Excesses Eros and Culture

Excesses is a very successful attempt to break out of the closets in which we conceptualize our identity and our eros. Lingis has travelled to, and participated in, some of the last remaining oases of “primitive” cultures. He combines an obvious poet’s eye with a not-so-obvious philosophical ability to discriminate systematically and to generalize. We are helped to see the shape—and limitations—of one of our own cultural identity through the amazing contrasts which Lingis sets up like screens for our inspection.