A ZINE ON QUENTIN MEILLASSOUX
& SPECULATIVE MATERIALISM
First Issue (DIV001): Available November 2021 - Accepting Orders now
Rolling Call for the Spring/Summer: Proposals due March 15 - Finals due May 15 - See Submissions
Rolling Call for the Spring/Summer: Proposals due March 15 - Finals due May 15 - See Submissions
This zine's first issue will be printed in November 2021. There will be two per year: winter and summer. Its impetus is Quentin Meillassoux's writing and its goal is to offer an informal space to publish a wide range of responses to and extensions from it.
What is Speculative Materialism?
This is term used by Meillassoux to describe his philosophical position. It is not new, but he uses it in a specific manner. Many likely already have done so, but if not, I encourage you to read his articles, where he thoroughly and concisely defines the term (see 'about' for an incomplete list of his publications translated to English). In brief, for QM: speculative indicates any philosophy that claims to apprehend the absolute. The absolute is that which is eternal, universal, and, via his position, does not rely on a subject (ab-solutus, the separate, non-relative, without us). Materialism is any thought that recognizes an absolute reality both external to thought and devoid of all subjectivity (e.g., Epicureanism). This is a non-metaphysical position in that metaphysics, which is a speculative mode of thought, adheres to an intertwined telos and Principle of Sufficient Reason (a ground which says things must be X rather than otherwise). QM argues against the Principle of Sufficient Reason, replacing it with 'unreason' (anything may become otherwise, or not, for no reason at all). Speculative materialism is, among other things, positioned explicitly against what he calls correlationism, which is any form of thought that claims being is inaccessible to thought, i.e., thought does not have the capacity to attain an absolute outside of itself. Realism (e.g., in 'speculative realism') is distinct from QM's materialism because it simply claims access to an absolute reality, without it necessarily being rigorously separate from the subject. This context is important for understanding his proof of absolute contingency as well as one of the main inspirations for the zine, his term 'divinization'.
[These definitions are sourced mainly from: "Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition: A Speculative Analysis of the Sign Devoid of Meaning" in Genealogies of Speculation (2016); as well as "Immanence of the World Beyond" in The Grandeur of Reason (2012).]
Focus
The zine is entitled Divinizations.* With this term, which comes from Meillassoux, I am making two claims which I hope will gently orient the trajectory of the zine - and to which people should feel encouraged to respond. First: divinization is a speculative practice of accessing the absolute, or in our case, absolute contingency, as a means of preparation for an ontological change (i.e., a fundamental advent after the worlds/realities of matter, life, and thought to, for QM, the Fourth World of egalitarian and universal justice). This is a variation on or development of 'divination practices' -- ritualistic activities with a long and diverse history attempting to access, and perhaps feel, uncorrelated knowledge, the unknown, the Outside. Such practices are currently co-opted, finitized, and exploited in large part by the so-called speculations of global capital and neoliberalism: the political economy of chance and finitude versus a politics of (absolute) contingency and infinitude [Joshua Ramey's Politics of Divination is helpful here]. Chance must be wrested back toward the latter, a speculative and revolutionary path, with the addition of QM's "iz" (divination -> divinization), that is, inclusive of both a thought toward the real possibility of something like a God-to-come and the resurrection of the dead (see: "Spectral Dilemma"). Any revolutionary movement and class struggle requires solidarity with the unjustly dead -- QM offers a path upon which, to me, it appears the dead may offer something more: literal (and militant) agency. Second: the access to the absolute called for in divinization practices is of a very particular kind. Yes, absolute contingency, but perhaps more importantly, toward 'may-being' (what QM calls in his essay "Immanence of the World Beyond" the final task of philosophy, an ontology grounded in the 'perhaps'). To me, this likely has in our world a kind of subterranean history, hidden fissures, and likely requires a re-definition of history altogether, that we ought to trace (a history of the Outside, of what he calls the "sign devoid of meaning"). Additionally, it is non-individualistic: as with Mallarmé's cipher in "A Throw of Dice..." (see The Number and the Siren), integration into may-being can only be accomplished by way of 'an indeterminate other' (the anonymous reader accidentally uncovering the cipher). At the same time it posits an absolute and the centrality of truth, a collectivism in the 'great outdoors' (a collectivism infected by the Outside), something sorely lacking, among other things, in leftist circles. What secret societies are harbored within the folds of chance? How might they be formed? Do they link up with other aspects of revolutionary politics obscured today (e.g., fundamental class antagonism under capital)?
Format
What might fit in the zine is intentionally as open-ended as possible. It may make sense to include expansions of ideas he has proposed, translations into English of related writing, artistic work (scores, images, poems, comics, etc.), tangential ideas that connect to theology, politics, contingency, analyses of capital, race, sex, gender, and so on. While I am especially interested in things related to the above remarks, I'm very much looking forward to expanding from these points into realms as vaguely related as contributors would like. If you're not sure if your idea would make sense for the zine, it probably would.
A Note
This is a passion project -- I am deeply inspired by QM's writing -- with the goal of sharing thoughts about a very particular topic among whoever wants to listen, hopefully linking up enthusiasms and labors that might not otherwise have found one another.
Submission Policy + Format: print zine; all mediums welcome (if I can print it, let's do it); all lengths welcome; rolling submissions with the aim of 2 issues per year (email to submit).
Order a Zine: email contingentdivinizations@gmail.com with the Issue # and your Address. Zines are free and/or shipping costs of a few dollars.
What is Speculative Materialism?
