Savage

Summary

Dominique Pagani starts from etymology: the savage (sauvage) is first of all the one who runs away (se sauve), and who flees into the forest, the selva or silva, because he has sensed a danger1. He thus distinguishes him from the barbarian. The savagery he describes is precarious and vulnerable, defeated by better-equipped forces2. He compares it to defenceless flesh, like an oyster without its shell, which has required millennia of means of protection. For him, this "ancient savagery" lies on the border between culture and nature, history and evolution, anthropology and zoology3. He links it to Nietzsche: the ancient savagery is forgiven, whereas the ape makes man feel shame, and it is through shame that man represses this savagery4. He pays tribute to the savage, who reminds us that we must keep some room for manoeuvre in order to run away when the contract is no longer fulfilled5. In 2025, reading one of Rimbaud's Illuminations, he notes that love keeps a savage side.

1. 1S for Savagery2 Jan 2015 · 1:59
2. 2#10 Benefits and harms of amnesia…24 Dec 2020 · 25:26
3. 3A springtime of the peoples?18 Mar 2023 · 39:30
4. 4A springtime of the peoples?18 Mar 2023 · 1:38:07
5. 5S for Savagery2 Jan 2015 · 10:19

Summary produced automatically from 8 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.