Jeffrey L. Kosky
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226451060
- eISBN:
- 9780226451084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451084.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter discusses the work that leads us to dwell in a clearing that includes not just solid ground but also the rivers and tides, winds and melt, against which the apotheosis of electricity ...
More
This chapter discusses the work that leads us to dwell in a clearing that includes not just solid ground but also the rivers and tides, winds and melt, against which the apotheosis of electricity struggles. In “The Apotheosis of Electricity,” the place of the sun is held by a great electric factory that assumes the work of shining a light that clears away clouds and makes a secure harbor to which ships can come home. This image teaches us about the important role that human industry, work, and technological invention play in making and holding open the clearing where things and men might come to rest on solid ground. Not fully rooted in nature himself, man must contend for the ground on which he can “win a foothold” and stand amid a nature that overfills the planet, generating things like the sea, ever fluctuating and turbulent, indifferent to the human who would dwell there.Less
This chapter discusses the work that leads us to dwell in a clearing that includes not just solid ground but also the rivers and tides, winds and melt, against which the apotheosis of electricity struggles. In “The Apotheosis of Electricity,” the place of the sun is held by a great electric factory that assumes the work of shining a light that clears away clouds and makes a secure harbor to which ships can come home. This image teaches us about the important role that human industry, work, and technological invention play in making and holding open the clearing where things and men might come to rest on solid ground. Not fully rooted in nature himself, man must contend for the ground on which he can “win a foothold” and stand amid a nature that overfills the planet, generating things like the sea, ever fluctuating and turbulent, indifferent to the human who would dwell there.
Jeffrey L. Kosky
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226451060
- eISBN:
- 9780226451084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451084.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book concludes by discussing the encounters with artworks that act as emblems of modern disenchantment, two images of a light that clears the clouds and leads us to solid ground. Together, the ...
More
This book concludes by discussing the encounters with artworks that act as emblems of modern disenchantment, two images of a light that clears the clouds and leads us to solid ground. Together, the encounters with these artworks have pointed to another way to organize the picture, another format for lighting and illumination other than the mode that leads to the world picture of modern disenchantment. Other things and other ways of human being get into the picture when things come to light in it differently. The author’s response to these artworks has been motivated by a sense, shared by many today, that the smile on the smiling sun has become less welcoming than it seems and more sinister in its saccharine cheer. We have grown disenchanted with the disenchanted world laid bare by the light of demystification and disenchantment. We suspect that something has gone missing from the world mastered by the apotheosis of electricity.Less
This book concludes by discussing the encounters with artworks that act as emblems of modern disenchantment, two images of a light that clears the clouds and leads us to solid ground. Together, the encounters with these artworks have pointed to another way to organize the picture, another format for lighting and illumination other than the mode that leads to the world picture of modern disenchantment. Other things and other ways of human being get into the picture when things come to light in it differently. The author’s response to these artworks has been motivated by a sense, shared by many today, that the smile on the smiling sun has become less welcoming than it seems and more sinister in its saccharine cheer. We have grown disenchanted with the disenchanted world laid bare by the light of demystification and disenchantment. We suspect that something has gone missing from the world mastered by the apotheosis of electricity.
