Omnicide: Mania, Fatality, and Future-in-Delirium by Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh (review) Ekin Erkan Philosophy East and West, Volume 69, Number 4, 2019, pp. 3-6 (Review) Published by University of Hawai'i Press For additional information about this article Access provided for user 'ee2447' at 7 Jan 2020 05:27 GMT from Columbia University Libraries https://muse.jhu.edu/article/745294 Philosophy	East	&	West	Volume	69,	Number	4	October	2019 ©	2019	by	University	of	Hawai'i	Press BOOK	REVIEW Omnicide:	Mania,	Fatality,	and	Future-in-Delirium.	By	Jason	Bahbak	Mohaghegh Cambridge, MA: Urbanomic/Sequence and MIT Press, 2019. Pp. xxii + 464. Paper	$29.95,	ISBN	978-0-997567-46-5. Reviewed	by	Ekin	Erkan The	New	Centre	for	Research	&	Practice ekin.erkan@thenewcentre.org Urbanomic/Sequence	Press'	most	recent	publication,	Omnicide:	Mania,	Fatality and Future-in-Delirium (2019), finds Iranian-American philosopher and comparative literature theorist Jason	Bahbak	Mohaghegh	carving the figure	of the	diffracted	neo-Bedouin	wanderer,	whose	mania	we	tail	through	the	book's haunted	pages.	The	book's	namesake, "omnicide," refers to the	complete	and total	erasure	of	the	Earth--the	term	has	most	recently	been	generally	applied	in ecological contexts, most markedly in regards to the Anthropocene and futurology.	However,	it	is	the	explicitly	poetic	and	literary	intersection	between mania and the grotesque that	Mohaghegh inches us towards, lifting omnicide from	its	proscriptive	use	in	the	Western	philosophical/sociological	tradition	and goading it towards an unfamiliar cryptic terrain. Surveying ten contemporary Middle	Eastern	poets	and fiction	writers, including	Sadeq	Hedayat (Iran),	Réda Bensmaia (Algeria), Samuel Adonis (Syria), Joyce Mansour (Egypt), Forugh Farrokhzad	(Iran),	Ibrahim	al-Koni	(Libya),	Ahmad	Shamlu	(Iran),	Ghada	Samman (Lebanon),	Mahmoud	Darwish	(Palestine)	and	Hassim	Blasim	(Iraq),	Mohaghegh parses	curious	stanzas	and	plucks	spectral	paragraphs	from	myriad	texts	so	as	to navigate the largely occluded and excised narratives of the contemporary Middle Eastern philosophical-literary canon. Not only does Mohaghegh acuminate the multifaceted question of mania and its variegated networks, chambers,	byways	and	sunken	burrows--so	as	to	juxtapose	two	different	world literatures (East and West)--but Mohaghegh also illuminates this oeuvre to affront the Western psychoanalytic treatment of mania as an exclusionary vessel. Thus, despite	Mohaghegh avoiding any explicit references to	Western philosophers	and	scientists,	both	the	codified	dictum	of	the	medical	decree	and the hyper-genealogical superlative tradition of Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault	and	their	contemporaries	rankle	Omnicide's	annals. Mohaghegh	begins	with	a	frank	admission:	rather	than	treat	mania	as	an object	of	didactic	study	to	be	harryingly	prodded	at	and	examined in isolation, this book welcomes imbibing in mania's pyrexial haze and gyrating in its drunken	stuporous	ceremony.	Mohaghegh	remarks	that	"[t]he	proper	approach to a book of mania is to show willingness to enter manic straits and apply Philosophy	East	&	West	Volume	69,	Number	4	October	2019 ©	2019	by	University	of	Hawai'i	Press maniacal	styles"	(p.	14),	co-opting	mania's	rhythm	and	dance,	so	as	to	interpret its	syncopation	with	unrivaled	vigor.	It	is	in	this	enchanted	intersection	between scrutiny	and	complicity that	we follow	our	guide through	a fragmented	mania tabula, inaugurating	our	descent into these subterranean chambers	of fatality and omnicidal destination with "augomania" (mania qua sunlight). From this point forwards,	becoming	entwined	with	mania's seductive	grasp is inevitable, albeit	richly	rewarding. Each	chapter	parses	a	particular	strand	of	mania,	as	we	find	Mohaghegh depluming	the	aforementioned	writers'	works	to	hallucinate	in	half-storytelling, half-theoretical	prose.	With	each instantiation	and	persona--the fortune teller, the assassin, the fatigued desert-dweller and a host of forlorn renegades--we reach	new inflected	heights.	For instance,	Mohaghegh	recalls Joyce	Mansour's description of an amputated limb, sumptuously gleaming and framed in the flaxen sunlight, which "enables a spotlight effect to entwine seamlessly with horror" (Mansour,	quoted	on	p. 34). In turn,	Mohaghegh turns	his	magnifying glass to the bond between light and mania. This is further inflamed by the recurrent link between the moon and the selenomaniac, through which the dream	distends,	bursting into	a	nightmare	before lapsing into "ultimate fiasco (disarray	of	mind)"	(p.	89). Meditating	on	Ahmad	Shamlu's	description	of the	selenomaniac,	we	are immersed	in	esoteric	ritual	with	the	moon,	smuggling	tonics	and	conspiratorial whispers	while	"drawing	blades"	against	it	(Shamlu,	quoted	on	p.	103).	Further deliberating	on	this	schizo-position,	Mohaghegh	reveals	one	of	Omnicide's	most central	concerns: "[w]hat is it exactly that occurs when one punishes an ocean channel with whips and manacle,	or	takes	a	steel	weapon	to	the	moon?	Are	the	psychoanalysts	right	to	pore	over such dreams only to yield reductive interpretations of paranoia, or is there a grander cosmological tremor in play here, some	magnificent determination known only to	mad emperors	and	sorcerer	poets,	a	megalomaniacal	gesticulation that	actually	makes	viable for	a	split	second	what	was	otherwise	foolish?"	