The Art of Carrion: An Aesthetic Archaeology of Disgust

Disgust, as a theoretical theme or as an object of reflection, raises a series of special, peculiar problems that do not arise when addressing "seriously"—and with philosophical depth—other more desirable or acceptable topics, such as sex, beauty, morality, human dignity, consensus, dialogue, etc. Ideas and concepts, to steal words from Clément Rosset, sometimes function as disguises or folds of reality with the aim of masking or, where appropriate, grandiloquently elevating the strict idiocy of reality. Nothing is more difficult for human beings, but, above all, for philosophers, than accepting the principle of the cruelty of reality. To dodge reality, Rosset claims, doubles, folds, twisted mirrors, worlds of ideas, concepts, fictions of order are created or invented... Therefore, within that central circle of themes, intimately connected, that go from aesthetics to ethics, with a military and rigorous order that we call a system, there is no place for a phenomenon that is not only psychological or biological, but also aesthetic and philosophical in general, such as that of disgust.