Deliberating Barthes Author(s): Andr Aciman Reviewed work(s): Source: Social Text, No. 11 (Winter, 1984-1985), pp.

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Barthes Deliberating
ANDRE ACIMAN

Barthes' work at the where begins precisely juncture logosas logicand logosas in havetraditionally thrown their hands despair. The taskhereliesin language up in in thealogon, divining, teasing squeezing one moredroplet of and fording yet after therewas none left.Paterspeaksof the long meaning everyone thought of of This explains aesthetics "surplussage"; Barthes thepleasureof le surplus. with Barthes' fascination therecalcitrant, rather than accessible the that meaning, orpunctum, he callsit:"...theother everfugitive beguiling and "third as meaning" the the the that cannot meaning, third, one 'toomany,' supplement myintellection succeedinabsorbing, oncepersistent fleeting, at smooth elusive...."" Sudand and can and but now,newthings be said,thought, written, theseare all second denly for haveallbeenformulated a mind which beensubjected has degree things, they by toa recursive andnowexists analtered on will Barthes seldom want operation plane. unless hasbeenteased anobject's he tothink is resistance histhinking.there If to by thenthere concealedmeaning is this seduction resistance, somewhere; is where starts. Either needstobe mystified a particular he to by thinking phenomenon begin will aboutit,or,through Barthes mystify himself bring himself a to (i.e. thinking, he thata concealedmeaning As exists). pointwhere willhavereasonto suspect once wrote, mustthink For itself."2 thisis how it Heidegger "Thinking against both itself "some more" tobaffle and Moreoften itself. than manages tobestir tothink Barthes' into or a the not, arguments off regress into paradox, taper either aninfinite Thisexplains penchant theshort irresistable French his for form pointe. paragraph where is concluded because mental intheendasksofthinking act nothing ever every thevery samequestion which asks is of world. "What themeaning X?" thinking ofthe of Barthes needsa real or alwaysasks "Whatis themeaning sucha question?" of vis-a-vis world arrive this the Thisis to at imagined period disorientation point. Barthes the and sometimes to why rejects obvious thestereotypical unfailingly only return them. to Thissituation highly is of of reminiscent that which period beguiling uncertainty exists when individuals areattracted oneanother yet two who to are unable do not or wishto dispelluncertainty hastily. too aboutone another, Theyare speculating the of them. erecting imaginary impediments tosavor expectation surmounting only Thisis howBarthes to begins think. Barthes He thinks and he to to erotically. desires courts thinking; wants uncover, touchthinking muchin themanner a manwhoconceives illicit of an desire. very Barthes wants see things to naked. Thevery ofthinking writing Barthes act and for is 110

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theapplication this of desire expose, demystify, to to topenetrate inner the sanctum. This is whyBarthes' its retains erotictexture. Barthes stimulated is thinking by is as of at he thought an onlooker stimulated a "spot flesh" thebeaches. by Knowing since To "what stare nottouch, but may speculating hecannot possess. thequestion X's is of would be liketotouch body?" mind it the asks invariably "what themeaning this "what of question?" a result, As desire?" more or, importantly, isthemeaning this theobserver the of stares becausehe hopesto unlock meaning hisdesire. Wedged this of and to between curiosity, foretaste sexual this consummation thedesire think version all into "some the to more," Barthian conspires reduce desire a portable ego of version theworld of for It intended themind only. is a sort stimulated, abridged One which desire.It does notrepudiate sublimates desire;it merely "later." says in one because isunable one to in world; speculates acting the speculates order delay of become way a toactinthe one because has, world; speculates speculation indeed, in acting theworld. the as In theend,every of mind desires world wellas itsown operation Barthes' form ever Thisis themost desire that for world. disquieting ofnarcissism seen,for and is of which seducesitself is seducedby what arefacedwith a form thinking we He what itself. with as Barthes sense, artistically. is,in this thinking, he says, plays Freud wouldhavecalledan epistemophiliac.3 of from reading Barthes. Letmequickly two Among inspired my provide examples I was theguests a cocktail to at woman, aged26 party which wasinvited an elegant I on or so, whoworea rather Although immediately ring herindexfinger. gaudy and the from patrician that wasa haughty inaccessible her air she sensed individual, without ring, rectifying initial my assumption, heran addedsensual gave misplaced It on unabashedly a which bordered the profane. bespoke boldanddetermined, quality her ladle thepunch. evenuncivil sexualbeing.LaterI watched helpthehostess I She the a different an Suddenly,recognized entirely person. performed taskwith She meekand awkward smile which a betrayed lackofconfidence. had becomea told who docilespinster waseagerto helpout,whoseslightly posture ofa stooped I of And eachtime beheld roguish the of history compliance. yet placement herring, I could not but suspectthatbehindthe look of self-effacement lurkeda lewd which to classmanners. had,as itwere, sensuality temporarily acquiesced middle I checkedmyimpressions: ring the was perhaps morethana faddish nothing to without her to the cri, whim, desire subscribe a dernier todisplace diluting abiding I havestopped taken another Proust believe would and here, Sartre goodbreeding. track implications further realize the still and would road.ButBarthes that, finally in or a to of (i.e. sign intemperate sexuality simply false signal itpretends havesexual of but connotations is inreality empty meaning). were voidofmeaning, would havetoaskwhy still this Barthes Yet,evenifthesign full it finger, knowing wellthat isan unusual for placediton herindex spot a person
thatthering a is theabsence ofbecoming her,he mustassumeeither acquainted with

