Writing as a Nomadic Subject

My lifelong engagement in the project of nomadic subjectivity has been partly motivated by the conviction that, in these globalized times of accelerating technologically mediated changes, many traditional points of reference and age-old habits of thought are being re-composed, albeit in contradictory ways.Paradoxically, old power relations are not only confirmed but in many ways exacerbated in the new geo-political context. 2 At such a time more conceptual creativity is necessary, and more theoretical courage is needed in order to bring about the leap across inertia, nostalgia, aporia and the other forms of critical stasis induced by our historical condition.It has become like a mantra to me: we need to learn to think differently about the kind of subjects we have already become and the processes of deep-seated transformation we are undergoing.The philosopher in me believes that a new alliance between philosophy, the arts and science is a crucial building block for this qualitative shift of perspective. 3The writer in me, on the other hand, continues to muse about the complex ways in which the imaginary both propels and resists in-depth transformations. A MATTER OF STYLEAt the beginning of it all, for my generation, is the commitment to writing.Presented as a form of political and ethical engagement, it is essentially a visceral gesture.Writing is an intransitive activity, a variation on breathing, an end in itself; it is an affective and geometrically rigorous mode of inscription into life.If we had nothing left to say, some of us would just copy down random list of words, road signs,