To Double Business Bound : Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology

Rating:
Summary: Insightful essays
Review: In his introduction to this fine collection of essays, addresses, and lectures, Rene Girard asserts that the social sciences are "impotent" and that they need "the great literary masterpieces to evolve." He argues the point with great clarity and persuasiveness in pieces that deal with, among other topics, the rivalry among great intellectual figures such as Nietzsche and Wagner, the ability of Dostoevsky's novels to surpass Freud in understanding mimetic desire, and the ability of the mimetic hypothesis to elucidate myth. Girard's analysis of a late work by Albert Camus, La chute, involves a revealing look at its more famous predecessor, The Stranger. This volume concludes with a wide-ranging interview that enables Girard to define his relationship to such thinkers as Jacques Derrida and Kenneth Burke. A powerful and insightful book.

Rating:
Summary: Mimetic Shmimetic
Review: OK, I admit that I think that everything Girard has ever written is lights out brilliant, and my unceasing mantra is "all desire is mimetic" and I'm always on the lookout for my double (I'm not in the business of being bound you see). All desire is mimetic. All desire is mimetic.

This is a superior book for someone who might care to dabble, a series of essays, all of them proverbial juggernauts, all desire is mimetic. Freud and his Oedipus complex get the bunk debunked out of them, and then there's poor Nietzsche. The poor guy went insane and killed himself, but that isn't enough for Girard. Turns out Nietzsche couldn't even figure out if he was Dionysius or the Crucified. And you think you have problems! All desire is mimetic!

The Levi-Strauss essays are VITAL, and then you even get an interview at the end. All in a couple hundred pages! All desire is mimetic! May all your triangles have happy mediators, don't forget intra-literary criticism, and most of all, don't get your subjects and objects mixed up.

Girard is the only literary critic you'll ever need, the only anthropologist you'll ever need, and also the only Frenchman you'll ever need. He is not my Richard Wagner, I prefer portly walrus-types with spectacles and tweed suits who play super-chess. All desire is mimetic. You should probably read everything by Dostoevsky and Cervantes and Proust before tackling these essays. And Camus, don't foget Camus, never forget Camus.