Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“In this perspective, the originary sign, the first utterance of human language, is the means whereby the nascent human community becomes able to share the common recognition of sacred firstness, the deferring force that creates the primary human institution of the scene . Without its sacred basis of cohesion, the scenic configuration characteristic of all cultural activity, whether language or art or ceremony, is inconceivable. The suspension of all other activity to focus on a central scene, whether passively, as at the start of the originary event, or actively, as in the concluding act of dividing the body of the central animal, depends for its cohesion on the transcendental control of the sacred. That today our ceremonies have often come to lack explicit transcendental guarantees makes the phenomenon of sacred firstness no less responsible for their inception, nor for their continued existence. Enjoy this column? Yes No Δ”

— Eric Gans, Firstness and the Sacred · Saturday, December 25th, 2021 · Chronicles of Love & Resentment