Ben, in the quotes you provide, it appears that for Derrida, the uncertainties
and imperfections of communication have the status of a principle. And as
you implied, poets especially are aware of this uncertainty principle:
achieving a certain kind of expression often involves as much letting go
as asserting verbal control.
However, I think this "letting go" still involves an expectation of or a
striving toward communication. Perhaps the essential beauty which radiates
from poetry is an expression of or a consequence of the act of imperfect
communication of the incommunicable. The attempt to say "the music of
what happens": the process, not of setting words to music, but of setting
music to words. Stevens: "the imperfect is our paradise"; "in flawed
words and stubborn sounds".
To my mind, these poetic acts of imperfect speech continually
provide evidence against Derrida's main contention: that language,
meaning & communication are fundamentally undecideable. Poetry
(like music) reaches across the chasm of incommunicability & strangely
succeeds by failing.
Henry
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|