Book Review: All for Nothing by Rachel K. Ward

Contemporary Decadence and the Trauma of Truth

All for Nothing. Ward, Rachel K. New York: Atropos Press, 2010.  305pp.

Tara Aveilhe

Rachel K. Ward’s thoughtful and challenging 2010 publication, All for Nothing, explores the concept of decadence in contemporary culture through a series of 247 philosophical aphorisms on thematic topics ranging from fortune and vanity to attraction and desire. “Today, there is no lack of meaning,” writes Ward, “but rather a decadence of meaning combined with a lack of consideration of ontological truth.” Today, the seemingly unfashionable notion of universal truth (shared truths about our being, existence, or reality) has been superseded by an emphasis on subjective meaning and the fulfillment of individual desire. We live in a continuous cycle of desire, and once desire is fulfilled it is simply replaced by a new need, want, or goal. “The result is momentary investments, giving all for nothing that lasts,” says Ward. This human-centered, or anthropocentric, world view places emphasis on what we can have, do, see, experience, or acquire during our life span, but does seem to account for truths that might exist before, outside of, or beyond ourselves. Ward asserts that it is only through grappling with universal truth that we can overcome our cycle of decadence and desire.

Rather than presenting her ideas in a traditional narrative format, Ward instead offers a mélange of quotes, observations, and examples from literature, theory, and media of the past two centuries. Her references range from religious/philosophical texts (Bible, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Jean-Luc Nancy, Kant), literary texts (Fitzgerald, Eliot, Neruda, Waugh), and popular media (fashion magazines, film, advertisements). According to Ward, we are on a decadent quest for something that will satisfy our need for meaning, and we have looked (and continue to look) to a variety of meaning-making activities and ideologies to satisfy this need. Ironically, her examples and aphorisms are themselves decadent, offering only small tastes meaning, glimpses of  satisfaction, leaving the reader hungering for more coherence, more conclusive connections. According to Ward, the form of her text functions to illustrate the force of decadence in order to point to the unfinished, temporal nature of being. Within Ward’s aphorisms, we will find numerous examples of modern efforts at meaning-making, but we will not find the truth.

The final sections of the book turn from contemplation of desire and decadence to the contemplation of universal truth, to the possibility of being released from decadence. “Opposing movements in culture, from sustainability to globalization, seek to resolve this decadence but are also subject to the force of desire,” states Ward. “The book proposes the solution in the challenge of absolute truth.” The challenge of absolute truth is that once we attempt to name it, to attribute particular values to it, it becomes disruptive rather than unifying. The willingness to be in dialogue with truth, to give consent to its existence without needing to own it, acquire it, or reach it, is the greatest challenge of all. This concept has also been the primary challenge for philosophers throughout the centuries. How do we write truth if we cannot name it? How do we recognize it if we cannot see it? According to Ward, truth lies at the vanishing point, at the unnamable limit that lies beyond all of our conscious desires. “That unnamable limit does not have to be a dark point at which all collapses, it may be an illuminated limit or escape,” says Ward. “For each vanishing point is a point of emergence.” But, it is easy to forget, because it is easy to lose sight of the vanishing point, to pretend it never existed. It is easier to let our sight slip, to turn to other, more present pursuits. This turning away from and refusal to move toward the vanishing point results in decadence, in a sense of longing and desire for something lost. Ward calls desire “the appendix of the spirit” – an organ that has forgotten its function. Our desire is directed toward that which can never be fulfilled. Can we ever re-learn its use?

Ultimately, All for Nothing is an ontological inquiry, as well as a philosophical call-to-arms. We have suffered a trauma of truth (deconstructionism is implicit in this), and the results are not all for our benefit. If nothing else, Ward asks that we consider what we have lost in our refusal or forgetting of universal truths.