Privacy

This page originally contained various photographs of
the author, who has since decided to redact every image
on account of his hypocritical desire to make this site,
“Against Public Life,” acceptable to the public gaze.


But since the author never made the page public, the
decision was purely internal. He said that he didn’t
understand what makes a body a transgression, when
that body exists purely through the sensor of a camera.


Two possibilities: the body fails to live up to the
standards projected under clothing, it is not good.
Or, the body is shockingly arousing, and this is bad
for anyone to look upon; it steals our independence.


The first is embarrassing for the gazed upon, and
the second is embarrassing for the gazer, but only
if we assume that bodies are unchanging in their
capacity to be affected and to produce effects.


In the final analysis, the author decided that
neither barrier for displaying his body was
worth maintaining, but the second and more
important question lay in understanding the



Force of depicting the body, and by this he
meant the headless body, with no expression
aside from its gesture, and from the organism's
more enduring attributes. The weight of limbs,



Contexture of pores and wrinkles, the skeletal
and muscular mass beneath it, what seems like an
orb lit from within, coursing with blood, neurons,
other spongy matters and oddly shaped cellular



Organelles, everything in combination is sublime
truly, if seen in the proper light. Only what makes
a difference is the blessing of the trickster Eros,
But who cares? Nothing is visible, not the parts



Which induce fear, so don’t worry about the
meager surface which is seen, but which is
generally not quite seen, as the fleetingness
of encounters makes everything a memory,



Pictures, meanwhile, are mere dreams, as
silent as something recorded but not read.

...