PS -- I'll answer your faux Derrida with vero Adorno: "Nowhere is the contact between word and thought closer than on the typewriter. Not, admittedly, that between writing and thought. The hand that strikes into the material of the keys doesn’t bother itself with the written result that hovers way up there on the horizon of the machine. Rather it chisels word-bodies out of the keys, so clearly that it is as if they were held in the fingers under whose pressure they are sculpted out of the keyboard. On the machine, writing has been transformed back from a two-dimensional into a three-dimensional process. Words, across so many centuries merely read, can once again be felt; perhaps in this way we are getting them back within our grasp, whereas for so long we had been under the sway of their foreign power."
I like that post! Makes me wish I would have studied something other than electrons when I went to college or that I were younger and able to study today. Nice typeface and typewriter.
While I do like the manifold possibilities of ye olde scribeomechanical machine, I harbor no illusions as to infinity. Like Saussure said, symbols and object are two sides of the same page. They can be cleaved together, but not apart. We're also limited by graphemes, a chosen language, etc.
Still, though, the possibilities envisaged in a blank white sheet ARE pretty great.
Love the disciplined stream of consciousness, a poetry-prose, hopscotch associations from lily pad to neighboring lily pad. Derrida taught at my alma mater UC Irvine for a good number of years. As a freshman, I considered switching to philosophy as my major but in the end I decided that I had put my parents through enough when I chose psychology rather than what they preferred: engineering or computer science. It was close though bc for a time, I was set on being an english lit major but again, I was merciful and figured id study that as a hobby, on the side. Makes me wonder now how today might be different based on which bubble I filled as my declared major.
It's kind of like having an ice cream headache without the ice cream, reading that. How does one audit your course?
ReplyDeleteThat must be an Olympia with a carbon ribbon. Very nice copy.
Wow! How, now, the umlaut? Ciao. Rob
ReplyDeletePS -- I'll answer your faux Derrida with vero Adorno: "Nowhere is the contact between word and thought closer than on the typewriter. Not, admittedly, that between writing and thought. The hand that strikes into the material of the keys doesn’t bother itself with the written result that hovers way up there on the horizon of the machine. Rather it chisels word-bodies out of the keys, so clearly that it is as if they were held in the fingers under whose pressure they are sculpted out of the keyboard. On the machine, writing has been transformed back from a two-dimensional into a three-dimensional process. Words, across so many centuries merely read, can once again be felt; perhaps in this way we are getting them back within our grasp, whereas for so long we had been under the sway of their foreign power."
see: http://uebersetzen.wordpress.com/2006/08/05/adorno_typewriter/
Oh well. That was challenging. Great typeface.
ReplyDeleteI like that post! Makes me wish I would have studied something other than electrons when I went to college or that I were younger and able to study today.
ReplyDeleteNice typeface and typewriter.
I once tried to read _Of Grammatology_. But, then the self-loathing phase of my life ended. But, the type-face is just incredible!
ReplyDeleteDerrida is often irritatingly precious and pompous, but when he focuses on the specifics of interpreting a text he can also be very perceptive.
DeleteYou did good. I enjoyed that. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do like the manifold possibilities of ye olde scribeomechanical machine, I harbor no illusions as to infinity. Like Saussure said, symbols and object are two sides of the same page. They can be cleaved together, but not apart. We're also limited by graphemes, a chosen language, etc.
ReplyDeleteStill, though, the possibilities envisaged in a blank white sheet ARE pretty great.
Wish I'd read all this before I ran off my type samples. Very entertaining, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI hear Blanchot.
ReplyDeleteSometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
ReplyDelete...Other times, it's a fountain pen...
ReplyDeleteLove the disciplined stream of consciousness, a poetry-prose, hopscotch associations from lily pad to neighboring lily pad.
ReplyDeleteDerrida taught at my alma mater UC Irvine for a good number of years.
As a freshman, I considered switching to philosophy as my major but in the end I decided that I had put my parents through enough when I chose psychology rather than what they preferred: engineering or computer science. It was close though bc for a time, I was set on being an english lit major but again, I was merciful and figured id study that as a hobby, on the side.
Makes me wonder now how today might be different based on which bubble I filled as my declared major.