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A radical philosophy of sexuality from a major Italian philosopher.

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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.

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1. Senses and Things
2. Sex Plateaux
3. God, Animal, Thing
4. Descartes and the Thing that Feels
5. Becoming Extraneous Clothing
6. Exemplary Addictions
7. Kant and the Spouse as Thing
8. Sadism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
9. Philosophical Cybersex
10. Kant and the Feeling of the Thing in itself
11. Masochism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
12. Bodies and Clothes
13. Hegel and the Thing as ´not this´
14. Fetishism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
15. Hardcore Sonority
16. Hegel and the Thing as ´also´
17. Vampirism and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
18. Plastic Landscapes
19. Hegel and the Thing ´all of one piece´
20. Desire and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
21. Overflowing Installations
22. Heidegger and the Thing as Reliability
23. Division and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic
24. Inclusive Metawritings
25. Wittgenstein and the Feeling of ´this thing´
26. Pleasure and Sex Appeal of the Inorganic 27. Perverse Performance
Notes
Index of Names

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Perniola, Mario
Mario Perniola is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata. 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.

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