A spectacular reading of Western philosophy, religion, and mythology that draws on early maps and atlases, Plato, Kant, and Wittgenstein, Thomas Pynchon, Gilgamesh, and Marcel Duchamp, Abysmal is itself a minimalist guide to the terrain of Western culture. Olsson roams widely but always returns to the problems inherent in reason, to question the outdated assumptions and fixed ideas that thinking cartographically entails. A work of ambition, scope, and sharp wit, Abysmal will appeal to an eclectic audience—to geographers and cartographers, but also to anyone interested in the history of ideas, culture, and art.
A spectacular reading of Western philosophy, religion, and mythology that draws on early maps and atlases, Plato, Kant, and Wittgenstein, Thomas Pynchon, Gilgamesh, and Marcel Duchamp, Abysmal is itself a minimalist guide to the terrain of Western culture. Olsson roams widely but always returns to the problems inherent in reason, to question the outdated assumptions and fixed ideas that thinking cartographically entails. A work of ambition, scope, and sharp wit, Abysmal will appeal to an eclectic audience—to geographers and cartographers, but also to anyone interested in the history of ideas, culture, and art.
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Overview
A spectacular reading of Western philosophy, religion, and mythology that draws on early maps and atlases, Plato, Kant, and Wittgenstein, Thomas Pynchon, Gilgamesh, and Marcel Duchamp, Abysmal is itself a minimalist guide to the terrain of Western culture. Olsson roams widely but always returns to the problems inherent in reason, to question the outdated assumptions and fixed ideas that thinking cartographically entails. A work of ambition, scope, and sharp wit, Abysmal will appeal to an eclectic audience—to geographers and cartographers, but also to anyone interested in the history of ideas, culture, and art.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780226629308 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Chicago Press |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2007 |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 584 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
ABYSMAL A CRITIQUE OF CARTOGRAPHIC REASON
By Gunnar Olsson
The University of Chicago Press Copyright © 2007 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-62930-8
Chapter One WHEN ABOVE
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. Genesis 1:5
In the map of maps naming is the dematerialized point into which all power is condensed, the primordial means for knowing our way about.
And for that reason we must now return to Enuma elish, the Babylonian creation epic which some have claimed is not a creation epic at all, merely a well- rehearsed story of how the god Marduk gains and retains his elevated position as the Lord of lords. Regardless of how it is categorized, this ancient text is a crucial document, for what it does is to lay bare the rhetorical techniques through which undifferentiated chaos is turned into differentiated cosmos. Since it was intended for recitation, it was cast into a type of poetry in which each line forms a distich such that the two halves typically stand in contrast to each other. The resulting sense of difference deferred is generated through an ingenious use of meter rather than rhyme, the latter unknown not only to Babylonian but to Hebrew writers as well.
On this rendering the Enuma elish emerges as nothing less than a search for the topos of topoi, a text more concerned with the creation of people than with the manufacturing of things, a foundational treatise on politics rather than religion. Its premise is that in the beginning of the beginning nothing has yet been formed, because in the beginning of the beginning no things have yet been named. All that exists are the two coordinates of above and below, cardinal positions waiting to be inundated by the fluids of Apsu and Tiamat, the former sweet, the latter bitter. And, as if to under line the spatiality of its own structure, the term "Apsu" literally means "abyss" and "uttermost limit," by linguistic coincidence connectable also to "the great deep," "the primal chaos," "the bowels of earth," "the infernal pit." A perfect example of proper name and definite description merged into one.
From the mingling of Apsu and Tiamat there eventually emerged three pairs of gods, each generation wiser and more intelligent than its predecessor, the figure of Nudimmud-Ea the most outstanding of them all. But noise annoys and as typical teenagers the youngsters eventually became such a nuisance that
Apsu made his voice heard And spoke to Tiamat in a loud voice, "Their ways have become very grievous to me, By day I cannot rest, by night I cannot sleep. I shall abolish their ways and disperse them! Let peace prevail, so that we can sleep."
When Tiamat heard this she got very upset, furiously shouting
How could we allow what we ourselves created to perish?
