Synopsis:
I’m not relentless. “Relentless” makes it sound like there’s something called “relent” and that I’m lacking it. In that sense, I’m not relentless, but perhaps I’m unrelenting. I could relent if I wanted to. But he always has to die. I mean “always” in two senses: at all times and all of the time. I can’t kill him all of the time. That would take too long. But all of the times I did, I did. I’d do it again. I could relent if I wanted to, but instead I’d do it again.
If he’s different, then he’s the same and if he’s the same, he’s got to go. If he were different and not the same, then there would be two things and I’d only have to kill one of them. If only I only had to kill one of him. What a life I would live, if only I only had to kill him the one time. But death doesn’t always do him in.
Edition:
E-book
My Thoughts:
I have been sitting on this review for days. Just looking at my notes and wondering. How in the sweet blue hell am I going to go about trying to explain my feelings on Hexis?
Even now I’m trying to procrastinate. I have just checked my email, played around on Twitter, and spent 20 minutes looking at washi tape. I very much do not need more washi tape.
This book is written in stream-of-consciousness style (which you may have gathered from the synopsis). I normally don’t love that, but something about this one (ok, it was that gorgeous cover!) drew me to it anyway. I’m glad that it did, even though it was a challenging read.
So, before I get into the thick of things, let’s talk about the title. I looked it up, because although it sounds like a cool, witchy sort of word. In my defense though, I strongly suspected that was not going to prove true. So, since I’m not in college anymore and nobody’s the boss of me I went to Wikipedia for the answer:
Hexis
(Ancient Greek: ἕξις) is a relatively stable arrangement or disposition, for example a person’s health or knowledge or character. It is an Ancient Greek word, important in the philosophy of Aristotle, and because of this it has become a traditional word of philosophy. It stems from a verb related to possession or “having”, and Jacob Klein, for example, translates it as “possession”. It is more typically translated in modern texts occasionally as “state” (e.g., H. Rackham), but more often as “disposition“.
Joe Sachs translates it as “active condition”, in order to make sure that hexis is not confused with passive conditions of the soul, such as feelings and impulses or mere capacities that belong to us by nature. Sachs points to Aristotle’s own distinction, explained for example in Categories 8b, which distinguishes the word diathesis, normally uncontroversially translated as disposition. In this passage, diathesis only applies to passive and shallow dispositions that are easy to remove and change, such as being hot or cold, while hexis is reserved for deeper and more active dispositions, such as properly getting to know something in a way that it will not be easily forgotten. Another common example of a human hexis in Aristotle is health (hugieia, or sometimes eu(h)exia, in Greek) and in cases where hexis is discussed in the context of health, it is sometimes translated as “constitution”.
Heavy shit, right? Well then it’s not just a clever title. This book is also enormously heavy. Although it’s very short, it’s a story spanning years of mental and emotional turmoil experienced by the unnamed narrator.
“I, however, could not spend five minutes driving to his house without determining several things: he was the same, I was the same, and this time it would be different.”
Hexis is not a particularly fun read. In fact, it felt to me like an exploration of the deep, long-lasting repercussions of the sexual trauma experienced by the narrator at the hands of the man she has to keep killing. So basically the antithesis of fun. But the killing itself feels like catharsis every. single. time. which keeps it from being an emotional wasteland. I think the decision to leave the characters unnamed was a stroke of genius. It allows the reader to connect themselves to the narrator and live out some of that catharsis for ourselves and on account of our own personal traumas.
About the Author:
Charlene Elsby is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne in Indiana. She is co-author of Clear and Present Thinking (Northwest Passage Books, 2013) and co-editor of Essays on Aesthetic Genesis (University Press of America, 2016).
*Note: I had to travel the ‘net a bit for this. The picture came from Elsby’s Goodreads author page, and the little bio is courtesy of Google Books.
Rating:
It’s a real mind-fuck. Think of it like a mental exorcism – and I mean that in the best possible way. It may not feel warm and fuzzy, but by the time it’s done, you’re probably going to find yourself feeling a little freer.
Hexis By Charlene Elsby Clash Books ISBN: 1944866523 Published: February 4, 2020 Paperback, E-book 150 Pages
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