The world, constructed through language always leaves something uncovered...

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Fri, 2008-07-04 09:38

Jacques Lacan a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor had a theory about the written world.

Lacan's theory declares that we enter the world through words. We observe the world through our senses but the world we sense is structured (mediated) in our mind through language. Thus our subconscious is also structured as a language. This leaves us with a sense of anomaly. We can only perceive the world through language, but we have the feeling of a lack. The lack is the sense of a being outside of language. The world can only be constructed through language but it always leaves something uncovered, something that can not be told and be thought of, it can only be sensed.

Do you think the best writing is that which is able to touch the surface of that uncovered area?

Fri, 2008-07-04 13:10

pepsoid

Ooh, interesting question... reminds me of the concept in quantum theory that, to paraphrase in a nutshell-type way, nothing exists except that which we perceive (or something of that nature)... As you suggest, words/language (written/spoken/etc) will only ever skirt around the TRUTH. The best kind of writing, however, gets closer and closer to that perhaps infinitely receding CORE OF TRUTH - the truth about Reality in all its facets: the emotional truth, physical truth, etc, etc, etc. Well I say "best"... writing exists for all sorts of reasons, sometimes to distract from the truth, sometimes "merely" to entertain, but perhaps the most *perceptive* writing is that which "touches the surface of that uncovered area"... pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

The All New Pepsoid the Second!

Fri, 2008-07-04 14:02

chuck

I've often thought we name things in order to control them. It's part of the privilege, and responsibility, that goes with being the dominant species. Perhaps all writing is an attempt to define the world and make it more understandable.

Fri, 2008-07-04 15:49

pepsoid

Funny you should mention us being "the dominant species"! Here's something that might interest you... http://blog.longnow.org/2008/06/30/paul-ehrlich-the-dominant-animal-huma... pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

The All New Pepsoid the Second!

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