Stillness, Deep Time, & the Corpse: An Ode to Eros

Abstract

“Stillness, Deep Time, & the Corpse: An Ode to Eros” anchors its exploration in the phrase by E. E. Cummings, nothing surpasses the mystery of stillness—especially the supposed “stillness” of the animal corpse. From one perspective, the corpse seems absolutely still, but from another, the corpse swarms with the processes of decay. Stillness, then, becomes a mirage and a matter of perspective. What, though, is at the heart the mystery of stillness? In short, Eros. Eros as a mythological insight into the four foundational laws of the cosmos: gravitational forces, electromagnetic forces, weak nuclear forces, strong nuclear forces. Forces that epitomize attraction and desire. Forces that are at work within every object in the known universe. (Stillness can only be achieved at absolute zero, the temperature when an electron no longer moves–which is, as of yet, only a theoretical concept.) Though Hesiod did not have an understanding of 21st century physics, he places Eros as one of the foundational gods at the beginning of everything. “Stillness, Deep Time, & the Corpse” argues that the forces of Eros that make decay possible are also at work within language, and just as a corpse composts, so meaning composts in the (dis)integration of the words and letters of a sentence.

Keywords

• Eros
• forces of the cosmos
• mystery of stillness
• animal corpses
• animal magnetism
• absolute zero