Agamben might sound like the name of an African soup, but it is no soup. It’s the name of an Italian philosopher. Full Name: Giorgio Agamben. He lives and teaches in Europe and spends most of his time obsessing about what it means for certain people in society to live life as outcasts marked for death.  Pretty dark stuff. Check out Agamben taking a stab at love and doing such a creepy job of it.

The Idea of Love: To live in intimacy with a stranger, not in order to draw him closer, or to make him known, but rather to keep him strange, remote: unapparent–so unapparent that his name contains him entirely. And, even in discomfort, to be nothing else, day after day, than the ever open place, the unwaning light in which that one being, that thing, remains forever exposed and sealed off. — The Idea of Prose

But why might Agamben be right? What is the relationship between the lover and the stranger?

Have a great weekend!