On Fri, 21 Feb 1997, John Cayley wrote:
> happily print it on a T-shirt (would I wear it? when?).* There is no
> non-linguistic knowledge, or non-linguistic existence. And everything is
> language. Every Thing. "Text" is just a word which allows us to inscribe
> this truth in sentences which will not be mistaken for madness, mysticism
> or -- logos** help us -- poetry.
If everything is language, that's one thing; but not all of it is
writeable or speakable. How useful is a word that equals everything? Is
language god? (Your implication.) If language is everything, I think
I'll stop using the word and use poetry, plays, curses, boxes (first I
wrote bixes - hell, I'll use those too), vocal cords, blah, colour,
rhyme, dazzle, up, Miroslav, and, and also some non-words which of
course I can't mention* here but I'll go see an exhibition or something
and have a cup of tea (these ARE not the non-words, even if they're at
some point language, ie participate in a communicative or
signifying relation or configuration...) Nor do any of them equal
everything, thank language, unless all of them do.
*not mentionable not because prohibited but because this is words.
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