Philotopic greetings 3

Ramūnas Čičelis
Creative writing workshop lecture in Šeteniai, 2015, July 5th
www.kamane.lt, 2015-11-23
Fragment of Arvydas Šliogeris book cover Melancholy Archipelagos

In brief: The bravest and hardest wish is not to be afraid to disown yourself - to be without the relationship of the subject and the object; to view the world without any assessment of yourself and external reality. Rejection of subjectivity frees one from the dictatorship of ideology, blind following and criminal behavior against humanity.

This lecture is related to the concept of philotopic approach developed by Arvydas Šliogeris, and with it, I seek to wish for the audience something that would lead them towards the authentic existence: not a postmodern life, but rather relying on the traditional order. According to this order a person should not take root in space, but in place - not in the Eastern Europe, but where the present moment is.

The second wish is to be an individual, not merging with the masses, but also not to avoid the carnival which is very common in modern society - shows, festivals and various celebrations and so on. Carnival mass erases personal individuality. When finding yourself in the carnival, the best position is to step back a little and look at what is happening from a distance. I have in mind a mental, not a physical withdrawal. Often, this way of thinking is a gentle irony, creating distance and developing a person as an individual.

I encourage you to write a diary and not to be afraid of the autobiographical, retrospective and capturing glance directed at yourself. Human memory always distorts, conceals, censors and constructs. When a person writes a diary, opening it after a couple of decades he can know what he had experienced on one or the other day of the past. This diary should not necessarily be understood in traditional terms. It is important to write periodically, in your own pace, because it prevents a lie to oneself and others. Writing creates a possibility to live without lies about the past.


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