Aristotle, it is well known, stated that philosophical thinking originated in wonder or surprise, thaumazein. Although the remarks I have to offer today are far too preliminary and tentative to make any claim at being philosophical, they do originate in a sense of wonderment. In an age increasingly dominated by electronic media, a certain theatricality seems not only to survive, but even to reemerge with renewed force and transformed significance. From military or strategic thinking to the more rarefied realms of post-Hegelian philosophy, theatrical perspectives assume an importance that could be qualified as paradigmatic, if the notion of paradigmaticity were not itself called into question by the theatrical. For it seems as if the notion of theatricality emerges precisely in response to an uncertainty about the conditions under which anything can be exemplified or indicated, alongside something else (para-deiknúnai: to show side by side).
Samuel Weber: Displacing the Body