Savvy. Macherey. 1/21/09

The major quote that I took away from this reading is located on page 17,"Yet the unspoken has many other resources: it assigns speech to its exact position, designating its domain. By speech, silence becomes the centre and principle of expression, its vanishing point. Speech eventually has nothing more to tell us: we investigate the silence, for it is the silence that is doing the speaking." When reading thing quote I thought about how true it is that silence can make a point in a speech or when talking. When I recap on the past few months and take a closer look at newly elected President Obama's speech, I think of what an impact silence had in making his main points. Not only was silence used to stress points, it was also used to push the viewers and listeners to think and reflect back on what he was saying. Silence allows for individuals to stretch their minds and think about what is being presented in front of them. Silence can either stress and explain a point, or it can be used for listeners to interpreter speech. I personally know that when I give a speech, I pause after making certain points. I do this because I want the audience to think, reflect, and interpreter what is being said in my speech. I found this reading to be a perfect follow up to Ferdinand de Saussure and Semiotics. With semiotics we were looking at how signs and language are interpreted and with Pierre Macherey the discussion was really about the discussion of the meaning and power of silence.