Granted I have a limited scope of philosophical texts however the style Lingis uses in his works on philosophy is unlike anything I’ve read in theacademic field. Faces and The Navel of the World read more like novels tome than philosophical discourse, especially in contrast to the ElizabethGrosz piece. After doing a little background research on Lingis I found thathis descriptive and almost narrative style is somewhat fitting with hisfocus on phenomenology. He draws his conclusions based on observablepatterns found in experiencing the world and in a similar way describes hisobservations to set the scene so that a reader is poised notice those samepatterns. I find in reading his works that, instead of a central argumentbeing drilled into my head through scholarly evidence, I come away withgeneralized feelings. The feelings are nondescript cynicism towards humanhistory and social construction, awe of the natural world and its processes,and discomfort for future social and nature/human interactions.
In Faces, Lingis paints a timeline of human communication using the face aas the center point, vital to non-verbal communication. He states, “A faceis a field that accepts some expressions and connections and neutralizesothers. It is a screen and a framework.” Lingis points to the face as aprojector and receptor of complex emotional communication that the rest ofthe body cannot convey with the same specificity. I also find that he isshowing how as human bodies become more restricted in their actives andappearance by societal rules/norms and language, the face remains the onepoint of powerful self expression and emotional response. Lingis drawsspecial attention to the mystery of the “black holes of the face”, thepupils of the eyes. However he offers no analysis other than selectivedescription to make sense of the information (story) he provides us with.
The Navel of the World I found to be more rich in that Lingis himself ispresent in his discussion. In Faces he was more of an onlooker from above,but in The Navel of the World he is a member of his environment completewith faults, emotions and unanswered questions. Though amidst his personalanecdotes and unfounded historical interludes, Lingis has bursts of criticalthought (on Western dominance, completion, competition, the writing ofhistory, emotion and the sublime) which he skates right through. He statessome view points on a topic and moves right along to the next description. This left me a bit disappointed because as interesting as Easter Island is,what is more interesting in the critical thought on human behaviorengendered by visiting such a place and I would have appreciated more depthin exploring his conclusions.