Series Foreword vii
INTRODUCTION: HABIT— THE UNHAPPY MEDIATOR 1
Habit without the Fly- Wheel 1
Fixity, Fluidity, and Superfluity 6
A Crack in the Mirror, a Rent in the Veil 9
The Anaesthetics of Habit 11
No Footlights— On Staging the Set- Up Error 13
Habit, Hegel, and Remainder 14
A Logic of Breakdown 19
Subject Matter and Habit 20
Kenosis and the Stained Soul of Habit 22
(Chapter) Breakdown 24
1 FALLING STUFF 29
Falling Stuff and the Destitution of Subjectivity 29
Repetition, Habit, and the Speculative Sentence 33
Satz at the Heart of Setzen and the Failure to Ingrain 38
The Fixed Subject 40
“Unhappy Tristram!” 45
Habit, Anxiety, and the Overproximity of Being and Having 47
Habit’s Death Drive and Dead Time 49
“Kerr- thunkk!”/“thump! kadump!” 52
2 PER- SEVERING HABIT AND THE DESEASE OF
THE FLUID BODY 57
Rattling Off— On Chains and Streams 58
Fixity and Fluidity 60
“This being- at- home- with- oneself we call habit” 61
Bruised, Bloodied, and Stained 65
Expunging the Beautiful Soul (Porifera) 68
Compulsive Machinic Exteriority 75
Being- That- Is- Deposited 76
Understanding and the Aesthetic Ideology of Habit Change 80
Verstand and Vernunft in Habit 85
Death- Dealing Matter and Forensic Analysis 89
The Magic and Cunning of Habit 93
A Short- Circuiting Anaesthetics of the Infinite Judgment 96
3 BUFFETING AND BEING SECOND- HAND 103
Michelangelo’s Artichoke 103
The Static Logic of Habit 109
Buffeting and Being Set Adrift 112
Tingling and the Tinnitus of the Body 116
Fulgurating Lightning Rods 118
The Recoil of Vergreifen in Begreifen 121
The Ego- Function of an Organ is Impaired 123
“Not a Member is Sober” 129
Grasping at the Principle of Carrot and Stick 130
Joan of Arc’s Gaucherie and the Stained Soul of Habit 137
4 PIECES OF (FIGURE) EIGHT AND THE CRUX OF
THE MATTER 141
Habit and “Un- Matter” 141
A Kenotic Anaesthetics of Habit 144
Vanishing, Vaporizing, and Overflowing 145
Pieces of (Figure) Eight 147
The Disinhabiting Ring of Habit 150
Autopilot, the Not Yet, and Remainder’s Nonending 152
Acknowledgments 155
List of Abbreviations 157
Notes 159
Index 199
