Curt Cloninger · 2021 · PDF · Calibre ID 7214
Resurfaced in Nothing, Reviewed (2026-10-17).
Role in the triad
Theory: a taxonomy of nothings and an ethics of making them; argues with both Lem (no permanent nothing) and Dworkin (nothing can be made, as braking)
Why this book
Supplies the theory the other two dispute: making nothing as purposeful braking of becoming, distinct from abstaining. Taxonomy (transcendent, bereft, fecund, deferred) lets Rien du tout and Dworkin’s blanks be sorted. Brings negative theology and quantum apparatus (Barad, delayed-choice eraser) into the set.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “There is, however, an important difference between abstaining from making something and purposefully making nothing.” (p. 130)
- “You cannot approach nothing; for there is nothing to approach.” (Whitehead, quoted p. 130)
- “A successful apophatic art apparatus is a work of art that resists (however fleetingly) the inevitable move toward becoming.” (p. 143)
- “Neither kataphasis nor apophasis ever get the last word.” (p. 143)
- “To equate blackness with nothing is to suffer from oculo-centrism” (p. 225)
- “Some nothings leave you pointing west, some leave you pointing east, and some leave you spinning your wheels in a ditch.” (p. 421)
Themes
apophasis · apparatus · Arakawa and Gins · Barad · bereft nothing · black square · braking becoming · ethics of nothing · fecund nothing · Fludd hyle diagram · kataphasis · Marion · perpetual deferment · Pseudo-Dionysius · quantum eraser · Whitehead