Who ?
Tristan Garcia begins to have his little fame. Reason number one: he writes novels and collections of short stories, some of which have done well. It is good policy to say that the first, “The Best Part of Men” (Gallimard), which tells the story of the arrival of AIDS in the homosexual community, and which received the Flore prize in 2008, was a little green, but that the following are interesting (if you want to sound critical and reserved, say that for your taste, they are a little too “thesis”). Those you can cite: “7”, “In the absence of a final ranking”, “Memories of the jungle”.
Reason number two: Garcia writes philosophy, and not the easiest one to begin with. It is linked to a mysterious current, which had its heyday a few years ago: “speculative realism”. The central figure of this current is the philosopher Quentin Meillassoux, whose essay “After Finitude” (Seuil), published in 2006, became legendary, and who has since remained very discreet – the publication of his thesis defended in 1997 (! ) is constantly being postponed.
It’s hard to sum up “speculative realism” in one word, but let’s say that the thinkers associated with it oppose correlationism, that is, the idea that “we only have access to the correlation of thought and being and never to one of these terms taken in isolation”. Or to put it more positively: they claim that reality exists outside of us and our perception. They pissed off a lot of people.
For what ?
Garcia, we can say without sycophancy, is a brilliant mind. His thesis – defended in aesthetics – was almost total, approaching all areas of knowledge. Something of this horizon remained with him. In addition to erudition (we navigate between medieval China and nociception), his books have the advantage of drawing the contours of an almost complete philosophy.
Politically, Garcia is classified on the left, even very on the left, but he is wary of the authoritarian excesses of his own camp. In “Let be and make powerful”, published these days at PUF, he tries to build a metaphysics – a way of dividing up the world – which preserves as many possibilities as possible.
Another character trait: he claims to be irenic, an attitude that aims for reconciliation, or rather mutual understanding. To read Garcia is to get out of the encysted sourness and bitterness.
What to remember?
Garcia defends a “ flat ontology “. In addition to the expression being classy, it sets in motion a stimulating game of thought. Where metaphysicians (à la Hegel or Kant) have traditionally sought to ascend towards the One, towards God, towards Substance, in short towards something very high from which reality would flow, he seeks to descend towards the weakest, towards which is so little that nothing can be conceived of less. Example: if being comes down to matter, then we cannot think of the ghost – which is immaterial. It means that we can think weaker.
Step by step, he descends in this way to the possible. A bit like hearing registers variations in sound frequencies, thought registers variations of being, and therefore of the possible. Arrived at this very low level, he tries to go up by building a metaphysics which preserves this “inclusiveness” (to put it in horrible words). We sum it up like pigs, but it’s better explained in the interview he gave us.
A concept ?
So you are going to tell us: so what ? In “Let it be and be powerful”, Garcia does not offer a miracle recipe. But there remains of this reading – and this is perhaps paradoxical – a discipline. Let us explain: Garcia distinguishes in the great contemporary debates two types of metaphysics. The first, called “of the result”, insist on the stability of the categories, of the division of the world. These are often conservative thoughts, not very woke. The seconds, that of “flow”, insist on the contrary on fluidity, the trans, the line of flight.
Garcia recognizes himself neither in the former (as we suspected), nor in the latter which seem to him condemned to give nothing politically: everything flows, without distinction. He therefore tries to go beyond them by thinking of a resistant metaphysics, which would aim to fluidify what is rigid and stiffen what is too fluid. This metaphysics, he assures him, can be a compass for navigating the most violent contemporary debates (are trans people women? Is the universal racist? etc.).
A quote ?
“What divides the emancipation camp today is an old tension around the meaning of ’emancipation’. On the one hand, emancipation means being recognized, being made visible on the social scene – these are the so-called “recognition” policies, carried out by people who have long been kept on the margins. But on the other hand, emancipation means escaping identification, becoming invisible, entering anonymity, thwarting the devices of power – think of hackers, processions of heads, the Invisible Committee. There are moments in history of positive misunderstandings where these two meanings of emancipation come together. But, then, the gap widens again: to become visible or to become invisible? Become someone or be able to be anyone? The ideal would be to articulate this opposition by saying that emancipation is becoming someone in order to be able to stop being one. It would therefore be necessary to help all the struggles for recognition insofar as they are means, and not ends. »
An anecdote ?
Garcia was raised by four parents, proof that it is possible.
He was their only child at all: we hope that 4 parents for one child is not the ratio necessary to manufacture a genius.
The entire interview?
Tristan Garcia: “We must be careful of the authoritarian becoming of emancipatory discourses”
