revenant and immortal to the collective memory of Athenian polis.
- 20.
‘Vertical’ is juxtaposed to the ‘horizontal’ of the more egalitarian relations one establishes with siblings.
- 21.
Stiegler proposes that we should be focusing on how different terms compose in order to ‘transcend’ polarity and opposition. Here, the terms do not compose, they just lose their signifying difference.
- 22.
Stiegler draws attention to the habit of scapegoated children of the neoliberal age (2013a: 119–123); children turned remainder of the capitalist rationality.
- 23.
Stein quotes Dykema: ‘Patriarchal monotheism is consistent with and continuous with both coercive fundamentalism and liberal religion of loving-kindness and compassion most of us would prefer’ (2010: 48).
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Voela, A. (2017). The Abyss of the Other’s Desire or Greek Myth for (Neoliberal) Children. In: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Myth in Contemporary Culture. Studies in the Psychosocial. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48347-8_5
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