Reading the New York Times this morning was a different
experience after having read Latour’s, We Have Never Been Modern. Instead of
enjoying the lack of political campaign discussion and the once again
captivating and relevant stories, such as the political turmoil in the Congo, I
was assaulted with the need to validate Latour’s theory of our lack of
modernity.
As I clicked on my favorite tab, Health, I silently rejoiced
in thinking that Latour was wrong: that we had not merged nature with humanism
(although I don’t see what’s wrong with that). However, as I looked deeper into
the headlines realized that it was a
foolish idea to think that the health page would be devoid of “nature”. Instead
I was bombarded with the Quasi-Object and the many poles (51). One title on the page
“A New Tooth, Made to Order in Under an Hour,” screamed modernity as it implies
that the tooth is made without divine or natural intervention.
However, as I scanned
through the article my stomach sank as I noticed trends that Latour laments
throughout his book. Not only did the author seem to propose a ‘modern’
concept, he also referred to past methods as the ‘dark ages’. Similar to the
discussion of how humans always believe they are modern, the author is hailing
the greater sophistication of our society today and how it no longer needs
nature- despite the fact that the tooth he has the cavity in is from a natural occurrence.
At one point the author receives a scan which tells a machine how to duplicate
the tooth. It reminded me of the discussion of accusation and causation (although
not quite the same context) but the “Copernican counter-revolution amounts to
modifying the place of the object to remove it from things-in-themselves…” In a
way, the construction of the tooth is an attempt to separate our society from
its original state. “How does the object come to what is human?” (82)
In an attempt to recover from over-analyzing a petty story
about an authors cavity, I move back to the main page and begin reading about
the revolution in Congo only to be assaulted with Latour's “Impossible
Modernization.”
“Modernization, although it destroyed the near-totality of
cultures and natures by force and bloodshed, had a clear objective. Modernizing
finally made it possible to distinguish between the laws of external nature and
the conventions of society. The conquerors undertook this partition everywhere,
consigning hybrids either to the domain of objects of to that of society….” (130)
And
it goes on.
The article about Congo describes the reinstating of new laws and
regulations through violence and through it there will be new constraints born
through this revolution. While not explicit with its relationship with nature,
the article magnifies several of Latour’s arguments. The society will define the importance of the relationship
between society, power, and technology as the country recovers or continues to
be in the throes of turmoil.
Thanks, Latour, for messing with my morning paper.
Katie: I love how you write this post with the same techniques as those Latour uses in opening his book. Nice! You do a good job of relating things Latour proposes to our real practices... whether we like them or not. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Latour, for messing with my morning paper" - Yep, exactly. Also, I agree with Katie... creative approach to this week's read by using the same newspaper technique.
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