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Honours Specialization with Distinction in PhilosophyKings University CollegeWestern University, London ON Philosophy award recipient for highest average (2012)

LETTER OF INTENT

This is a letter of intent. Different from a personal statement; a letter of intent is not simply about an

individual and all their accolades, a letter of intent is more like a first date. Who are you and what are your

intentions with me – professionally, of course? I am someone who knows how to ‘fill in the blanks’. I have a keen

sense of recognizing an existing need and filling it. That still leaves us with my intentions. I can honestly say that

at this point in my life, my passion is beginning to surpass my professional and academic abilities. My intentions

match with the recognition of my own existing need: to go from self-taught marketing professional, to well-

rounded communications expert. In this letter, I hope to demonstrate why I would be the perfect fit for the MPC

program, and more so why the program is the perfect fit for me.

I somehow survived an Honors Specialization in Philosophy while working full-time as a Personal

Support Worker. It was not easy, but my mother had lost her job, and I was on a full scholarship (The National

Millennium Excellence Scholarship), which would not allow me to take time off. To save myself time and grief, I

ended up quickly developing a process and stuck to it like glue; I took each lecture and applied it to the reading

as if it were a very lengthy thesis statement, I would then extract key ideas and apply those to each assignment.

This was my way of ensuring that each professor’s expectation of demonstrated comprehension was fulfilled

before adding my perspective to the topic at hand. In 2012, I received the Philosophy award for receiving the

highest average in the entire program which proved to me that my system worked – figure out the question, and

answer it before you do anything else, because in Philosophy it is easy to get carried away.

After I graduated, I decided to take time off, mostly so I could recuperate but also so I could come to

terms with myself and what I wanted to pursue as a career. I did not want to apply to schools just because I

could, but because I was passionate about what I would learn and contribute. Last year, my mother started her

own business and asked me to build their website. Stunned and annoyed that she thought I could just learn how

to build a website, I didn’t have much choice – she is my mother. To this day, I am very grateful that she asked

because I ended up loving web design, and from there I delved into web analytics and online marketing. I was

not only becoming passionate about what I was learning, but I found that I enjoyed sharing what I learned with

others.

It is easy to become overwhelmed when trying to give your business an online presence but I know how

to cut through the clutter, and there is a real need for someone with a lot of patience to show entrepreneurs

how they can be their own best marketing agency. That is why I founded a freelance business called DIY for

Business (DIYB) to help small business owners and startups gain the skills and insights they need to be

independent marketers through customized videos and one-on-one tutorials. Given that I am the brand of DIYB,

its success depends greatly on my ability to provide the best, most effective content conveyed in a clear easy-to-

understand manner. That is why taking the MPC program, one that offers Advanced Editing & Document Design

and Advanced Speaking and Presentation Technology will not only fill in the gaps of my current professional skill

set, it will allow clients to place their confidence in my abilities.

I recently stopped a client from buying 1000 links to his website for $1000. Thinking that it would

improve his ranking on Google, I explained that it was actually search engine optimization (SEO) suicide.

Unfortunately, many business owners and even marketing professionals do not know that the best marketing

campaigns include a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Content marketing consists of providing

potential consumers with real, valuable content (in lieu of advertising) on a regular basis, thus gaining loyal

customers by relying on this content for knowledge, growth or entertainment. After reaching out to Joe Pulizzi,

author of Epic Content Marketing, we discussed that aside from e-books, infographics and white papers that

explain how to develop a content marketing strategy, there is a lack of academic resources that discuss what

content marketing is, how it has evolved, and its influence in the world of communications. These are the

reasons why I would be deeply interested in lending myself to inquiry and research in this field. Under the

supervision of professors like Wendy Freeman, Jean Mason and Jaigris Hodson, my goal is to synthesize and

provide a qualitative analysis of content marketing, in comparison to other forms of marketing. I would employ

the same academic rigor that I employed for my philosophy major, whilst also incorporating my own

documented results with clients. After completion of the MPC program, my goal is to share my research paper

and contribute to the discussion on content marketing from a much needed academic stance, providing

evidence that content marketing strategies will provide depth and longevity.

