mettre en abime
the desire of deconstruction has also the opposite allure. Deconstruction seems to offer a way out of the closure of knowledge. By inaugerating the open-ended indefiniteness of textuality....it shows the lure of the abyss as freedom. The fall into the abyss of deconstruction inspires us with as much pleasure as fear. We are intoxicated with the prospect of never hitting bottom.
posted by caitlin grace | 9:04 AM
3 Comments:
The tool for this...is our desire,...itself a...structure that forever differs from (we only desire what is not ourselves) and defers (desire is never fulfilled) the text of our selves.
“I was desirous to discover the long lost bottom of Walden pond....There have been many stories told about the bottom, or rather no bottom of this pond, which certainly had no foundation for themselves.” (thoreau)
“I am thankful that this pond was made pure and deep for a symbol. While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless.” (thoreau)
“the opposition between the reality of a tight bottom and a deluded belief in bottomlessness is transformed into an opposition between a shallowness associated with bottoms and an infinity associated with bottomlessness. The depth of the pond is celebrated for the suggestion of bottomlessness that might be eliminated by discovery of an actual bottom.” (jonathan culler)
“time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.” (thoreau)
“The bottom one can see is too shallow. The figure of the sky as pond combines the desire for a bottom with depth of bottomlessness. The blackness of the sky is the best natural bottom.” (culler)
not the sky, but the pond dreaming the sky.
“The ‘knowledge’ of the philosopher places him among the dreamers, for knowledge is a dream. But the philosopher ‘knowingly’ agrees to dream, to dream of knowledge, agrees to ‘forget’ the lesson of philosophy, only so as to ‘prove’ that lesson....It is a vertiginous movement.” (derrida)
“if our reading claims to find a solid bottom, it can only do so according to principles which the text has both authorized and repudiated; thus we run the risk of drowning in our own certainties. If it doesn’t, if we embrace the idea of bottomlessness...., we’ve failed Walden’s first test, the acceptance of our moral responsibility as deliberate readers. It’s heads I win, tails you lose. No wonder the game makes us nervous.” (Walter Michaels)
“but sometimes it's better to just keep falling all the way down,” not to be abandoned, but to be caught, with grace.
I find yoga is good for that tight bottom.
Bull strong, horse high and pig tight.
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