"A partner is not phenomenologically reducible to “the person you are with.” They are the body you unconsciously orient toward in sleep. The footsteps you recognize before the door even opens. The accumulated archive of glances, tensions, private jokes, embraces, disappointments, grief, tendernesses. The smell of a sweet neck. The ongoing shock that another consciousness—Confusing! Contradictory! Inexplicable!—continues unfolding beside you despite days, months, years, decades of proximity."
That's beautiful.
I got hip to phenomenology, and Husserl, through Camus, who references (and argues against) him extensively in his "Myth of Sisyphus." And I found it fascinating enough to buy Husserl's book, "Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology."
I think it's a worthwhile endeavor. I have a note in my home office that reads, "Make it your constant practice to follow along with the way each thing is of itself"--which, truthfully, stems more from my Taoist beliefs, but there is certainly a lot of crossover here.
This piece is wonderfully written! Seeing each person as their own center of perception is a beautiful way of underscoring the mystery that will always remain in the other. Even in knowing a person's behavior and history and beliefs we will never inhabit their consciousness in the same way we experience our own. This really stood out to me because of how often this awareness escapes me, and how overwhelming it can be to share a city with millions of other people and try to even imagine how many individual centers there are experiencing everything all at once. I appreciate that Husserl's "pairing" is offered as counter to the seemingly insular nature of subjectivity.
stunning. thinking about this in concert with carson’s eros the bittersweet
"A partner is not phenomenologically reducible to “the person you are with.” They are the body you unconsciously orient toward in sleep. The footsteps you recognize before the door even opens. The accumulated archive of glances, tensions, private jokes, embraces, disappointments, grief, tendernesses. The smell of a sweet neck. The ongoing shock that another consciousness—Confusing! Contradictory! Inexplicable!—continues unfolding beside you despite days, months, years, decades of proximity."
That's beautiful.
I got hip to phenomenology, and Husserl, through Camus, who references (and argues against) him extensively in his "Myth of Sisyphus." And I found it fascinating enough to buy Husserl's book, "Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology."
I think it's a worthwhile endeavor. I have a note in my home office that reads, "Make it your constant practice to follow along with the way each thing is of itself"--which, truthfully, stems more from my Taoist beliefs, but there is certainly a lot of crossover here.
Interesting!! Very interesting read !!
This piece is wonderfully written! Seeing each person as their own center of perception is a beautiful way of underscoring the mystery that will always remain in the other. Even in knowing a person's behavior and history and beliefs we will never inhabit their consciousness in the same way we experience our own. This really stood out to me because of how often this awareness escapes me, and how overwhelming it can be to share a city with millions of other people and try to even imagine how many individual centers there are experiencing everything all at once. I appreciate that Husserl's "pairing" is offered as counter to the seemingly insular nature of subjectivity.
Oh my, this is phenomenal
Great! That first section perfectly encapsulated phenomenology