Inanimorata: The Dread of Things

Abstract

Some time ago, my friend and colleague Prof. Charles Harvey wrote a paper concerning inanimate objects and their possible deontologization.¹ In that article, Charlie proposes that inanimate matter is at odds with animate beings and that this animus causes events which leave us puzzled: socks disappear, books move from place to place, cars re-park themselves, and things get lost and lost things return. When something is needed most desperately, it cannot be found. When its use is most sought, it ceases to function. Sometimes it does seem as though things have it in for us, and are willfully disobedient to our demands. Perhaps they have a will, and that will is turned against us simply because we are the blessed animata and they the cursed inanimata.

“Human being has been delivered over to beings which it needs….” (Martin Heidegger). You don’t know the half of it, bud.