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emo riot: to retreat from reason

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2023

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Abstract

Type
Provocation
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press for Tisch School of the Arts/NYU

the word became important in a conversation in which all superfluous commentary was disregarded

it slipped out, not having been thought prior

needy

two definitions: first, being in want; poverty-stricken second, marked by want of affection, attention, or emotional support, e.g.: “the girl was needy for her mother’s affection”

the former refers to the material world the means of subsistence required for survival the latter, however, is emotional maybe that’s why I can’t shake it

in one word the material and the emotional become indistinguishable wrapped up in the simplicity of two syllables would you let me be needy, baby?

emotions are unwieldy for thinking as a concept, neediness has zero theoretical heft unattractive, dejected, weak, inappropriate, and inescapably feminine, how uncool

when one needs something, it is understood to be an essential requirement when one displays that need, thereby becoming needy, they are rendered excessive, expendable (too much!) making others anxious, becoming social pariah to be avoided if not subjected to punishment

what if regulating the emotional displays of our need (keeping our neediness wrapped up tightly) is part of what maintains the ongoing reproduction of the social world, which operates as if by necessity?

everybody wanna be incomplete, but nobody wanna be needy