My education and work experience have proven that I am adept at recognizing needs and working to fill

them. My instincts tell me that the MPC program will fill an important need in my career goals and enable me to

grow as a professional. I look forward to a future where I can apply my creativity, heart and most importantly,

my expertise to help those who have poured their blood, sweat and tears into their business, making them their

own best marketing professional. Streamlining the process and minimizing the learning curve will enable me to

put the best version of a business forward. Firstly however, I need to put the best version of myself forward. I

am certain that the MPC program will help me achieve this.

WRITING SAMPLE

Warsan Amin

Phil 4077G

Prof Lofts

April 12 2012

Summary: The following is an essay that I had written for a philosophy seminar class that was entitled “Religion without Religion”, that included philosophers such as Bataille, Heidegger and Cassirer. We were free to write our essay on any topic, as long we could “prove” to our professor that we not only understood the philosopher, but could account for their concepts in reality. Therefore, I chose to interview my sister’s experience of being offered the chance to see our father’s corpse shortly after he had died during the civil war in Somalia. To me, this was the perfect account of Bataille’s philosophy at play. I chose this piece because of its mix of comprehension and creativity with a little journalism. Of all the essays that I have written in my undergraduate career, this one is the most important to me. My professor for this class was Dr. Stephen Lofts, who I have also provided as my referee, therefore can attest to my grade of 90% on this essay.

With Her Father’s Body: A look at Bataille’s philosophy through the lens of a girl and her father’s corpse

One of the most unpleasant rituals that still exist in our contemporary world is a funeral.

Regardless of belief or religion, reverence is always shown for the dead. We mourn our loss, but respect

what remains of them in this world. But what happens when feelings of sadness and loss are confronted

by feelings of curiosity and intrigue? In the following essay, I will provide a brief overview of Bataille’s

philosophical views, followed by a story of my sister Filsan’s experiences in the presence of our father’s

corpse. I will then employ Filsan’s story to display Bataille’s concepts as it exists in reality, and provide

uncomfortable insight into the aforementioned question: can we reconcile (seemingly) irreconcilable

emotions?

Restricted and General Economy

Much of Bataille’s philosophy consists of concepts that build upon one another. Thus, in order to

understand Bataille’s later concepts such as ‘erotism’ and the sacred, we must first develop an

understanding of his concepts, general economy and restricted economy. General economy is the more

primordial of the two economies. Here we have pure expenditure; we negate our time and resources with

no return or expectation of return1. This economy is void of all meaning; it is simply the destruction of

time, value and objects with no return, it produces nothing2. Even though this economy is based on pure

expenditure, it is this economy that essentially drives our society and defines us as human beings.

Restricted economy refers to reason in the greater sense of the word, where to experience is to

experience meaning for consciousness3. Everything that we think or do in our rational lives is always for

the sake of restricted economy4. In this economy, we offer our time and resources but only for a future

return5. This economy gives our lives definition and meaning, and every action we make in our lives has

reasons behind those actions6. Restricted economy represents a whole system of discourse that produces

meaning and return, and it is upon this meaning-given structure that we are dependent.

Although the term erotism has proven difficult to define, it may be best described as the

‘reverberation’ between continuity and discontinuity; neither here, nor there, erotism is the vibration

between both structures. Continuity can be described as the ontological structure of general economy; it

is the negation of negations, “water within water”7.The use of metaphors is required to attempt to

discuss the concept of continuity, given that we are, strictly speaking, unable to even think ‘continuity’

on our world of restricted economy. If we were able to grasp the concept of continuity in its entirety, it

would be within the realm of discontinuity. Discontinuity, the ontological structure of restricted

economy, is described as its not being anything else; is refers to a world of meaning, return and limits8.

1 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille. 2 Ibid. 3 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille. 8 Ibid.

All things that are discontinuous are finite. We are share the same existential desire to negate negation –

or discontinuity – and return to continuity; continuity is the structure that will free us from the

restrictions that suffocate the ‘geist’9 of our life10. Since every society needs balance between

discontinuity and continuity, they possess regulatory mechanisms that get ingrained into every culture.

