A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2012/dec/28/hanif-kureishi-franz-kafka-hunger

The Invention of the Self

'For Foucault there is then a modern "asceticism of the dandy" who remains unsatisfied with his subjectivity-as-is (we might say with his life on the torus ("in the flux of passing moments")), and who thus "makes of his body, his behaviours, his feelings and passions, his very existence, a work of art.'

Michel Foucault's Ethics : Subjectivity and Truth

Simon O'Sullivan's On the Production of Subjectivity

'This self-invention arises from a decision made by the subject and a concomitant practice of living differently, against the norms of the world that such a subject is born in to (insofar as these norms tend to instigated by a transcendent enunciator, which again, in our own time, is Capital).'

Simon O'Sullivan's On the Production of Subjectivity

These quotations remind me of Kafka's short story "A Hunger Artist".

About Subjectivity

'Either an "I" that no longer has a world or a world that no longer has an "I"...'

Paulo Virno's A Grammar of the Multitude

"...Leaves us either too open to the world (schizophrenia), or, in reaction, too closed (neurosis/depression)." "...the twin extremes of neurosis -- being too closed to the world -- and psychosis -- being too open to it..."

Simon O'Sullivan's On the Production of Subjectivity

＂In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art."


Susan Sontag
Against Interpretation

Liminality

'Bergson saw in the words and writings of prophets and great artists the creation of an "open morality", which was itself an expression of what he called the élan vital, or evolutionary "life force." Prophets and artists tend to be liminal and marginal people, "edgemen," who strive with a passionate sincerity to rid themselves of the clichés associated with status incumbency and role-playing and to enter into vital relations with other men in fact or imagination.'

Angela Smith
Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A Public of Two

Approaching Artaud

"In one version, freedom entails total asceticism. In another version, it entails libertinism -- practicing the art of transgression."

Susan Sontag
Under the sign of Saturn

“To Room 19” is a short story written by Doris Lessing. It struck me when I first read it, without any psychological preparation where it would lead me. It deeply resonates with my inner fear of married life and the stability that follows. The protagonist of this story is a married woman who has four children. Everyone thinks she and her husband are the perfect couple. When her children start going to school, she finally has some private time. She begins isolating herself by visiting Fred’s hotel in Paddington and every time she stays in room 19. This is a tragic story and reminds me of Katherine Mansfield's “Bliss”.

I love the story. I wanted to dedicate this site to explore more about the topic of freedom and maybe it could be considered as a virtual Room 19, a tribute to Doris Lessing.