AtD 678 ff

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Mark wrote:
 
> How are these doubles related to Iceland Spar?
 
Here come my 22 cent: Iceland spar is kinda Realmetonymy of the idea of bilocation.
Doubles work as bilocations on the level of persons. So Bilocation appears to be the
missing link. Interestingly enough, Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems considers
the emergence of doubles or Doppelgänger in modern literature since the Romantik
(think of E.T.A. Hoffmann!) as an indicator that modern society has switched from first
order observations to second order observations. So art, like other outdifferenciated
functional systems, is according to Luhmann not about observing the world as such but
about observing observers. Cf. the dissolution of 'thinglyness' (Gegenständlichkeit) in
avangardist painting à la cubism or fauvism. 
   
> Streetlights lead right to the V-2 in P's images, yes?
 
I would say both are part of the larger process called the "dialectics of enlightenment"
(Horkheimer/Adorno). Electrification and the war against 'gravity' work hand in hand. 
The completely enlighted ("aufgeklärt", not "erleuchtet") world shines in the light of 
triumphant fatality. They fly toward the aftermath. 
 
Kai
 
 
 
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