Book description
A new century, new threats to love . . . Love without risks is like war
without deaths - but, today, love is threatened by an alliance of
liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and casual sexual
encounters devoid of passion, love - without the key ingredient of
chance - is in danger of withering on the vine. In In Praise of Love,
Alain Badiou takes on contemporary dating agency conceptions of love
that come complete with zero-risk insurance - like US zero-casualty
bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as an adventure, and
an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant exploration of otherness
and difference that leads the individual out of an obsession with
identity and self. Liberal, libertine and libertarian reductions of love
to instant pleasure and non-commitment bite the dust as Badiou invokes a
supporting cast of thinkers from Plato to Lacan via Karl Marx to form a
new narrative of romance, relationships and sex - a narrative that does
not fear love. A new century, new threats to love . . . Love without
risks is like war without deaths - but, today, love is threatened by an
alliance of liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and
casual sexual encounters devoid of passion, love - without the key
ingredient of chance - is in danger of withering on the vine. In In
Praise of Love, Alain Badiou takes on contemporary dating agency
conceptions of love that come complete with zero-risk insurance - like
US zero-casualty bombs. He develops a new take on love that sees it as
an adventure, and an opportunity for re-invention, in a constant
exploration of otherness and difference that leads the individual out of
an obsession with identity and self. Liberal, libertine and libertarian
reductions of love to instant pleasure and non-commitment bite the dust
as Badiou invokes a supporting cast of thinkers from Plato to Lacan via
Karl Marx to form a new narrative of romance, relationships and sex - a
narrative that does not fear love.
