The Beast and Bêtise

In an era dominated by algorithmic reason and emotional sanitization, The Beast (2023) reimagines Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle within a futuristic vision where human interior becomes a target of technological cure. This paper argues that the “beast” is not an external threat but the existential essence of humanity—fear and anxiety before an uncontrollable future. Drawing on Sartre’s concepts of bad faith and faith, and Derrida’s paradox of belief, it explores how belief, inherently impossible, enables a leap toward the Other, impossibility, and the future. Central is the notion that —stupidity—opens the infinite, and paradoxically enables human intelligence. Thus, what distinguishes humans from AI is not intelligence but stupidity: the capacity to believe in the impossible. Ultimately, this paper contends that belief, inherently bound to failure, is learned through such failure—and that this very failure makes possible the leap: toward opening the door—to the Other, the impossible. Even if it fails again.