This book seeks to introduce a new philosophical concept: Non-Oriented-Ontology. Our lives are pervaded by a sense of absence. This new discipline of philosophy seeks to make the presence of absence truly tangible through a variety of examples. From Bible-burning Zimbabwean Christians to junk DNA, misbehaving prep boys to black holes, 'Tracing the Inoperative' paints a complex picture of the various absences that surround us, and attempts in the process to construct a mode of interpretation that would be adequate to fully grasping the sheer amount of absence we find ourselves surrounded with, while also striving to transmit an understanding of events that makes us capable of embracing these many and diverse forms of emptiness. In the final instance, the best way to fill absence is to accept the invitation of the black hole and enter into its realm, a world that resembles our own in more ways than one...