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and therefore ring the would be as ring that inevitably interpreteda sign. Ultimatelythe there several are to andhere 'badinfinity' beginssuppositions be made:(1) that is he to the observer being because (2) perverse; that isforced beperverse obstinately in whois thesignis ambiguous; that beingambiguous, is indeed woman it the (3) the to becausesheisforcing observer suppose (2),and(3). To cap (1), being perverse therecursive the an situation here, woman sign. maybe showing empty In theend-and we willreturn thisin a little to while-itmakesabsolutely no or difference the has now whether ring meaning not,justas it hardly matters to her The whether display intentionally is aimedto baffle inquiries. all investigate circuit operates a further now on It the remove. seeksto investigate interpretative becauseI am unableto haltan inquiry which should havebeen mine, perversity: terminated agoorshould havetaken never becausesheis allowing long place;hers, me to assume me the that indeedwants to askwhether ring meaning. she has Thisenchainment suppositions perhaps, quintessential of the of is, meaning the situation. lies of But recursive here, intheunfolding meaning. this Meaning, operationnowconspires me, me, against stealstheessential meaning awayfrom forcing me instead suspect(foran infinite to makesroomforadditional regress always that woman the with ring the me wants toassume shewants to me that suppositions) me assume sheindeed that wants toask....Meaning meaning's infinite is The regress. mind huntsafterpropositions has validatedin the past but cannot own it simultaneously. A pawnbroker in one he this operates exactly way:toredeem article, pawns junkie which redeems pawning first the He rescues possessions another he his by again. by in them. mind The which is thinks an extremely rarified manner, conspiring against often prey a phenomenological a to thevery rulesbywhich sucha very impasse: mindmustabide in orderto reachtherock-bottom meaning ruleswhich of are tokeepthat forever a one stepremove desired at from mind. the meaning conspire An infinite of is proof many that is regress contradictory things: thinking "onto that isbeing after that phenomemon a has denuded, layer; something"; meaning layer more showexcept factthat is the beenbrought a point to where hasnothing it to it Yet the occurs.Forthevery itself. thisis where turnabout showing operation by which phenomenon a the that more informs thinker ithasnothing toshow a ruse is by which itself. tells thinker, arenot It the "You conceals finished meyet." with meaning Thisinducement go on thinkingjustanother to is means which recoils. meaning by Barthian an towards everfugitive and,at thesame thinking meaning proceeds it ever it. time, it, beyond outruns without catching with It is always proceeds up one And "after" after thinking meaning, might palintropically. I use theadverb say is bothinthesensethat Barthes' a as that thinkingafter quarry wellas to signify it has It arrives article of after meaning occurred. is an everlasting every strip-tease: which takenoffis surreptitiously on againwhileanother being is is clothing put removed. Barthian The like is Itis dialectic, Pascal'sfor instance, proliferative. never

