Ordinary? Affects? Swimming with Kathleen Stewart and Others against the Tide Race of Representation and the Heresies of Names

<jats:p>This essay describes instances in the rhythmic play with affect in the reading of and performances with Kathleen Stewart's Ordinary Affects. It offers an engagement with the work that both troubles and is troubled. It celebrates this engagement and delights in the opportunity to read, read around, and read again and again words that flee from identification and representation and come to life in moments of tears, smiles, and writings living in the temptation and allure of the unknown. This was written with a visit to Edinburgh in mind and Robert Frank's The Americans, alongside Stewart's Ordinary Affects in my shoulder bag.</jats:p>