Angelus Novus (Klee)

Angel (Buffy)

Slavoj Žižek points out two aspects of Walter Benjamin’s notion of divine violence [1]:
1) First divine violence is Angelus Novus who shall avenge the unjust acts against humanity.
2) Second divine violence is the very capricious God who committed those unjust acts, as in the book of Job.

The good hearted “New Angel” is supposed to avenge the acts of the other heartless figure, the “Old Angel” who must be overcome, but given that this second figure also blows the storm of “progress” from Paradise and propels the “New Angel”s wings, this second figure might better be called the “Innovative Angel”. Moreover, since the “New Angel” turns his face to the past in nostalgia, he deserves the name “Ancient Angel”. So each angel receives two names:

1) New Angel = Ancient Angel
2) Old Angel = Innovative Angel

Let’s summarize the political reflection of this picture:

1) First angel belongs to the leftists: He takes the stage as a new option while being inspired by ancient wisdom.
2) Second angel belongs to the rightists: He is motivated to conserve the old but he causes technocratic innovations.

These two sides belong to a single angel. He is like the good hearted soulful vampire hero Angel in the series Buffy and Angel (1997, 1999) who has a heartless dark side, Angelus. One can easily match these figures:

1) Angel: The one who wants to digest the eventful past, deem it ancient, and turn a new page.
2) Angelus: The one who cannot elude his old demonic ways, cannot overcome his innovative drive to enjoy.

Angel intends to take the seeds from the fruits of the past and plant them in a new soil, whereas Angelus is caught up in the drive to enjoy/pretend that originates from the fruitfulness of the past (once upon a time, Angelus had heavily tortured the vamp femme Drusilla, whose name means fruitful). So let’s code the two-faced nature of Angelus Novus as follows:

lâl-ange (mute/red angel)
newangel
knew angel?
nuce angel vs. neon angel

1) Nuce angel: The seed that the good hearted Angel intends to plant in the present time [2].
2) Neon angel: The demonic drive to enjoy/pretend that the heartless Angelus gets caught up in [3].

The real issue in the background of this metaphoric narrative is our human faculties [4].

Işık Barış Fidaner is a computer scientist with a PhD from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. Admin of Yersiz Şeyler, Editor of Žižekian Analysis, Curator of Görce Writings. Twitter: @BarisFidaner

Notes:

[1] See “Angelus Novus” Walter Benjamin, Slavoj Žižek, “Angelus Novus Nasıl Tarih Meleği Oldu?” Gülsen Sırma

[2] See “Düşmüş Meleği Yeniden Ayağa Kaldırmak”, “Melek” Massive Attack

[3] See “The Conning of Reason Brought About The Hyperego”, “Ören Beyan”, “Sessizliğin Sesi” Simon & Garfunkel, “Büyükolizm: Baştan alalım ama bu kez daha duygulu olsun”, “Vamplık ve Zomluk” Slavoj Žižek, “Vamp Güzellerin Köken Hikayesi” Marlen Komar

[4] See “Aşkınsal Nesne: Düşünşey” Slavoj Žižek, “Hermetik: Herr-matic”, “Akıl Altın: Yücelik Akıl Gücünün İkrarıdır” Slavoj Žižek