“What is really happening when something happens?” says on the book cover.. The notion of “event” has been on my mind since the discussion this February during the Psychological Winter School organized yearly by the Saint-Petersburg State University. Which was an event on its own. It was 20st consecutive edition of the Winter School and during one of the workshops we had a super interesting discussion on what is an event? …

Therefore I was thrilled to see this book in a London book shop, and hence the journey of discovering an event has begun.

All Aboard – Event in Transit

1/ Event can refer to a devastating natural disaster or to the latest celebrity scandal, the triumph of the people or a brutal political change, an intense experience of a work of art or an intimate decision…

2/ Something shocking, out of joint, that appears to happen all of a sudden and interrupts the usual flow of things; something that emerges seemingly out of nowhere, without discernible causes, an appearance without solid being as its foundation.

.. something ‘miraculous’ in an event..

Examples:

• eventual nature of Christianity – belief in the event of the death and resurrection of Christ;
• love is eventual;
• political event – Tahrir Square in Cairo and Mubarak regime;
• rise of a new art form: film noir.

3 / Event – the effect that seems to exceed its causes, space of an event is that which opens up by the gap that separates an effect from its causes.

4 / Event – an occurrence not grounded in sufficient reasons.

5/ Event of the disclosure of Being – of the horizon of meaning which determines how we perceive and relate to reality (Heidegger). Big Bang (or broken symmetry) – the primordial event out of which our entire universe emerged.

These words brought me back to the Existential Analysis course I’m currently taking, where we also discussing the philosophy of Dasein, and where the exchange with the world is essential – how do we have this dialogue, both as an inner one and external one.

Is an event a change in the way reality appears to us, or is it a shattering transformation of reality itself?

Event – Slavoj Zizek

I find this question to be a very inspiring one.. was musing over it for some time.. came to think that it’s probably both, these are interconnected things..

6/ Basic feature of an event: the surprising emergence of something new which undermines every stable scheme.

Books in my life