At The End of 2023: Two books and an interview.

“The principle of originality at all costs leads to paralysis - Rene Girard, Maxim 119”

To take a lesson from maxim 119 of Rene Girard, I shall not covet my neighbor’s substack and try to say something new on his core idea of mimetic desire.

To desire what others desire is the engine at the heart of human conflict. When those desires are unrealized scapegoating and violence results. It is part of a pattern that runs through human culture from the great myths, to Shakespeare’s, ‘theater of envy’, from campus protests, to social-media mobs and pop culture’s fandoms.

This pattern - so clear in Greek mythology - is broken only in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Gospels which reverse the scapegoat and the victim.

Oedipus must die. There is a plague in Thebes. The crowd is innocent. Job stands firm and righteous against his friends’ interrogations – in which Girard finds a fascinating parallel to modern totalitarianism’s mock trials and “forced confessions.” Peter’s denial of Christ before the fire in the courtyard echoes the ritual sacrifices of time immemorial, but unlike myth, as the cock crows, Peter stands convicted. Self-accused, “He wept bitterly.”

Girard’s insights into Biblical Judaism and Christianity are not without critics, in particular his claims about the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. While a devout Catholic, he did not claim to be a theologian. As a literary critic and social theorist, Girard gives us a new window into understanding today’s frenzied obsessions - political, cultural, and societal.

For three different approaches to Girard:

The recently published, All Desire is a Desire for Being, edited by Cynthia Haven includes a selection of his essays on mimesis in myth, literature, and religion.

How does mimetic desire work in our lives and how can we trade our imminent (and insatiable) wants for more worthy goals? Read Luke Burgis’s 2021 book, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life.

Or start (where I began, years ago) with the 2009 interview he gave to Peter Robinson on Uncommon Knowledge.

In 2024, get to know Rene Girard.

Happy New Year.