But Apsu receives contrary advice from his vizier Mummu, and, ignoring Tiamat's objections, he decides to go ahead. Barely in time to avert the pending catastrophe, the god Ea, superior in understanding, learns about the plot. Through a magic spell he puts Apsu to sleep, removes his crown, and places it on himself. Thus having established his position, Ea kills Apsu.
On top of the corpse, i.e. across the abyss, Ea then builds a splendid house for himself and his wife Damkina. There, in the heart of holy Apsu, in the Chamber of Destinies, their son Marduk is conceived, the most awesome being ever to be. When his father saw him he beamed with pride and his heart was filled with joy. In deed:
He made him so perfect that his godhead was doubled. Elevated far above them, he was superior in every way. His limbs were ingeniously made beyond comprehension, Impossible to understand, too difficult to perceive. Four were his eyes, four were his ears; When his lips moved, fire blazed forth. The four ears were enormous And likewise his eyes; they perceived everything. Highest among the gods, his form was outstanding.
Already from birth Marduk is held to be everything, including a premonition of Janus, the Roman gatekeeper who from his watchtower at the middle of the bridge controls both sides of the abyss at the same time. To impose his will on the troublemakers, Marduk now blows a devastating flood wave. But instead of calming the rioters down this act upsets them so much that they convene an assembly in which Tiamat is authorized to declare war on whoever was responsible for the killing of sweet Apsu. To that end the bitterness puts together a terrifying army of snakes with venom instead of blood in their veins, a phalanx of dragons, a sphinx, a horned serpent, a rabid dog, a scorpion man, a fish-man, a bull-man and eleven more of the same kind. As commander in chief she appoints Kingu, an upstart in whom she invests absolute power and forces to share her bed lest he run out of control.
At this stage Ea learns about Tiamat's preparations. Charged with the task of talking Tiamat out of her plans, the wise Anshar is dispatched as an emissary to her court. Terrorized by what he sees, Anshar returns with the report that not only has he himself failed to complete his mission but that "no one else can face her and come back." Things are obviously getting out of hand and everyone agrees that diplomacy will no longer do. Ea consequently summons Marduk to his private quarters, asking him to step forth, to show who he is by being equal to himself. Marduk, who for the first time is now addressed as "The Lord," initially rejoiced then immediately proceeded to list the conditions under which he would accept the challenge. These were his words, for emphasis three times repeated:
Lord of the gods, destiny of the great gods, If I am indeed to be your avenger, To vanquish Tiamat and to keep you alive, Convene the assembly and proclaim my lot supreme. When ye are joyfully seated together in the Court of Assembly, May I through the utterance of my mouth determine the destinies, instead of you. Whatever I create shall remain unaltered, The command of my lips shall not return (void), it shall not be changed.
* * *
Through the utterance of my mouth shall I determine your destinies! In their acceptance of this decree, the friendly gods demonstrate how they differ from Tiamat, whose words have lost their power because the new politics are conducted by other means. Since every audience demands its own propaganda, Marduk chooses not to threaten the electorate with new taxes but invites them to a feast instead. For this:
They gathered together and departed, All the great gods who determine [the destinies]. They entered the presence of Anshar and filled [the court of Assembly]; They kissed one another [as they came together] in the assembly‚ They conversed (and) [sat down] to a banquet. They ate bread (and) prepared w[ine]. The sweet wine dispelled their fears; [Their] bod[ies] swelled as they drank the strong drink. Exceedingly carefree were they, their spirit was exalted; For Marduk, their avenger, they decreed the destiny.
And out of the ashes from this revel Marduk emerges as a splendid Phoenix, Lord of lords, God of gods. They erected for him a throne, they gave him sovereignty over the whole universe, and, as a premonition of what was later to reappear in the Christian confession, they observed that to trespass is to sin. More precisely:
None of the gods shall transgress your limits,
in the original text rhetorically bejeweled, embellished and enhanced through the poetics of alliteration: itukka la ittiq.
Uncertainty nevertheless breeds suspicion, and Marduk is now asked to prove himself. Accordingly:
They sat up in their midst one constellation, And then they addressed Marduk their son, "May your decree, O Lord, impress the gods! Command to destroy and to recreate, and let it be so! Speak and let the constellation vanish! Speak to it again and let the constellation reappear." He spoke, and at his word the constellation vanished. He spoke to it again and the constellation was recreated.
