Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Editorial Note

Editorial Note Common Knowledge 8:2 Copyright 2002 by Duke University Press Davis and Perl the endless, burdensome accumulation of fancy things to dig out and know and quote from what little could be rescued from the fire. Archives exist, as Derrida writes, à même la cendre, “right on the ash.” The other sense of cultivation admonishes those who forget that the moment of “archivization,” deposit — one might add, redemption —“produces as much as it records the event” (again, to quote Derrida’s Mal d’archive). To venerate the archive is both idolatrous and narcissistic — a worship of human handiwork that turns out to be one’s own. As an expression, though, of retrieval, of keepsake, of pathetic response to the September 11ths of history, that reverence has all the beauty of fragile odds and brittle ends. Leon Battista Alberti wrote in 1452 that “beauty has the power to disarm the raging barbarian; there is no greater security against violence and injury than beauty and dignity,” then he devoted the rest of his life to the construction of immortal buildings. Alberti must have known, even as he wrote those words, that they are, while very pretty, false. Beauty is no deterrent when http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

Editorial Note

Davis, Natalie Zemon; Perl, Jeffrey M.
Common Knowledge , Volume 8 (2) – Apr 1, 2002
Download PDF
2 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/editorial-note-t7Spwrmp0q

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2002 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-8-2-364
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Common Knowledge 8:2 Copyright 2002 by Duke University Press Davis and Perl the endless, burdensome accumulation of fancy things to dig out and know and quote from what little could be rescued from the fire. Archives exist, as Derrida writes, à même la cendre, “right on the ash.” The other sense of cultivation admonishes those who forget that the moment of “archivization,” deposit — one might add, redemption —“produces as much as it records the event” (again, to quote Derrida’s Mal d’archive). To venerate the archive is both idolatrous and narcissistic — a worship of human handiwork that turns out to be one’s own. As an expression, though, of retrieval, of keepsake, of pathetic response to the September 11ths of history, that reverence has all the beauty of fragile odds and brittle ends. Leon Battista Alberti wrote in 1452 that “beauty has the power to disarm the raging barbarian; there is no greater security against violence and injury than beauty and dignity,” then he devoted the rest of his life to the construction of immortal buildings. Alberti must have known, even as he wrote those words, that they are, while very pretty, false. Beauty is no deterrent when

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2002

There are no references for this article.