I'm Ruined: Follow Me, Like Me, Emulate Me

The Theology and Psychology of Performative Failure

Now I am quietly waiting for/ the catastrophe of my personality/ to seem beautiful again,/ and interesting, and modern. (Frank O’Hara, “Mayakovsky”)

The Talmud (Brachot 3a) offers three reasons one should not enter a ruin:

1. Suspicion

2. Collapse

3. Demons

On the face of it, this is a simple rule: ruins are shady places where untoward, under-the-table activity occur…