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It the overreaches. unsaddling by synthesis. overthinks, By placated an intellectual it out like satellite. obvious of meaning things spins oforbit a dislodged for abouttowrite loveletter. first,prey At Barthes a a to Now,imagine a moment his the we fear sorrow, and Barthes would vent feeling effusively, hysterically, way do when his he tear seizesus.Butthen, anguish changing mind midway, would suddenly too it itself with unabashed thisletter It was too common, trite; repeated the up. its of on Its was mediocrityhollow lyrics thehit parade. hysteria histrionic, spontaneon thanmelodramatic, Aboveall,the bordering theimmodest. itylesspersuasive of him of nature hisunabashed immodest and statements very might vilify intheeyes In his hislover. short, while writer feverishly the was his was venting passion, mind or "Do to to awakened theneedtowrite simultaneously strategically: I want saythis not? this things I saidit? if I and worrying Would ruin What what feel not about saying if aboutconsequences? what ...." But How could RolandBarthes, scrupulous the retriever hiddenmeaning of and on of fail intention, to deliberate theconcealedstrategies a literary genrewhich rhetorical effect to attains maximum a precisely feigning be voidofall rhetoric by whatsoever? activity, The whichonlya fewmoments seemeduninhibited, ago In would become self-conscious.fact, self-consciousness this unrehearsed, suddenly wasalready itself of while wasstill he busily venting deploying inthemind thewriter I hisemotions. the of Having recognized validation sincere suffering (meaning: can nolonger inthe ofhis think so is suffering) heedless discontinuities straight, great my the facestwooptions: either must he mimic keepup theelanofthe and style, writer few or himself from hysteria he is, in fact, his first sentences he must distance (as thesetwooptions) and playtheachingstoicwho is doingwhenhe deliberates himself "Don'tthink, becauseI amableto able (meaning: intermittently tocompose is recover senses, mysufferingin anywaydiminished"). that my In thefirst rhetoric. the isnowcultivated, rehearsed: choice, spontaneity stylized, In thesecondchoice,this from distance tone, in sobering although detracting the of constitutes morerefined a of rhetoric: rhetoric antithe immediacy hysteria, rhetoric.4 Barthes cannot choosetoremain the because hysterical throughout letter he is already able to foresee his reader's contemptfor the undiminished of For is must lived.Barthes banality hishysteria. theeloquenceofhysteria short of therefore that is fully show he awareofthebanality hisepistolary tantrum as just his is he must showthat hysteria all themore and poignant noblebecausehe faced of his But thetactful Barthes option notrevealing passion. to showthesefactors, in of must and which retains its discuss banality sincerity thebodyproper a letter to character what by Obviously, isneeded spontaneous precisely refusing deliberate. felt this at thispoint-and the need forit has been increasingly throughout ofthe is a commentary, a self-criticism, self-vindication loveletter itself. discussion-of of Butthearticulation loveandsorrow thevalidation that and articulation cannot is The act exist Barthian. simultaneously. situation characteristically Every ofcom-

