T he center does not hold. The ground gives way, and we are lost and falling. The ancients knew about the sudden overturning of the order of things: “Catastrophe” derives from the Greek, from “down” and “turn over.” We lose the world we took for granted, and the familiar turns strange. “Familiar”—a word derived from family. At the dawn of Western literature, Homer sang of Odysseus longing to get back to family, to home, to Penelope. For twenty years that clever warrior weeps on strange shores. The Bible, too, begins with the loss of Eden, that perfect garden-home of innocence, before awareness, before knowledge. Home, then, is not merely something to be found in space: home is a state of being; a longing steeped in our earliest fantasies, of touch and bodily presence and love. And of course, because this longing is saturated in fantasies, there may never have been such a home, but rather a memory of a fantasy. Perhaps this fantasy is a primal illusion born in our earliest pre-aware moments on being thrust out into a world we did not choose. Home is a longing for something deep and ineffable. As Bob Dylan (1985) puts it, in Scorsese’s PBS documentary No Direction Home, “I was born very far from where I am supposed to be, and so I’m on my way home.” Home is a longing for the world to be set right. Today this is our collective longing; yet we all long in our own way.

中文翻译：

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脱离世界——以及对家的渴望

该中心不成立。地面让位，我们迷路了，摔倒了。古人知道事物秩序的突然颠覆：“Catastrophe”源自希腊语，来自“down”和“turnover”。我们失去了我们认为理所当然的世界，熟悉的世界变得陌生。“熟悉”——源自家庭的词。在西方文学的曙光中，荷马演唱了奥德修斯渴望回到家人，回到家，回到佩内洛普。二十年来，这位聪明的战士在陌生的海岸上哭泣。圣经也是从失去伊甸开始的，伊甸园是天真无邪的完美花园之家，在意识之前，在知识之前。因此，家不仅仅是可以在空间中找到的东西：家是一种存在状态；一种沉浸在我们最早的幻想中的渴望，对触摸、身体存在和爱的渴望。当然，因为这种渴望充满了幻想，可能从来没有这样的家，而是一个幻想的记忆。也许这种幻想是一种原始的幻想，在我们被推入一个我们没有选择的世界时，我们最早的预知时刻就产生了。家是对某种深刻而难以言喻的东西的渴望。正如鲍勃·迪伦 (Bob Dylan) (1985) 在斯科塞斯 (Scorsese) 的 PBS 纪录片《无家可归》(No Direction Home) 中所说，“我出生在离我应该去的地方很远的地方，所以我正在回家的路上。” 家是对世界正确的渴望。今天，这是我们共同的渴望；然而我们都渴望自己的方式。在斯科塞斯的 PBS 纪录片 No Direction Home 中，“我出生在离我应该去的地方很远的地方，所以我正在回家的路上。” 家是对世界正确的渴望。今天，这是我们共同的渴望；然而我们都渴望自己的方式。在斯科塞斯的 PBS 纪录片 No Direction Home 中，“我出生在离我应该去的地方很远的地方，所以我正在回家的路上。” 家是对世界正确的渴望。今天，这是我们共同的渴望；然而我们都渴望自己的方式。