#happy objects

[tanyaluca]

Ocean Memories...

[the-argonaut]

Let us take seriously the figure of the feminist kill-joy. Does the feminist kill other people's joy by pointing out moments of sexism? Or does she expose the bad feelings that get hidden, displaced, or negated under public signs of joy? The feminist is an affect alien: she might even kill joy because she refuses to share an orientation toward certain things as being good because she does not find the objects that promise happiness to be quite so promising.

Sara Ahmed, Happy Objects

[athousandgateaux]

As I argued in Queer Phenomenology (2006), for a life to count as a good life, it must return the debt of its life by taking on the direction promised as a social good, which means imagining one's futurity in terms of reaching certain points along a life course. The promise of happiness thus directs life in some ways rather than others.

Sara Ahmed, “Happy Objects” from The Affect Theory Reader pg. 41

[athousandgateaux]

However you speak in this situation, you, as the person who speaks up or out as a feminist, will be read as causing the argument, as if you just have a point to pick. Let us take seriously the figure of the feminist kill-joy. Does the feminist kill other people’s joy by pointing out moments of sexism? Or does she expose the bad feelings that get hidden, displaced, or negated under public signs of joy? The feminist is an affect alien: she might even kill joy because she refuses to share an orientation toward certain things as being good because she does not find the objects that promise happiness to be quite so promising.

Sara Ahmed, “Happy Objects” from The Affect Theory Reader pg. 38-39

[athousandgateaux]

Think...of experiences of alienation. I have suggested that happiness is attributed to certain objects that circulate as social goods. When we feel pleasure from such objects, we are aligned; we are facing the right way. We become alienated -- out of line with an affective community -- when we do not experience pleasure from proximity to objects that are already attributed as being good. The gap between the affective value of an object and how we experience an object can involve a range of affects, which are directed by the modes of explanation we offer to fill this gap. If we are disappointed by something that we expected would make us happy, then we generate explanations of why that thing is disappointing. Such explanations can involve an anxious narrative of self-doubt (why am I not made happy by this, what is wrong with me?) or a narrative of rage, where the object that is 'supposed' to make us happy is attributed as the cause of disappointment, which can lead to a rage directed toward those that promised us happiness through the elevation of this or that object as being good. We become strangers, or affect aliens, in such moments.

Sara Ahmed, “Happy Objects” from The Affect Theory Reader pg. 37

[kidsun]

Happy Objects

I remember in class, someone said that being sad may be easier than being happy. This picture of Einstein and his therapist had me thinking of that. Ernest Hemingway once said, “happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know”. Too many things in the world induce sadness and unhappiness and when people become more aware of these things happening constantly, it really is difficult to just shrug it off and be completely ignorant and happy. Although it is easy to just think about ignoring things and being carefree, it’s simply not possible to put off every thing that can cause sadness. Eventually, everyone will have worries. I’ve heard this being called growing up, maturing from the innocence of childhood. People who are more aware have more things to worry about and brood over and happiness is simply a brief and transient escape from reality.

[ladiesupfront]

All I want to do is meet Sara Ahmed and get shy and fluttery around my scholarly crush. But I'd probably just make really bad jokes about affect aliens and happy objects.