Saturday, June 30, 2012

Enchantment

"As I'm using the term, enchantment is a peculiar kind of mood, often induced by sound (the term chant in enchantment). To be enchanted is to be both charmed and disturbed: charmed by a fascinating repetition of sounds or images, disturbed to find that, although your sense-perception has become intensified, your background sense of order has flown out the door."
—Jane Bennett, from The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics 
I found myself using the obsolete word enchant quite a bit over the last year, and was drawn to Bennett's unexpected reading of the term and how it relates to ethics and wonder.
 "You notice new colors, discern details previously ignored, hear extraordinary sounds, as familiar landscapes of sense sharpen and intensify. The world comes alive as a collection of singularities."