A Topology Of The Sensible

Abstract

A TOPOLOGY OF THE SENSIBLE Michel Serres, The Five Senses: A Philosophy of Mingled Bodies, London, Continuum, 2008; 364pp, £19.99 paperback There is a tendency towards the hagiographie that runs through commentary on Michel Serres. Some of this is undoubtedly well deserved as recompense for the relative neglect of his work in the Anglophone academic world. The translation into English of only limited parts of his now extensive body of publications (running to 50 plus books) has robbed this contemporary of Foucault and Deleuze of the critical attention and acclaim lavished on his peers. Matters may well now be changing with the recent re-publication of die translation of one of his finest works - The Parasite - and the very welcome and long overdue translation of The Five Senses. Whilst there is much to celebrate here, a few words of caution are also in order. Published originally in 1985, this is a long book that demonstrates that by this mid-point in his career Serres was unconstrained by the demands of prudent editing. The tone of much of the book is poetic, rhapsodic and allusive - readers in search of clear citation or footnotes, which show the 'workings out', will need to brace themselves. Structurally the book is elliptical and rather bloated in places (the third chapter in particular is a long haul). There are wince-inducing moments throughout, notably around the gender and class politics of the text. The sections that reflect Serres' complex relationship to Christianity will also likely leave some readers cold, as will the unpalatable bon vivant theme diat dominates one chapter which the publisher has mystifyingly chosen to highlight on the front cover and the back cover text. ARE YOU STILL HERE? Good. Now the reasons why you nevertheless need to read this book. Much has rightly been made of the theoretical turn toward affect and sensibility. Yet much of it is mired in somewhat outmoded notions of perception, such as the idea of the senses acting as automatic filters of inputs structured by habit. In such an approach the tendency is to insist on the prioritisation of one 'repressed' sense (e.g. touch) above another 'dominant' sense (e.g. vision). Thus the agenda is set to turn from visual culture to auditory culture, olfactory culture and so on. Serres, by contrast, provides a challenge to the template on which we consider sensation itself and its relationship to philosophies of knowledge. Rather than consider these issues in the abstract or through direct discussion of key philosophical precursors, Serres chooses an empirical path. Every page is alive with rich descriptions of feeling, sensing, apprehending, engaging, living. This is a vibrant text that is at times overwhelming in its channelling of the noise of the world as it erupts through the body. Serres' writing is well known for its insistence on 'taking the long way home', as Tom Waits has it. The journey here is particularly circuitous, beginning with a tall tale of a fire on a ship and passing by way of the death of Socrates, the drunken Platonic symposium, the Last Supper, Orpheus in the underworld and Ulysses navigating Scylla and Charybdis. In its course look out for tattoos, trampolines, ritual dismemberment, the fairytale 'glass' slipper, Captain Nemo and a bottle of 1 947 Yquem. But also prepare for stunning meditations on the nature of empiricism, the resistance of the body to language, and subjectivity as a multiply mediated distribution of sensory engagements. The division of the body's sensory capacities into a fivefold scheme is deeply embedded in Western Culture. It has its roots in the Aristotelian conception of special senses which would underpin common sense. With die assistance of memory and imagination, these senses form the 'passive' components of consciousness. Being rooted in the world of appearance, they are considered as inferior, yet necessary, capacities in contrast with the power of thought and geometric reason. …