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Debates about the possibility of an open culture – or indeed about the possibility of an open debate about the openness of culture – often turn on questions of standards. But since no benchmark can be absolute, judgement is a proliferation of comparisons.
Through a series of case studies in everyday and academic comparison (literature, history, politics, philosophy), Haun Saussy calls out the typical vices of comparison and proposes ways to unseat them. For however much it is abused, distorted, and manipulated, comparison retains an essential link to the idea of justice.
Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
The Problem 7
The Unique, the Comparative and the Competitive 9
Reckoning with the Other 19
The Family of Comparisons 29
The Elasticity of Substitution 39
Negative Privilege 47
Birds of a Feather 63
Noli me tangere 71
Near and Far 81
A Museum Without Walls for Walls Without a Museum 91
Making Room 99
Envoi 109
Acknowledgments 111