A magnificent show of ontological transformations. The magician of power in outstanding performance. Let there be! And there is. Ovations rising to the sky, on this particular occasion in Babylon, later in Jerusalem, eventually in Washington, D.C. When the gods (literally his fathers) saw how effective his utterance was, they all rejoiced, blessed their Lord and chanted MARDUK IS KING, OUR KING IS MARDUK!
Bestowing upon him the scepter, the throne and the royal robe, the assembly then send him off to pour out the life of Tiamat. His weapons are numerous, but most decisive is the net in which he intends to catch her and the four winds by which he plans to blow her up. Kingu runs away in panic. Tiamat looses her mind, in anger her wits are scattered. And then:
Face to face they came, Tiamat and Marduk, sage of the gods. They engaged in combat, they closed for battle. The Lord spread his net and made it encircle her, To her face he dispatched the [Evil] wind, which had been behind: Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow it, And he forced in the [Evil] wind so that she could not close her lips. Fierce winds distended her belly; Her insides were constipated and she stretched her mouth wide. He shot an arrow which pierced her belly, Split her down the middle and slit her heart. Vanquished her and extinguished her life. He threw down her corpse and stood on top of her.
[For the rest of the troops] He imprisoned them and broke their weapons. In the net they lay and in the snare they were.
What a timeless text, the Lord spreading his net! If the dictator of Iraq ever wanted an instructor in biological warfare, he need not go far to find him. If the generals of the Pentagon ever wished to know more about the relations between cartographical coordinates and the targeting of smart bombs, they need not experiment on haphazardly chosen victims but may consult the Enuma elish instead. Likewise with the principles of Derridean deconstruction. For when it came to the handling of Tiamat's dead body, Marduk found himself lodged in the abysmal interface between de-struction and con-struction. Like a professional butcher, a real ripper,
He turned back to where Tiamat lay bound, he straddled the legs and smashed her skull (for the mace was merciless), he severed the arteries and the blood streamed down the north wind to the unknown ends of the world.... The Lord rested; he gazed at the huge body, pondering how to use it, what to create from the dead carcass. He split it apart like a cockle-shell; with the upper half he constructed the arc of sky, he pulled down the bar and set a watch on the waters, so they should never escape.
Then the most decisive step of all. For when the epic now moves from the power struggles of the gods to the creation of the world, Marduk enters the stage disguised in new clothes, no longer dressed in the warrior's coat of mail but in the uniform of the land surveyor. The implements changed as well, the magic net no longer a tool for capturing monstrous rivals but a device for ordering the thing- like entities of stars, towns and people. The abyss nevertheless remains the ruler's privileged topos, for:
He crossed the sky to survey the infinite distance; he stationed himself above apsu, that apsu built by [Ea] over the old abyss which now he surveyed, measuring out and marking in.
* * *
Measuring out and marking in Marduk now proceeds to the construction of what eventually was to be a celestial globe. Onto the sky he projected positions for the great gods and through a kind of triangulation he set up three constellations for each of the twelve months. For the pole of the universe he chose the planet Jupiter (possibly Mercury), Tiamat's liver became the zenith.
Once these heavenly bodies were in place, Marduk returned to Tiamat's corpse, cutting it up into pieces to which he allotted new functions: out of her eyes welled the Euphrates and Tigris, her paps became mountains, her crotch the fulcrum of the sky. The construction of the physical universe completed, he went on to the building of yet another temple and to the arrangement of yet another banquet. All in honor of himself. And under the influence of sweet wine the assembly shouted in unison, GREAT LORD OF THE UNIVERSE!
In response the Absolute delivered a speech from the throne, his four eyes and big ears simultaneously scanning the above and the below, the past and the future, no member untouched. This is what he said to the gods his fathers:
In the former time you inhabited the void above the abyss, but I have made Earth as the mirror of Heaven, I have consolidated the soil for the foundations, and there I will build my city, my beloved home.... It shall be BABYLON. [And there the fallen gods, our defeated enemies, the supporters of Tiamat, will be serving us day after day].
