The slimy symbolizes the In-itself absorbing the For-itself

Evidence

Here we can see the symbol which abruptly discloses itself: there exists a poisonous possession; there is a possibility that the In-itself might absorb the For-itself; that is, that a being might be constituted in a manner just the reverse of the “In-itself-For-itself,” and that in this new being the In-itself would draw the For-itself into its contingency, into its indifferent exteriority, into its foundationless existence. At this instant I suddenly understand the snare of the slimy: it is a fluidity which holds me and which compromises me; I can not slide on this slime, all its suction cups hold me back; it can not slide over me, it clings to me like a leech. The sliding however is not simply denied as in the case of the solid; it is degraded. The slimy seems to lend itself to me, it invites me; for a body of slime at rest is not noticeably distinct from a body of very dense liquid. But it is a trap. The sliding is sucked in by the sliding substance, and it leaves its traces upon me. The slime is like a liquid seen in a nightmare, where all its properties are animated by a sort of life and turn back against me. Slime is the revenge of the In-itself. A sickly-sweet, feminine revenge which will be symbolized on another level by the quality “sugary.” This is why the sugar-like sweetness to the taste—an indelible sweetness, which remains indefinitely in the mouth even after swallowing—perfectly completes the essence of the slimy. A sugary sliminess is the ideal of the slimy; it symbolizes the sugary death of the For-itself (like that of the wasp which sinks into the jam and drowns in it). — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1403

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the ontological core of the slimy: it symbolizes a being constituted in reverse of In-itself-For-itself.
• XREF: The slimy as ‘revenge of the In-itself’ and the sugary death of the For-itself connects to Sartre’s broader ontology of bad faith and the way materiality can swallow freedom — groundwork for Beauvoir’s ethics. — connects to: The slimy haunts consciousness as its own feared dissolution into facticity; Sliminess symbolizes a possible fusion of for-itself and in-itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1399; The slimy reveals itself only within the appropriative project as an opaque, dense meaning (+9 more)
• FICTION: The wasp sinking into jam and drowning — a sticky absorbent substance claiming its victim — is the kind of evocative, tactile image any body-horror or existential literary scene could be built on.

Broader Connections

• The slimy’s horror is the fear that facticity will absorb the For-itself #corroborates (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1406
• Slime and femininity both symbolize consciousness’s threat of lapsing into in-itself #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 378
• The for-itself is only the emptiness where the in-itself detaches #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 576
• Sartre’s concept of the slimy encodes a gendered fear of feminine appropriation #expands (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 133
• Appropriation is the original project grounding the for-itself’s relation to the slimy #expands (0.80)
• The in-itself and for-itself are two radically separated regions of being #qualifies (0.75)