We can only engage in momentary experiences with continuity, because return to pure continuity is

death – the ultimate erotistic act11. Continuity frees our lives, only by freeing us from life itself.

When engaged in erotistic acts there are no limits or differences, discontinuity is an illusion. You

can experience this limitless freedom on three different levels: the physical, the social and the religious.

The lowest level of overcoming is the physical, or ‘the sexual’. An example of the physical/sexual level

is Bataille’s reference to orgasms as petit morts [little deaths]12. He aims to elicit the idea of two

becoming one, and it is in this moment that the destruction of discontinuity is experienced. The second

level of erotism is ‘the social’, where the distance between people is unraveled and the unity of the

collective is exposed and shared on this spiritual level13. The third and highest level of erotism is the

level of ‘the religious’, because it is the structure of religion that produces what Bataille refers to as, ‘the

sacred’ – the presence of continuity within discontinuity14. We can deduce that the function of erotism is

to make as much continuity present within the structure of discontinuity, without the permanent

destruction of either structure.

Erotism and the sacred are created by sacrifice, also known as pure expenditure15. Erotism is

about how you feel, and the sacred is the object of this experience. Within restricted economy the

9 Geist: the spirit of an object, person, or grouping of things and/or people 10 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille.

system of rules and taboos is created in order to protect the system from pure expenditure, which regards

pure expenditure as being irrational and violent16. This is meant to protect work that constructs machines

of meaning. It is the rules and taboos that sets forth discontinuity and creates fundamental distinctions

that give us our identity and our place within the referential totality of relevance in our society. The only

way to remove oneself from this referential totality is through transgression, or aufgohoben – that which

negates and preserves simultaneously. One must internalize the rule in order to disobey it and establish

continuity. To transgress is to feel like one is breaking the rules of nature, and when engaged in a

transgressive act, we are attracted and repulsed at the same time and by the same transgressive act. It is

the dual nature of the split.

Festival

The regulatory mechanisms used between general economy and restricted economy can be

referred to as festivals. It is during the festival that the two economies are intertwined, though at the

heart of the festival, restricted economy loses ground17. The festival is also a crossroads of the sacred

and transgression, it is a religious feast but it is not true return to continuity18. Sacrifices in these

festivals are not simply valuable objects that we kill or break then give to the gods for a long rain

season, these sacrifices only attempt to take something out of its meaning and utility; “it is trying to

remove the man from the farmer as a thing”(Lofts, 2012). “Sacrifice is the antithesis to the future

[…],”(Theory of Religion, 58)19 because the festival is characterized as a suspension of time – you are

in the moment and for the moment. During the festival, everything is simply about the movement of

energy. The essential aim of a festival is to go back to the inner experience, the immanence that destroys

16 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille. 17 Lecture Series: Bataille. Stephen Lofts. 18 Ibid. 19 Theory of Religion. Georges Bataille.

the subject-object distinction and the inner-outer existence20. In the festival, there is a seeing into the

sacrificed thing, a fulfillment of need and the self’s need being negated. It is through the negation of the

other object that we negate our own negation. And this is what makes us human.

The Sacred

What is important is the voyage or the movement towards continuity without actually getting to

pure continuity during the festival21. Humanity wants to liberate themselves from the lack of distinction

between subject and object, and the sacred introduces continuity by creating discontinuity through work;

it is the tool that introduces exteriority and discloses interiority22. When acts of transgression are

committed during a festival, the object of the transgressive act is the sacred23. The sacred is continuity

being revealed in a profane world; it is where immanence breaks into transcendence24. The sacred is

consecrated by the gods and also held as that which is vile and violent25. Although the ultimate return to

continuity is death, human beings do not desire death, per se, and that is why it is both consecrated and

vile. What is truly desired during our lifetime is to momentarily approach the precipice of continuity

without eternally falling into it. “Death is simply the illusion of being that clings to its ephemeral being”

(Lofts, 2012)26.

