Aurakillers

I have absolutely no idea what kind of an impression I make on people. So I guess I sometimes literally hide behind my clothes to make up for my lack of social skills. That is why I own some extravagant (and admittedly expensive) items of clothing. In this respect I sometimes wonder whether I would buy extremely expensive labels if I could afford them. I don’t think I would and the reason is this: I don’t like labels, because I don’t like it when things are all too easily identifiable. Once objects become identifiable as belonging to this or that brand they lose their aura. Clothing and accessories should be able to capture an atmosphere and open up a world. If they have LV or D&G written all over them the only thing they open up is one’s wallet. And what’s a lot worse, they foreclose the possibility of unhinging the ordinary and lifting it to another level. I guess I am expected to add a nice Heidegger quote here. Something from Welt, Endlichkeit, Einsamkeit, I suppose. Please pretend it is here so I don’t have to go through the motions.

I’ll give you another quote instead. “Das sind vor allem ‘Dinglockungen’, maskiert; mit verschiedenen Farben der Lust und ebensolchen Phasen des Absturzes dahinter. Denn jede Lockung enthält den sirenisch gedachten Befehl zur Lust; erst dahinter, als einer verfolgten, erfahrenen, stürzt das verführte Subjekt ins ‘Gegenteil’. In den Schein, der eben nicht hält, was er verspricht, weil er zu schön ist.” (You all know who this quote is from, right? A tip in case you don’t: Gershom Scholem absolutely hated this guy’s guts.)