Yet another case of ontological transformation, yet another instance of invisible ideology turned into touchable stone, the Earth made a mirror of Heaven, the Heaven itself a material projection of social relations. Babylon the most marvelous of cities, the center of the world, its own street pattern drawn in the shape of a net, its name, bab-ili, most commonly translated as "the Gate of the gods."
And yet. For absolute rulers enough is never enough. Moved by the desire to create a work of consummate art, Marduk conceives a plan designed to solidify his position and perpetuate his rule. To placate the supporters he promises that they will never need to work again, that after the next election leisure will be their blessed lot. Marduk is wise enough to honor the pledge and to that effect he swiftly creates a primeval man, the prototype of you and me, by definition slaves of the gods. Not an invention formed in the image of the Almighty but a savage concoction stirred together from the blood of the slaughtered Kingu, mankind a dish of Boudins ' la Misopotamie. Nothing like a perfect copy of the perfect original, merely a black sausage. A deed appropriately described as a deed impossible to describe.
Then Marduk-at this final stage called "the King"-divided the gods into two groups, each vassal assigned to his proper place in the feudal system. Three hundred he stationed as watchers of Heaven, an equal number as guardians of the Earth. In return for their new-won freedom the once defeated erected yet another temple above the abyss, this time in honor of their conqueror turned benefactor. As a token of appreciation the latter in return invited them to yet another celebration, for the first time featuring nothing but black-headed waiters. And next morning the entire congregation was taken on a tour through the Hall of Armory, where the intricate construction of the net was explained and the workmanship admired.
To top it off, the banquet closed with the performance of a liturgy in which the occult was explained in a way that no one could misunderstand. At the end, which in effect is not the end but another beginning, Marduk is the King, Marduk is the Absolute, Marduk is the Lord of lords. Hail to the Chief! Fifty were his names, so numerous that if ever attacked he could always hide behind another alias. Never catchable as the specific this or that, always on the move as an ambiguous this and that. Never a logical either- or, always a dialectical both/and. Many in one, one in many. Ungraspable multiplicity, like the Hebrew JHWH a tautology defining himself as a being who is who he is. Jacques Lacan was obviously neither the first nor the last to understand that the real is given its structure by the power of the name; as Gilles Deleuze and Filix Guattari aptly put it, "the proper name does not indicate a subject [but] designates something that is of the order of the event, of becoming or of the haecceity. It is the military men and meteorologists who hold the secret of proper names, when they give them to a strategic operation or a hurricane. The proper name ... marks a longitude and a latitude." Heaven above and hell below, the sinister to the left the righteous to the right. Cartographical reason in nuce.
In the mist-enveloped regions of religion naming is the name of the game, an exercise in ontological transformations where earthly people appear as projections of heavenly gods, social relations as signs in the sky. And to me this is the central message of the Enuma elish: the world created is the mirror image of the Court of Power, literally a representation of a representation, a map of a map, a signified meaning searching for its own coordinates; nascent sociology turned to mythical astrology, mythical astrology to prescientific astronomy. Different ways of finding the way.
And once every twelfth month (on the fourth day of the New Year's celebrations, at the time of the spring equinox) the epic was recited, the ruling king first divested of his insignia, then-following the negative confession that the sinner was not he himself but his enemies-he was dressed up again in his robe of stars and stripes, an embodied constellation of points and lines projected onto the canvas of the sky itself.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from ABYSMAL by Gunnar Olsson Copyright © 2007 by The University of Chicago. Excerpted by permission.
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Table of Contents
CONFESSIONDesires non-suppressed
PRELUDE
Border-man
MAPPINGS
When above
And below
In-between
Mappae mundi medievalis
INSTRUMENTS
Saussurean Bar
A=B
Quod erat
IMAGINATIONS
Plato
Abr(ah)am
Moses
Kant
COLLATION
Mission impossible
ATLAS
Uruk
Peniel
Thebes
Nicaea
REQUIEM
Philadelphia
Uppsala
MEMORIALS
Notes
Bibliography
Proper Names
(In)definite descriptions
Acknowledgments