In stark contrast to the positive emotional reaction upon the subject’s apprehension of that which is described as beautiful, a manifestation of the ‘sublime provokes a negative pleasure, combining … fascination with a certain repulsion.’ (link, p. 37) Early writings approached the sublime as a result of the mind’s encounter ‘with momentous forces … hurricanes and volcanoes: phenomena that are so overpowering that they are not just awe-invoking, but simply too vast to be comprehended in their totality.’ (link, p. 715)
In his Critique of Judgement, Kant distinguishes between two categories of the sublime; ‘the mathematically sublime which appears unsurpassably great and the dynamically sublime which appears irresistibly powerful’ (link). As applied to the threat of global terrorism, the limitless of that which remains unquantifiable can be read as the mathematical sublime, while the dynamic sublime corresponds with the geopolitical limitlessness of the terrorist subject.
