Logics of Effect and Affect

The similarities of the words affect (n. emotion), affect (v. passive, acted upon) and effect (v. active, act upon) heightens the tension between “affective logic” and “rational logic” (as it relates to the chain of cause-effect relations) and suggests a sort of sliding of meaning, even more pronounced when the words are only heard (as a result of the primacy of the “uh” sound in the predominant American dialect).

Examples of How Meaning Might Change:                                                                    

[be changed; or perhaps made more emotional]

- “To be emotional is to have one’s judgment affected” (3)

- To be emotional is to have one’s judgment affected

[emotions generate other things; emotions generate emotions]

- “The ‘nation’ becomes a shared ‘object of feeling’ through the ‘orientation’ that is taken towards it.  As such, emotions are performative and they involve speech acts, which depend on past histories, at the same time as the generate effects” (13)

- The ‘nation’ becomes a shared ‘object of feeling’ through the ‘orientation’ that is taken towards it.  As such, emotions are performative and they involve speech acts, which depend on past histories, at the same time as the generate affects

[the emotionality of pain; pain as acted upon; the success of pain]

- “The affectivity of pain is crucial to the forming of the body as both a material and lived entity” (24)

- The effectiveness of pain is crucial to the forming of the body as both a material and lived entity

[emotion is a product of circulation; there is a product of the emotion of commodity circulation]

- “Emotions work as a form of capital: affect does not reside positively in the sign or commodity, but is produced as an effect of its circulation” (45)

- Emotions work as a form of capital: effect does not reside positively in the sign of commodity, but is produced as an affect of its circulation

[products of negative feelings; emotions of negative feelings]

- “Negative feelings ‘within’ might also be effects.  The very distinction between inside and outside might be affected by hate” (50)

- Whilst there is of course a certain truth within this insistence (bad feelings are crucial to modes of subject formation), negative feelings ‘within’ might also be affects.  The very distinction between inside and outside might be affected by hate

[the façade of boundaries; the façade of boundaries]

- “Emotions are not a positive form of dwelling, but produce the effect of surfaces and boundaries of bodies” (194)

- Emotions are not a positive form of dwelling, but produce the affects of surfaces and boundaries of bodies