Damn (pun intended)... Great writing, Jamie. I’d not heard of the book (let alone any of the others you mentioned) but now feel it is a must to get. Thanks for your insight, and lack of insight; passion and confusion.
Have you read “The Body In Pain: The making and unmaking of the world” by Elaine Scarry? Quite the tour de force in many ways but one that is highlighted beautifully is the use of mental and physical suffering to both create transcendence and to destroy life (or the desire to live).
As summarized elsewhere (like http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/309):
“Scarry argues that pain is the most absolute definer of reality. For the person in pain, there is no reality besides pain; if it hurts, it must be real. This characteristic of pain makes it useful politically. In torture, for example, the reality of the one being tortured is reduced to an awareness of pain, while the torturer’s world remains fully present. This is realized most emphatically when torture is described as information-gathering. The torturer insists on questions that for the tortured are no longer of any concern.
War also makes use of pain. In the dispute that leads to war, one country’s beliefs are pitted against another’s. Both sides’ positions are thus called into question; if there is disagreement about the facts, it becomes apparent that the facts are based in opinion, not reality. The injured bodies of war re-connect the victor’s beliefs with the material world. If the injured body is the ultimate in reality, the injured bodies of war can be used to signify the reality of the victor’s position. Simultaneously, the pain of individuals in war is transferred to inanimate objects or large groups. Thus, one speaks of “Division Six” being wounded or weapons being disabled.
This language also uses the absolute reality of the body in pain to secure the truth of a cultural/political position. Scarry discusses the reality-producing quality of pain in Judeo-Christian scriptures, Marx, and humans’ relationships with inanimate objects.”
How many religions and religious causes (in the past and current world) have effectively used pain (real or imagined) as a catalyst to help them realize their goals?
Would love to hear your thoughts on her writing and how it aligns with your thoughts and insight.