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whichcommunication munication unleashes factors must it react;infact, may against to react to thembeforeeven beginning communicate. All thisgives rise to the necessityof a second letter.This letter,of course, is In sentimental. itBartheswillexplainwhyhe toreup hisfirst letter and harkenback to itas ifitwerenowan enshrined, inaccessibletext.Here all emotionis attenuated, mutedlyricism mutedderision. Derisionis themaskbehind and elegiac,spokenwith "I whichsorrowwantsboth to conceal and betrayitself. was not goingto tellyou as aboutmyfirst letter... hereI am usingthis letter an introduction myfirst to very yet All whichI have a good mindto copy in itsentirety." ofwhichmeans: 'I am beingso frankwithyou that I feel free to confess I will not use thisveryfrankness a as I can see now thatthisvery but while disclaiming rhetoric, myself all strategem; in disavowalmaybe construed slipping The oldesttrick as once again intorhetoric.' the book. Needless to say, all this is too gimmicky,too oblique. Hence the second letteris tornas well. Comes the thirdletterwhich refusesto slip into trivialendearmentsor into It as altogether a cheap deceptive intellectualscrutiny. rejects the commentary of rhetoric, kitschof sentimentality. with the Marked everywhere surdeguisement thisletterconceals and understates Stendhaliansangfroid, everything. Again one "I love yourMajesty/According is reminded Cordelia's chilling of pronouncement: to mybond, no more nor less." But Bartheswilltear up thisletteras well because, in his effort to speak love in the lyricalor hysterical not mode, he risksspeaking no love at all. fifth to Fourth sixth and so on. At timesBarthesis tempted recopyhis letter, letter, and "sincere"letter But and have done withall thesedeliberations. without original theirexistence,the first now. Besides, each letterseems so naked and threadbare whichare worth renewedeffort write letter to a some producedstrategies retaining, ofwhich, in letter. thanthosecontained thefirst are enough, more"sincere" ironically The uninquisitive of At thispointBarthesmustredress assumptions. his banality the is first of It letter intheendthesurest mark its"sincerity." is more"sincere" thanletters two to six for the simple reason that these, by suspectingeverything fraud, of But thissituationas well needs to be divestedcandor of its immediacy. inevitably redressed.The Barthianwriter says in effect:let me show you why I cannot be sincere,forby showing you thisperhapsI willbecome "sincere"!An imponderable he paradox. Yet thisis the last letter can write. In this letterBartheswill piece togetherscatteredthoughts the love letter on hereand there from previous with scattered his letters. genre, interspersed fragments if Even thecommentary, in once deemed a necessary somewhatawkward intrusion the body properof a letter, now earned itsrightful has not place: the commentary in behinda text also participates this but stratification. onlyexplainsthevariousstrata In fact, what one sees is the commentary and the letterestablishing typical a

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familiar. isanunpolished, It discontinuous of an moments, extremely collage textual of and from eachletter. iswhy This Barthes' amorphous anthology bits piecesdrawn lastbooksgivethat of to as uncanny impression pointing subsequent rewritings,if each fragment waiting be borrowed were to elsewhere elaborated and laterintoa discursive whole. larger, Butonepublishes because isunable weavethem a discursive one to into fragments to with Each fragmenta moment intellectual is of desire whole, write things them. which overwith expectation being brims the of further. elaborated developed and All that sixth Barthes' letter discuss, fact, thewriter's can in is to a inability write coherent intermittently love ("I'll text, yet hysterical letter. show a dismembered you becauseitisnolonger for in and letter possible metounite onecontinuous discursive all thesecontradictory mutually and exclusive notesgathered here.")"No more of no rhetoric 'development,' more of no twisted no anguish 'schemes', more logic, Barthes spent much has so time from to that migrating one draft theother inthe end he is unableto decidewhich thesixversions choose,having, a sense, of in to of fond each andrealizing, that can stand on moreover, eachdraft no longer grown itsown.Hence,we havea mosaic assorted of whose fragments, disjointed compilationbetrays author's the ownperplexities. unrehearsed The which at spontaneity first a love has swallowed intheneedto promised moving letter beencompletely up deliberate. couldgofurther saythat needtowrite loveletter been One and the a has taken overbythenowequally needtoexplain series deliberareal the of completely tionswhich the from his At of prevented writer writing love letter. therisk overwhat hereis theprocess writing competition of in with simplifying, is evidenced itssubject matter ultimately itself. seeksto monitor and with It itself not actively, or it within very the fabric thetext of the tactfully clandestinely;seekstoarticulate of with and history itsnegotiations itself itsreader. Twentieth-century is writing characterized precisely feature: deemsitself this it if by incomplete it does not in the of the of integrate, one wayor another, history itsrevisions, archaeology emendations which it. for is finally produced The ideal love letter Barthes a text which its But all loveletters, can no longer it pleadswith reader. unlike other say "read feel me,loveme";instead says, it "read archaeologically," my me "desire me, for desire your for desire." Can a thing simple a love letter as as everbe written then? The answer no. is Barthes shares with modern all writers (and moreso thananybecausehe never drifted fiction) cumbersome ofself-consciousness. either into the onus One writes ofliterature onewrites or about That modern novel, parodies writing. the experimentalandautobiographicalitusually featurestext as a the of own is, divulging history its
more deliberations."5

