Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“Desire is generally understood in distinction from need, and in that way its specifically human quality is brought out—desire implicates us in the other, which for mimetic theory means those we imitate or, more broadly, are bound to through a web of models. The originary hypothesis would place desire on the originary scene, with the accelerated rush to the center constituting the imminent mimetic crisis that calls forth the sign. Even if, strictly speaking, we can only speak of desire once the sign has been issued and participants on the scene barred from possessing the object, the overriding of appetite and therefore need precedes the sign and calls it forth. With desire comes resentment, directed toward whomever is taken to be blocking access to the object of desire. We could say that both desire and resentment are first directed toward the center, each toward a different incarnation of the center: desire for exclusive, sole, guaranteed possession of the object and whatever properties have been conferred upon it by the scene and resentment for the center that has mobilized everyone else on the scene to interpose themselves between you and the object. We could say, then, that the constitutive human reality is being oneself mobilized through desire to “reflect” and “measure” the resentment of others, while those others are doing the same for oneself. This reciprocal measuring would provide for a mapping of any scene and this mapping would be carried out in language: ultimately, the declarative sentence provides for such a mapping.”

— Adam Katz, Demand and the Grammar of Desire · Oct 8, 2024 · Bouvard Substack