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Discursive Thoughts on the Quotidien: Indeterminacy, Compressed Time, and N-o-n s-p-a-c-e-s

By G.A. Powell Jr..

Published by The International Journal of the Humanities

Every moment, gesture, and reflection intimates…We…We think…We think we…We think we exist…. But what is the insidious strong force that provides us with intermittent and porous glimpses of our day-to-day existence; and if such a force exists, how is it encountered? Is it quantifiable and material ? Maurice Blanchot, Georges Perc, Michel Certeau, Raymond Queneau, et al., have made their vie a project, an experience (literally translated from the French, experiment); that is, life is a living being, something to be encountered and endured in a panoply of ways; encountered, the quotidien confirms and alienates, flirts with determinacy and indeterminacy—the quantum mechanics of the human experience.
It is not my intent to prescribe a metaphysic/aesthetic for living or offer rhetorical proofs to argue the case for a universal truth. (What case—because the everyday and all that it entails can not be reduced to its contents?) ‘Le quotidien: ce qu’i l ya de plus dificil a decouvrir. By use of discursive expressions (e.g., biography, travel elegies, fragments, gnomes), sometimes ambiguous because the quotidien always echappe us, I will probe into the enigma that is the quotidien. Indeterminacy, compressed time, and non-s-p-a-c-e function as points of departure in my exploration and observation of human gestures (e.g., conflict, resolve, uncertainty, and desire ). Gleaned from such an unorthodox approach is a radical hermeneutic, one that allows for wide-ranging epistemic observations about the human condition.

International Journal of the Humanities, Volume 6, Issue 1, pp.7-12. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 576.165KB).

Dr. G.A. Powell Jr.

Independent Researcher, Writing Across Disciplines, Washington DC, Washington DC, USA