I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

Girard’s most compact statement of his own theory, argued from scripture. Desire is imitative, so rivalry is built into human groups; archaic societies discharged the resulting violence by converging on a victim, and the peace that followed made the victim look guilty and the killing look sacred. What the Gospels do, on Girard’s reading, is narrate the same mechanism from the victim’s side and declare him innocent — which is why the mechanism no longer works reliably, and why modern societies both defend victims obsessively and keep producing them.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the Literature and Societal Critique section alongside DeLillo and Houellebecq — the theoretical key to the section, since Girard derived mimetic desire from novels before he applied it to religion.

Where I saw it: On Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Literature and Societal Critique, saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription lives on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• René Girard — the author.
• Mimetic Desire — the mechanism the book argues from.
• Mimetic Theory — the wider framework.
• Christianity — the tradition whose texts Girard reads as exposing the scapegoat mechanism.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.