Starfish Derrida

Dr. Casey was not joking when he said this reading would be rough. I found myself lost and confused for the most part, but I will post on parts that I understood.

In the Speech/writing section I found it interesting that do very different things like speech and writing could be compared to each other. The reading stated that writers such as Hegal and Saussure have, “privileged speech over writing on the grounds that it is closer to inwardness and thought, and so treated writing as merely a technical derivation from speech, a writing down of what is already there” 114. I was surprised to see that writers preferred speech over writing, when their lives are based around putting down their thoughts onto paper. I also do not agree that speech is closer to inwardness and thought. Although you speak your mind and speak what is inside of you, when you write you are transferring your thoughts onto paper, therefore writing is equally as close to inwardness and thought in my opinion. Sometimes writing is even closer to inwardness than speech because you may write something that you would never feel comfortable to say out loud.

Another part of the reading that I found interesting was when Derrida discusses the definition of difference. “The verb ‘to differ’ seems to differ from itself” 120. The word difference had two definitions that are very distinctive from each other. This just proves that differences are everywhere in our culture, including within the word itself.

Finally, I liked Derrida’s thoughts on signs. “…a sign is put in place of the thing itself…Signs represent the present in its absence...the movement of signs defers the moment of encountering the thing itself, the moment at which we could lay hold of it” 125. I automatically thought of literal signs and moving or traveling down a road in Orlando. Everywhere you see signs for Disney World, 15 miles etc. These are representing the present, because Disney world exists but they are also representing it’s absence because Disney world is not where we see these signs, we need to drive further