The Art of Disengagement
Midsommar, Scapegoating, and the Anti-Mimetic Mind
The French social theorist René Girard once remarked that the Egyptian pyramids — stone monuments constructed over the tops of dead kings — were architectural designs that symbolized something more profound in human behavior. The pyramids, he said, are a reflection of what a pile of rocks looks like after a collective stoning. Art reflects nature.
“There is no culture without a tomb and no tomb without a culture; in the end the tomb is the first and only cultural symbol. The above-ground tomb does not have to be invented. It is the pile of stones in which the victim of the unanimous stoning is buried. It is the first pyramid.” — René Girard
The pyramidal design of the Egyptians was not used for aesthetic reasons. It was used because it most accurately reflected a cultural truth: ritualized violence, covered up under layer upon layer of culture.
This week I’ll give the hidden backstory to the events that take place in the 2019 horror film Midsommar.
First, a word on stoning.
The Mimetics of Stoning
Where did the phrase “casting the first stone” come from, and why does it carry such cultural power? The words themselves come from the eighth chapter of the gospel of John, the story of…
