Re: do we need to speak clearly?

chris,

i won't try and go through your mail line by line as it encompasses such
a lot and sends me off in various directions. i'm glad you took my
non-comprehenson as it was intended (ie. genuinely) (did that make
sense?) and many thanks for your attempts at further explanation.

one of the first things that sprang to mind was "beware of greeks
bearing gifts"!! which seemed quite funny and then perhaps not without
resonance... what's hidden in the gift of language? what's waiting
inside? yes, i think the idea of linguistic exchanges is important to
what i was trying to express/question, although i wouldn't have cast it
in those terms. (i'm suffering a little here from a rather slender
engagement with Derrida/ deconstruction, i think.) what i was getting
at could be rephrased along the lines of 'do we have to speak as a
(necessarily social) exchange, can't we speak as a gift - and as a gift
to no one in particular, as a sacrifice to ourselves...?' (which
certainly wouldn't be the same as sacrificing ourselves!)

i once saw (please excuse this non-sequiter pop reference!) the beatles
"fool on the hill' played over film of hitler and nazi rallies. this
seemed to me an incredibly dubious an unsubstantial reading of the songs
lyrics - and is somehow relevant here - (misquote from memory:)

"...but nobody seems to hear him or the things he appears to say, and he
never listens to them, but the fool on the hill, sees the sun going
down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round..."

cutting this with hitler seems to bring out an idea of speech, of what
it is to speak - of how it has to be social, has to respect the social
or it is threatening/dangerous/not even really speaking. "appears" to
say - does he really say anything if he is not listened to (?) or if
what he says is contra the social status quo(?) that's one thread. but
also (to extricate it from this half-arsed connection) this is a
decidedly schizo image, with social disconnection coupled with
cosmic/astronomical connections...

the schizo who speaks but is not heard - doesn't even wish to be heard
on one side, and "can't" be heard due to the interpretative
medical/psychoanalytical framework that filters what is said in any
case... to stop speaking, to stop speaking clearly -- to start
stuttering, stammering in ones own language? to become a foreigner in
ones own tongue?? to stop writing/speaking and start singing, like
henry miller? to take a walk on your own and talk on your own (which is
not necessarily the same as to yourself), as a walk, to speak as a
stroll... who is being spoken to at the beginning (i haven't read it
all!) of beckett's trilogy? where is the exchange? it's more like a
suicide leap into the abyss!! or in kafka - does he fulfil an exchange
with his twisting stories that aren't really stories? that have no
endings, that are possibly unfinished, that even when they end have no
"ending"?

again, different lines appear connected here. was deleuzes
reluctance/refusal to debate his "philosophy" a refusal to make his
philosophy an exchange? a reluctance to speak more clearly? to make his
work and life a "gift" - a non-recuperable expenditure (to dip into
bataille)? and is something similar in the oft quoted approah he took
to writing about other philosophers - (misquote) "giving them something
their own but monstrous"? something that was not exactly an exchange -
but perhaps was a gift, a monstrous gift that couldn't be returned...?

perhaps...

i don't know if i've said anything clear (!) or responded to your post
very well. i'm not sure i caught all those whispers... hopefully this
is of interest to you at least... i feel the space of this conversation
has opened up to the extent i'm not sure i can map it, or, as a
consequence, decide which way to head.

but that's certainly a good feeling...

dan h.
--
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/chupacabras/48/
http://www.tw2.com/staff/daniel/

Ware ware Karate-do o shugyo surumonowa,
Tsuneni bushido seishin o wasurezu,
Wa to nin o motte nashi,
Soshite tsutomereba kanarazu tasu.

We who study Karate-do,
Should never forget the spirit of the samurai,
With peace, perseverance and hard work,
We will reach our goal without failure.

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