"For Kant, a feeling of the sublime occurs when one comes face to face with something too large or powerful to represent adequately to oneself. Kant argues that the imagination is stretched to the limit trying to represent what is perceived and one feels pain. This pain, however, is simultaneously pleasurable: the disappointment of not being able to adequately picture what is perceived is accompanied by the feeling of pleasure at being able to conceive it. In this sense it indicates through feelings that there is something beyond the 'limits of experience' that can conceive of even if we can't represent or know it 'presenting the existence of something unpresentable'.

Malpas, S. 'Jean-François Lyotard' (p.47)