SF - Barthes

The light bulb above my head has flickered off and I feel alone here in the dark recesses of postmodernity. In both Barthes and Macherey I detected an emphasis on absence (both placed an importance on what is not revealed rather than what is). So, perhaps it is not what I blog about, but what I don't blog about that matters the most? Please keep this in mind while grading my posts…

I managed to drudge through Barthes The Pleasure of the Text without extreme mental anguish, and I did find the first page to be rather interesting (and perhaps the only thing from our readings that I understand enough to discuss at length comfortably). I liked the way he compared the pleasure of text to nudity and nightclubs. It's always good when one can make a metaphor out of a stripper.

Moving past the metaphor, Barthes explains that "we do not read everything with the same intensity of reading," noting that we “skim or skip” certain (boring) parts of the text in anticipation of the anecdote and articulation (108). Indeed while preparing for Tuesday’s class I found my eyes wandering across the page while my brain struggled to catch up. Shortly after completing our assigned readings I found myself huddled in a corner rocking back and forth while mumbling words that would put even the craftiest neologist to shame. However, I am confident that Tuesday night the light bulb will begin to flicker as Dr. Rog illuminates that which I have thus far found to be puzzling and obscure.