251202 — rkive's story explanation

 

📕 Context

These photos show two pages from a Korean philosophical/critical theory book.

The highlighted sections discuss the meaning of pain, suffering, coexistence, love, and art, referencing ideas from Theodor Adorno, a prominent philosopher of the Frankfurt School.

📌 Overall Theme

The text argues that true existence, love, and meaningful relationships require the ability to experience pain. Pain is described as something that wakes people up to reality, breaks superficial coexistence, and allows genuine connection.

📝 Page 1 summary

→ When humans can endure pain, they become truly present and authentic.

→ Without pain, we cannot see the world properly nor form meaningful relationships.

→ A life free of pain becomes comfortable but hollow, leading to shallow relationships.

→ True, living relationships inevitably contain pain.

→ Mechanical, lifeless coexistence does not cause pain because it lacks true connection.

→ Pain distinguishes living relationships from dead ones.

→ Modern people avoid painful relationships and seek only comfortable, controlled situations.

→ Because of this, love loses its depth and becomes superficial.

📝 Page 2 summary

The second page shifts to art and Adorno's philosophy:

→ Artists historically rejected commercialization.

→ Adorno said art should cause a kind of “shock” or “jolt,” waking people up.

→ Good art disturbs, embarrasses, challenges, or even hurts the viewer.

→ Art lives in an unfamiliar place, not in comfort.

→ Pain caused by art allows resistance against a world dominated by uniformity.

→ True art breaks the monotony of everyday life.

→ Adorno describes noise or disturbance in art as the “earliest form of aesthetic image.”

→ People who avoid all suffering become trapped in a monotonous, objectified life.

→ Only when something disrupts our sameness can we live authentically.

→ Without such disruption, we remain in “the hell of the identical.”

📚 In short

The text argues:

Pain is essential for love, genuine relationships, real life, and meaningful art.

Avoiding pain leads to emptiness, uniformity, and a loss of humanity.