This is term used by Meillassoux to describe his philosophical position. It is not new, but he uses it in a specific manner. Many likely already have done so, but if not, I encourage you to read his articles, where he thoroughly and concisely defines the term (see 'about' for an incomplete list of his publications translated to English). In brief, for QM: speculative indicates any philosophy that claims to apprehend the absolute. The absolute is that which is eternal, universal, and, via his position, does not rely on a subject (ab-solutus, the separate, non-relative, without us). Materialism is any thought that recognizes an absolute reality both external to thought and devoid of all subjectivity (e.g., Epicureanism). This is a non-metaphysical position in that metaphysics, which is a speculative mode of thought, adheres to an intertwined telos and Principle of Sufficient Reason (a ground which says things must be X rather than otherwise). QM argues against the Principle of Sufficient Reason, replacing it with 'unreason' (anything may become otherwise, or not, for no reason at all). Speculative materialism is, among other things, positioned explicitly against what he calls correlationism, which is any form of thought that claims being is inaccessible to thought, i.e., thought does not have the capacity to attain an absolute outside of itself. Realism (e.g., in 'speculative realism') is distinct from QM's materialism because it simply claims access to an absolute reality, without it necessarily being rigorously separate from the subject. This context is important for understanding his proof of absolute contingency as well as one of the main inspirations for the zine, his term 'divinization'.
[These definitions are sourced mainly from: "Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition: A Speculative Analysis of the Sign Devoid of Meaning" in Genealogies of Speculation (2016); as well as "Immanence of the World Beyond" in The Grandeur of Reason (2012).]
Focus
The zine is entitled Divinizations.* With this term, which comes from Meillassoux, I am making two claims which I hope will gently orient the trajectory of the zine - and to which people should feel encouraged to respond. First: divinization is a speculative practice of accessing the absolute, or in our case, absolute contingency, as a means of preparation for an ontological change (i.e., a fundamental advent after the worlds/realities of matter, life, and thought to, for QM, the Fourth World of egalitarian and universal justice). This is a variation on or development of 'divination practices' -- ritualistic activities with a long and diverse history attempting to access, and perhaps feel, uncorrelated knowledge, the unknown, the Outside. Such practices are currently co-opted, finitized, and exploited in large part by the so-called speculations of global capital and neoliberalism: the political economy of chance and finitude versus a politics of (absolute) contingency and infinitude [Joshua Ramey's Politics of Divination is helpful here]. Chance must be wrested back toward the latter, a speculative and revolutionary path, with the addition of QM's "iz" (divination -> divinization), that is, inclusive of both a thought toward the real possibility of something like a God-to-come and the resurrection of the dead (see: "Spectral Dilemma"). Any revolutionary movement and class struggle requires solidarity with the unjustly dead -- QM offers a path upon which, to me, it appears the dead may offer something more: literal (and militant) agency. Second: the access to the absolute called for in divinization practices is of a very particular kind. Yes, absolute contingency, but perhaps more importantly, toward 'may-being' (what QM calls in his essay "Immanence of the World Beyond" the final task of philosophy, an ontology grounded in the 'perhaps'). To me, this likely has in our world a kind of subterranean history, hidden fissures, and likely requires a re-definition of history altogether, that we ought to trace (a history of the Outside, of what he calls the "sign devoid of meaning"). Additionally, it is non-individualistic: as with Mallarmé's cipher in "A Throw of Dice..." (see The Number and the Siren), integration into may-being can only be accomplished by way of 'an indeterminate other' (the anonymous reader accidentally uncovering the cipher). At the same time it posits an absolute and the centrality of truth, a collectivism in the 'great outdoors' (a collectivism infected by the Outside), something sorely lacking, among other things, in leftist circles. What secret societies are harbored within the folds of chance? How might they be formed? Do they link up with other aspects of revolutionary politics obscured today (e.g., fundamental class antagonism under capital)?
Format
What might fit in the zine is intentionally as open-ended as possible. It may make sense to include expansions of ideas he has proposed, translations into English of related writing, artistic work (scores, images, poems, comics, etc.), tangential ideas that connect to theology, politics, contingency, analyses of capital, race, sex, gender, and so on. While I am especially interested in things related to the above remarks, I'm very much looking forward to expanding from these points into realms as vaguely related as contributors would like. If you're not sure if your idea would make sense for the zine, it probably would.
A Note
This is a passion project -- I am deeply inspired by QM's writing -- with the goal of sharing thoughts about a very particular topic among whoever wants to listen, hopefully linking up enthusiasms and labors that might not otherwise have found one another.
Submission Policy + Format: print zine; all mediums welcome (if I can print it, let's do it); all lengths welcome; rolling submissions with the aim of 2 issues per year (email to submit).
Order a Zine: email contingentdivinizations@gmail.com with the Issue # and your Address. Zines are free and/or shipping costs of a few dollars.
* "The project of rational beings with reason thus consists in enduring together, from generation to generation, by the establishment of a link of fidelity between the living and the dead, in the midst of a world whose knowledge is able to maintain our waiting. It is to endure a totally different historical scale, on a scale of time in which the world assumes a different aspect than the calm indifference of laws. The authentic link of humans with God is thought as a link with the inexistent God of whom humans are the possible ancestor. This link, which makes each of us the possible forerunner of God, I call the divine. The practice of this link in the course of our lives I call the divinization or immortalization of humans; it is the very manner of becoming singular that makes us human. This divinization is not a deification of humans, because it is not a Promethean identification of humans with God. The divine is the affirmation of an uncrossable ontological divide between humans and the omnipotence of the Master, a worthless omnipotence of the revealed God whose happy abandonment inaugurates the philosophical God as justice and as gesture" (Meillassoux, The Divine Inexistence, Philosophy in the Making, p. 232).
