Byung-Chul Han argues that contemporary society has lost the capacity for eros, because the performance-driven culture of positivity removes the otherness that desire needs. Love requires an encounter with someone who is truly different and resists our control, but modern life favors the same, the consumable and the pornographic. Han draws on Plato, Hegel, Barthes, Lacan and Kierkegaard to describe how a society that prizes transparency and efficiency flattens relationships, leads to depression and erodes imagination. The text is a short philosophical essay rather than a sociological study.
It suits readers who enjoyed his earlier work on burnout and transparency and want a continuation focused on love and desire. It is a concise piece of cultural criticism that rewards a second read.
Deep, inward-looking and open-ended; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2017
- Language
- EN
