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Powers of the Hoard: Further Notes on Material Agency

  • Jane Bennett (author)
Chapter of: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics and Objects(pp. 237–269)

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Metadata
TitlePowers of the Hoard
SubtitleFurther Notes on Material Agency
ContributorJane Bennett (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0006.1.11
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/animal-vegetable-mineral-ethics-and-objects/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
CopyrightBennett, Jane
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2012-05-07
Long abstractThere exists a rich metaphysical tradition in the West that engages stuff—animal, vegetable, and mineral—as lively intensity, as vital force. Take, for example, Spinoza’s belief that every body (person, fly, stone) comes with a conatus or impetus to seek alliances that enhance its vitality; or Diderot’s materialist depiction of the universe as a spiderweb of vibrating threads; or Thoreau’s account of The Wild within human and nonhuman nature; or Lucretius’s physics of atoms that swerve, which Michel Serres spun into an ontology of fluctuating ado or noise. I wrote a book called Vibrant Matter that position-ed itself within this tradition, which Althusser termed “aleatory materialism.”2 But my book was not just a response to other books. It was also, quite literally, a reply to a call from matter that had congealing into “things.” In particular, some items of trash had collected in the gutter of a street in Baltimore—one large black workglove, one dense mat of oak pollen, one unblemished dead rat, one white plastic bottle cap, one smooth stick of wood—and one sunny day as I walked by, they called me over to them. I stood enchanted by the tableau they formed, and for a few surreal moments thought I caught a glimpse into a parallel world of vibrant, powerful things. Sullen objects revealed themselves to be expressive “actants,” to use Latour’s term, or, to quote one hoarder attempting to justify his collecting, “The things speak out.”
Page rangepp. 237–269
Print length33 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Jane Bennett

(author)