Wednesday, August 06, 2014
Fragment of a thought on the trouble with writing about Blanchot
Whenever I have attempted to write about Maurice Blanchot, I've felt the need to
admit to a struggle, to confess that I'm not sure I quite understood the
essay in question. I've been annoyed by this - perhaps you have too, you who have read - though maybe I should not. Part of the problem is that the very nature of
Blanchot's inquiry does not allow for summary. The tendency when reading
is to summarize - is it not? - to try to reduce the points to a manageable size? But
Blanchot writes against reduction. He refuses reduction. He examines a
text, or a figure, or a tradition, exploring it from many possible
angles, rarely, it seems, settling on a particular interpretation. And
his essays speak to each other, and to and with the philosophical and
literary traditions, with great erudition, so that by beginning one
essay, one enters into the flow of a tributary of thought, though one
that doesn't necessarily lead one to any specific conclusion. But how to
write about what I find there? Excerpts can be misleading, and anyway
difficult to isolate.
Labels:
Maurice Blanchot
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