The Dog

The animal does not need to return. It is ever present. Animals, and here the plural is necessary in order that a founding diversity be acknowledged, continue to appear. Here in Goya's painting a dog appears (Figure 3.1). In appearing questions arise. Is the dog's head above the line? Is the dog slipping back? Its head is on the line. Is it submerging again, tasting death as the admixture of the fear and the quicksand that will eventually end the ebb and flow of life? Is it scrambling futilely up a bank that no longer holds? If the logic of these questions were to be followed then the dog's presence would be defined by its eventual death. There is, however, another possibility. While still allowing for the severity of the animal's predicament, its appearance may be precisely the ebb and flow, thus a continuity of life not structured by death but by having-to-exist. Within what specific set-up then does the dog appear? The question has force precisely because it has an exigency that cannot be escaped since neither answer nor direct resolution is at hand. The question endures. Once allowed to exert its hold then the question repositions the line. No longer mere appearance, the line is neither the sign of a simple division nor is it able to sustain a simple either/or. Death cannot be equated with the dark. Equally, the light cannot be reduced to the life that may be escaping (though it should not be forgotten that Goya’s work belongs to the so- called Black Paintings).