(p.	103) By recalling the selenomaniac's rending and lacerating the moon into immortal	fragmentary	slices,	Mohaghegh	introduces	a	critical	clarification	to	our alternate understanding of mania, complicating and upending the Western philosophical-psychoanalytic tradition once	more. Riven from its irresponsibly and, often, reductively linked bondage	with the pleasure-principle, the	manic object--in	our	case	the	"unclean	moon,"	a	site	of	infinite	abjection--becomes	the source of a potentially lethal burden and perceptual ruse, indoctrinating the concomitant transcendent touch to the manic figure rendered unapologetic. Mohaghegh's	is	an	unfamiliar	mania,	a	kaleidoscopic	likeness	bearing	altogether novel trajectories. By inverting the moon's analogical effects and luminescence's terrifying neutrality from its safe didactic reserve,	Mohaghegh weaves an arachnean latticework between nocturnal	windfall, sleep paralysis, Philosophy	East	&	West	Volume	69,	Number	4	October	2019 ©	2019	by	University	of	Hawai'i	Press and mythic reverie, directing us deeper into manic engagement--or, as Mohaghegh	terms	it,	the	"gift	of	the	nightmare"	(p.	114). Further imbibing from	mania's cask, we follow	Mohaghegh deeper into the esoteric link between mania and willed evisceration, introduced to dromomania (travelling), ecdemomania (wandering), cartogramania (maps), kinetomania (continual movement), dinomania (dizziness, whirlpools), and labyrintomania (labyrinths). Such is the figure of the	wandering	migrant, the neo-Bedouin whose stammering wander-lines of nonbelonging and open territorialization	supersede	alienation,	exile,	and	the	thresholds	of	soil-stricken pathways and bound borders. Mohaghgeh introduces us to butchers and guerilla	fighters	alongside	figures	of	the	hermetic	deviant,	crestfallen	loner	and veiled woodsman, charting supra-psychopathic lines between terrestrial voracity. As	we follow	Mohaghegh's text,	we	become	one	with this inevitable process	of	"going	bodiless	and	going	dreamless,	offsetting	the	earth's	clench	by grasping	nothing"	(p.	162). Scouring Forough Farrokhzad's figure of the sacred firefall temple (atroshan)	and	never-extinguishing	flame	(pp.	222-223)	while	closely	examining Ahmad Shamlu's description of "ghostly poisonous reptiles" and drunken camels	(p.229),	Mohaghegh	devises	an	alternate	theory	of	manic	sovereignty	by construing mania-as-pharmakon (as both poison and cure). The neo-Bedouin wanderer's	logic	of	false	possession	and	succulent	dreams	offsets	the	dialectical distantiation	between the	material and	abstract self. In response to	an	earlier inquiry, "what comes of a philosophical school (psychoanalysis) that locates almost the entirety of its diagnostic fury in body and dreams when it finally meets	the	one	who	willfully	masters	both	bodilessness	and	dreamlessness?"	(p. 162),	we	now	reach	a	rejoinder,	both	resolving	and	liberating	the	uncanny	from its	historical	chokehold. Inextricably, the uncanny has remained one of the central inveterate "dinomaniacal" puzzles of vertiginous disbelief and self-mystification. For instance,	in	psychoanalysis	we	almost	always	uncover	anxiety	as	the	root	cause of robust disorientation, such that the everyday object--"a household article once	well-acquainted	but	now	turned	threateningly	peculiar"	(p.	263)--devolves into an archeologically-excavated haunting site of taboo drives and wrecked alienation, thus fomenting the Freudian-Lacanian castration complex and its necessary remedy through sublimation ("the cure"). However, through the "willed dementia" of the "master-poet-becoming-ex-nihilo-child," who reinstantiates the "omnipotence	of thought" (p.	264)	buried	and	entombed	by psychoanalysis, Mohaghgegh seeks to laud the teratological force of funeral bells, smoke rings, anti-dancers, and shriveled fingers, elbows, and twitching bulges. Traipsing through such streaks of mania and Mohaghegh's detailed recounting, the reader finds resolve in the	conclusion that there is, in fact,	no need	for	a	cure	but	only	the	necromancing	caper	of	enchantment. Philosophy	East	&	West	Volume	69,	Number	4	October	2019 ©	2019	by	University	of	Hawai'i	Press The reader ought to be braced for catacombs and swarming street children	alongside	wheezing	blood-red	flowers	floating	in	streams.	Such	spatial imaginaries of complexion intently sabotage the transversal divide between feigned delineations and divisions such as East-West or ancient-postmodern. This	is	comparative	literature	at	its	most	philosophical	and	speculative,	although Mohaghegh's engagement with literary analysis is entirely self-sufficient, wrested	free	from	the	constraints	of	over-abundant	Continental	citations;	thus, we	are	privy	to	Mohaghegh's	imagination	running	wild	(and	all	the	better	for	it). What	we	are	left	with	is	a	pulsating,	infectious	image	of	mania	as	the	complete victory	of	the	outside,	the	swarming	of	sheer	circulatory	suffocation.	This	book finds Mohaghegh fully embracing the grandeur of the illusion, giants (colossomania) pressing their footsteps in the reader's cavernous grotto, forming	an	alloy	between	mania	and	paranoia so	as to	produce	a	missing link between	universal	delirium	and	conspiracy.	Not	for	the	weak	of	heart,	Omnicide is a truly singular	work that finds	Mohaghegh at his best, poetically liberated, shrewd	and	well	deserving	of	the	title	"literary	mystic."