As we put our heads to our pillow each night, there is always at least one thought that we refuse

to share with others, a fantasy in which we are free to transgress and indulge. It is part of our human

condition, we all have these thoughts and yet when we rise the next morning, we are so quick to dismiss

that same desire with revulsion and abhorrence. We engage in this process because it is also part of our

20 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille. 21 Ibid. 22 Lecture Series: Bataille. Stephen Lofts. 23 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille. 24 Lecture Series. Bataille. Stephen Lofts. 25 The Accursed Share. Georges Bataille. 26 Lecture Series: Bataille. Stephen Lofts

human condition to obey the regulatory mechanisms of taboos set by our society. Our temporary

indulgences in our sick desires is actually a temporary indulgence in continuity, but we always return to

our meaningful world of work and rules, the realm of restricted economy. But what happens when our

fantasies do not suffice?

What do you do if you are faced with the choice of seeing your father’s dead body? Would you

choose to see it and suffer the consequences of such a sight? Or would you turn away and refuse your

last moments with the man that raised you? What happens if the decision-making process is more

perverse than this? How would you react to the urges of gazing upon a dead body, even if it is your

father’s? How do you reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable desires?

When my sister, Filsan, was given the choice of having one last look at our father’s corpse, she

didn’t know if she was ready to see the effects of death. “On the one hand the horror of death drives us

off, for we prefer life; on the other an element at once solemn and terrifying fascinates us and disturbs us

profoundly” (Erotism, 45)27. Filsan knew in the back of her mind that if she chose to see the corpse, the

image of our father’s withering, decaying body would be etched in her mind for as long as she had

memory. Even if she eventually ended up suffering from memory loss one day, she feared that an aura

of disgust would linger like a ghost. Once the revulsion overcame her desire of seeing the body, she may

never be able to escape the nightmares that would plague her every time she closed her eyes. And yet, a

corpse was a corpse and she desperately wanted to see it. Blaming it on her keen sense of intrigue as a

child, it is obvious to me that she holds to this conclusion in order to lessen the pain of what she had

experienced. Filsan reasoned with herself that she should say goodbye since that was why she had been

given the opportunity in the first place, but her genuine desires were so much more than just bidding

farewell to someone that was already gone.

27 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille.

She stated that part of the allure was in never having seen our father so still before. He was a

very active, lively, and productive man; constantly on the move, always doing something. He constantly

reflected on the fact that one day he would die, and regularly professed the importance of not wasting

our time on earth. She also added that she would sometimes watch him sleep and that even in his repose

he breathed deeply and heavily. Never did he remain perfectly still. “A man’s dead body must always

have been a source of interest to those whose companion he was while he lived…(Erotism, 46)28. She

admitted that she wanted to see what it was like for him to be perfectly still.

It was at this moment that she realized her reasons and desires behind seeing her father’s corpse

were sick and twisted. Filsan felt as though she lacked humanity but was also fully aware of her level of

intrigue. Whilst dealing with this existential dilemma, she had to come to a final decision. No matter

what, it would come down to confronting his corpse, or not confronting his corpse, “[w]hen a negative

emotion has the upper hand we must obey the taboo. When a positive emotion is in the ascendant we

violate it” (Erotism, 64)29. Interestingly enough, Filsan attempted to reconcile the two choices: at the

very last moment before entering the room, she decided to cover her eyes and rely only on her sense of

smell.

She walked in, and the first thing she sensed in the room was its utter emptiness. It was the void

in the room, not death, which became the catalyst of her tears. Thus, she finally understood what death

meant: death was emptiness. “Death is nothing in immanence…because it is nothing”(Theory of

Religion, 45)30. She went on to say “I was in the room with our dead father, but honestly there was

nothing there; nothing except for me and the smell” (Filsan, 2012). The smell was overwhelmingly

putrid but she continued to inhale knowing that it was her last moments with what was left of our father.

28 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille. 29 Ibid. 30 Theory of Religion. Georges Bataille.

And yet, it could be said that this reaction, this “spontaneous physical revulsion keeps alive in some

indirect fashion at least the consciousness that the terrifying face of death, its stinking putrefaction, are

to be identified with the sickening primary condition of life” (Erotism, 78)31.