Discourse or Roland BarthesbyRoland Barthestheformat thisfinalletter be of will

bond. the "I Eachtells other desire inorder be desired youso that to Hegelian you by desire awaken mine." anyone To familiar thelayout A Lover's with of your might

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should therefore comeas no surprise. production with AllofBarthes' booksstarting ThePleasure theTextdealequally with his of into of form: which, todrift fiction hisdiscovery a substitute and that time inability with andagain, tireless and he as impossibilinsight, intelligence, charm addresses the ofcarrying theproject out literature. yet, ifto refute And as I have ity everything we unfulfilled beensaying, haveBarthes' becauseofdeathpromise-unfulfilled he that wouldwrite that This novelistic. promise someday something is somewhat in was uttered as though passing notwithout and someapprehension. tentatively, from sensethat might havebeenuptothe Thisapprehension notderive did a he not from very a keenrealization the he the taskbutrather that, moment wrote first to he havebeenunable resist needtovindicate orinvestigate the it sentence, would it. I desire, Barthes. ThenI realize I desire. that Thisrealization nolonger can be says it like a viruswhich, brushed aside. This realization desire, interrupts disrupts in without a bodycell,deflects cell'soperations order reproduce the to destroying The more viruses. realization he desires that itself desire, splitting into thus wedges into halves, two eachofwhich nowdesires other inorder attend its desire half to to of thebusiness desiring object.At thisjuncture, gratification desireis an the of forever while necessity thinking situation the of this becomes the suspended, through intellection mimics behavior theoriginal the of goal prevailing of desire;in fact, desire which initially had desire. completely that by very process interrupted in modern fiction particular, a projection an author's is of desires. is a It Fiction, authors If arenainwhich and out desires. one is refine, work their mythical dump, in desires life, one mayat leastassuagethem unableto satisfy the through act of which to his with a sort writing permitswriter expand yearnings another ofpleasure it for to the andmakes possible a writer provisionally the "possess" person, homeland, thepasthe willnever means.In short, is possessbyanyother writing notonlya well which sufficiently equipped compete is to substitute with libido but, pleasure moreimportantly, a vehicle which means writer ableto realize gratificaa is the by on tionofhisdesires a substitute plane. The situation substantially is the is altered moment writer unable write no a to or able to drift fiction. obsession into The with as longer writing, was thecase with becomes genuine desire that a person homeland. as a as for or What deliberation, nowis thathe notonlywishes write to aboutan unobtainable beloved, happens to abouthisunslaked desire write. to He homeland, buthe also wishes write past desirestheunobtainable, text. unstarted One day I'll write, says.I willwrite he to to I becauseI want possess becauseI want write about desire write. the to writing, willwrite will becausemydesire writing find substitute for inwriting a fulfillment itself. is of consciousness.will I write because This,I suggest, theagony postmodernist a substitute desire writing inwriting It is a difficult itself. my fulfillment for willfind

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which each time mind the it. seeksto grasp Somewillsayitis thought evaporates it other One absurd, outrageous, overanalytical...perverse. can dismiss with adjectives well.Itdoesnotmatter. for as But those whoareonly wellacquainted too with theaddledyearning write, yearning to a then must which itself, always question indeed howdisquieting howprophetic Barthes' and when says:"Where he are words to next? Can youstill write anything?"6
NOTES 1. Roland Barthes,Image-MusicText(New York: Farrar, Strausand Giroux, 1977),p. 54. 2. MartinHeideggar,Poetry, Language, Thought(Harper & Row, 1971),p. 8. 3. SigmundFreud, Three Case Histories(New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1963),pp. 98-99. 4. Paolo Valesio, Novantiqua(Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1980),pp. 41-60. 5. RolandBarthes, RolandBarthes RolandBarthes Straus and Giroux.1977), 147. by (NewYork: Farrar, p. 6. Roland Barthes, Roland BarthesbyRoland Barthes,pp. 71 and 188.