ESSAY text by JEAN-LUC NANCY artwork by LOIE HOLLOWELL jean-luc nancy (1940-2021) was one of the preeminent figures of the french post-1968 philosophy scene. 1 Prophecy: the time will come. This is not a prediction, since the time will come regardless, if only as the time of the end of time. It is a prophecy: the word of an other, the word from the elsewhere that we cannot disregard without renouncing our humanity. The interpreter of the outside. The here and now does not exist without the elsewhere that it shelters within itself and that, in return, shelters and exposes it. If we’re worried, disoriented, and troubled today, as indeed we are, it’s because we’ve become accustomed to the here and now perpetuating itself by excluding every possible elsewhere. Our future was right there, ready-made: a future of mastery and prosperity. And now everything is falling apart: climate, species, finance,…