#meaningless suffering

[funeral]

Accepting the reality that there is no cure for our existential malaise keeps us from wasting our life in chasing the untenable goal of healing our lack. That is, accepting the lack of a definitive cure allows us to direct our attention to endeavors over which we have some control; it frees us to pursue modalities of living that are both realistically attainable and potentially even rewarding—gratifying despite being imperfect. Unfortunately, because the mundane objects that contain the objet a are by necessity mere pale imitations of the Thing-in-itself, it can take prolonged mourning to reconcile ourselves to the reality that these imitations, these faint echoes of the Thing, are the only portion of the Thing that will ever be available to us. Yet I believe that those of us who have managed to make peace with this reality possess the best chances for fashioning a life that feels both rewarding and dynamic.

Mari Ruti, “When the Cure Is that There Is No Cure: Melancholia, Mourning, Creativity” in Meaningless Suffering: Traumatic Marginalisation and Ethical Responsibility

[lioninsunheart]

“Man, the bravest of animals, and the one most accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness of suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far.”

~ Nietzsche -

Artwork by Mark Henson-”Land of the Free”

[funeral]

Meaningless Suffering: Traumatic Marginalisation and Ethical Responsibility, ed. David M. Goodman and M. Mookie C. Manalili

[funeral]

Real-life objects that give us such an intimation of the missing Thing contain the object a. The objet a—which is yet another product of our fantasy life—can be characterized as a tiny morsel that has become detached from the Thing and that we unconsciously deposit in tangible objects of desire in order to render them desirable. That is, the objet a is not an intrinsic—native—component of our object of desire; instead, it is a piece of the Thing that we ourselves fantasmatically place in the object to make this object sparkle with a special iridescence. In this sense, even though we believe that our object is the cause of our desire, in reality, we have, without realizing it, manipulated the situation in such a way that it is the object a—which we ourselves have installed in the object—that mobilizes our desire. One could say that it is fundamental to the structure of desire to be based on fantasy—a fantasy that ultimately has to do with our wanting to fill the lack within our being by inserting into it an object that contains a strong residue of the missing Thing.

Mari Ruti, "When the Cure Is that There Is No Cure: Melancholia, Mourning, Creativity" in Meaningless Suffering: Traumatic Marginalisation and Ethical Responsibility