The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic

In The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic, Mario **Perniola puts forth the radical argument that we are shifting away from organic sexuality, based on desire and pleasure, and moving towards a more neutral inorganic and artificial sexuality, a sexuality always available but indifferent to beauty, age or form. Perniola takes the reader on a tour of Western philosophy, from Descartes, Kant and Hegel to Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Sartre, to reframe our understanding of personal experience and the aesthetic world around us. In order to realize the sex appeal of the inorganic Perniola argues that we must become 'things that feel', we must think ourselves closer to the inorganic, creating an alliance between senses and things. Examples from contemporary culture that, for Perniola, are emblems of the sex appeal of the inorganic, include progressive rock music, fashion, deconstructive architecture and the novels of Georges Perec.

Auteur

Mario Perniola is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, Italy. His books in English include Enigmas: The Egyptian Moment in Society and Art and Ritual Thinking: Sexuality, Death, World. He has also written for Art Forum, Zone and Traverses and is editor of the journal of aesthetics and cultural studies, Agalma.