Starfish 1/29

Once again in class today, all questions about the reading were answered and everything became a little bit clearer. There was, however, one concept that was hard to grasp. This idea also made me feel a bit uncomfortable at first. This is the concept of JOUISSANCE, which is a pleasure that is derived from text. Barthe’s believed that a body of text could excite or stimulate you. At first I must admit I took it a bit literally in a sexual sense and could not relate to having such a strong emotion towards text. Then as class continued, I began to understand this concept more and relate it to my life. The whole “Gap” concept made jouissance relatable. Barthes said, “Is not the most erotic portion of the body where the garment gapes.” I then realized what he means is the best part of a text is when it leaves you hanging in anticipation. You are not being all the information. Therefore you are curious and excited to see what the missing part could be. I have a deep passion for movies and to me; the best movies are the ones that have you sitting on the edge of your seat. These movies consume you because you are so eager to see what is going to happen next. It is the same thing with many forms of text. Thinking about this makes me agree with the idea that “it is the Gap that holds the true meaning or substance. Taking Barthes idea and relating it to my passion for film, I suddenly saw j how a text could be viewed exciting and thrilling.

On a side note, I was very excited to discuss the quote; “The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas for my body does not have the same ideas I do.” The idea of there being a duality or your body and your mind having two different pursuits was extremely relatable. I often find myself reading a text and my eyes will be scanning each word of each sentence, but my mind begins to wander on other subjects other than what I am reading. It becomes very frustrating at times to the point where I have to read everything over. I understand now that this is part of the idea of two pursuits occurring during an active reading of a text.