It was only when tears began to pool around her nostrils and she was unable to smell the body

anymore that she decided to leave the room. Filsan thought about taking her hands off her eyes to wipe

her tears away from her nose but was scared that she would be so tempted to see the body, so she

amazingly decided to leave the room instead. Upon exiting the room, she already started to become

haunted by the smell and the idea that one day she would smell like that too. “[She] perceived the

transition from the living state to the corpse, that is, to the tormenting object that the corpse of [our

father] is for [her]. For [her] who regarded it with awe, the corpse is the image of [her] own destiny”

(Erotism, 44)32.

Most of this story might not seem realistic, and that a sane person would not be able to

experience the corpse of a loved one in this manner. But now I have started to realize that it is very

possible that others can and may have been conflicted in a similar manner, but would never admit it.

They keep it in their fantasies, and let it dance around in their dreams. It is with Filsan’s telling of this

haunting story that we might become uncomfortable, but serves as proof of Bataille’s philosophy at

play.

We dwell within two economies. There is restricted economy where everything has meaning,

and every single one of our actions or negation of other actions is for the sake of a meaningful return. In

this realm, everything makes sense and everything has boundaries; one could actually postulate that

everything makes sense because it has boundaries. In order to be productive, we must establish taboos

31 Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Georges Bataille. 32 Ibid.

that prevent us from expenditure without return; and the ultimate taboo is death because it is the ultimate

expenditure without return. Filsan was face-to-face with the ultimate taboo - the death of her father.

The other realm is that of general economy, the economy of continuity. Her father entered pure

continuity and left her behind. Not only did he negate all time and resources with no return, he himself

was also not about to return, and Filsan knew this. Although death happened to him, it was the ultimate

giving. It is the ultimate emptiness; the negation of negations. Without giving in to pure continuity, to

death like her Father, she attempted to get close to the precipice of continuity, but simply did not get

close enough. It is acts pertaining to general economy that defines who we are as humans, and clearly

this experience ultimately defined her as well.

In terms of Erotism, she was definitely moving between continuity and discontinuity. She

wanted get close to the dead body, to see a side of death that she has never seen before, but she did not

want to give into death. The body of her father was enough; it was sacred. "What is sacred attracts and

possesses incomparable value, but at the same time it appears vertiginously dangerous for that clear and

profane world where mankind situates its privileged domain" (Theory of Religion, 36)33. Due to her

father's corpse being the sacred of her half-transgression, this means she was engaged in the highest

level of erotism - the religious, although she was experiencing it alone. Her father's body was the

presence of continuity within discontinuity, and the emptiness signified this. In terms of immanence, it

was clear that she finally realized her time is limited. She always heard her father saying it but she never

fathomed that it would come true.

If transgression is supposed to be a negation and a preservation, then Filsan tried to transgress

transgression. She attempted to place herself in the in-between. The question now remains, did she

33 Theory of Religion. Georges Bataille.

succeed in reconciling her two emotions? The answer is clearly no. Trangression has to be a negation

and a preservation. Why is it that both must occur simultaneously? It is because the dual nature of

transgression is divided into 'good' and 'bad' and then the good is upheld by society so that they may

continue to make taboos, things that are consecrecrated by the gods. Let us for a moment think about

what would happen if we could reside between the aufgohoben: the split would not occur, taboos would

have no basis for its ruling, and then individuals in a society would be free to do as they wanted. There

would be no set system for expenditure with return as well as a system without return. It is evident that

the entire system would fall apart for something so small. Either way, you are going to feel disgusting or

pleasure; but transgressions will never consist of reconciling the two irrenconcilable emotions. And I

should know. As much as my sister feels sick and subhuman for having wanted to smell her parished

father's body, I am deeply envious of this experience. Every night now, I think about how lucky she is to

have ingested even the rotting body of our father because to me, that is better than not having

encountered him at all. So who's the sick one now?

References

Abdi, Filsan. Personal Interview. Feb 12 2012.

Lofts, Stephen. “Lecture Series: Bataille”. King’s University College. London, ON. March 20 2012.

Bataille, Georges. Erotism: Death & Sensuality. San Francisco: City Lights, 1986. Print.

Bataille, Georges. The Accursed Share. 1. Pbk. ed. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Zone, 1991. Print.

Bataille, Georges. Theory of Religion. New York: Zone, 1989. Print.