Australia books blog

From Locke to Locklear: the birth of the individual

   What happens when you meld spite and capital? Helen Razer explains in
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   as a means to describe a particular kind of Stupid. With Heather/Amanda
   as our guide we will chart the birth, youth and disappointing midlife
   of the idea of the ‘individual’ from its Enlightenment origins to the
   present day.

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   was fucking awful. But not as awful as the prelude to the sort of
   orchestral nausea one feels when thinking rigorously about the idea of
   the ‘individual’.

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   The Individual. Yes. It’s a difficult idea. But I don’t want you to get
   too panicky because we’re not coming over all What Even Is Me here. We
   are still going to exist by the end of this chapter and so will Amanda,
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   Alexis and Julie.

   But what we might do is strip the idea of the individual down a bit.
   It’s off with the power suits, and back to the Enlightenment, to a time
   where ‘self’ as we know it was being slowly born.
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   where ‘self’ as we know it was being slowly born.

   To stare at the idea of the individual and examine what seems so
   natural for evidence of life might seem a kind of madness.