Trapnest, Barthes

The pleasure of text is an interesting notion. Many reflect to when they were younger or even now, and recall hearing themselves or their friends adamantly stating, “I hate reading.” In fact, reading is likely the most begrudging task many college students undertake as they gaze overwhelmed upon their stacks of papers and books.

Yet, Barthes seeks to explain (I think at least) how text in general gives us innate pleasure. He even says at one point that the brio of the text (which is essentially saying the purpose of the text) is the will to bliss. He begins by explaining the pleasure we gain from the intermittence, the starting and stopping of something. It is related to the flash of skin one may see between the shirt and the trousers, or between edges. However when applied to text this is the reader’s understanding as the story unfolds before them.

How this story unfolds is dependant upon the system of reading the reader applies, Barthes argues. Many people read with Temesis, which comes from Aincent Greek meaning “a cutting.” In literary terms it descries the intersection of one or more words between components of a compound word. Barthes applies this cutting mentality in a different way, referring to how readers will often skip through a text over the “boring” parts, to the “more interesting” sections that they will gain more pleasure from. It is a rhythm the reader develops that alters with every reading, even of the same text. This relates to the system of reading where the reader skips straight to the summary, looking for the broader picture of things. While the reader does not loose any of the words in this method they loose some of the deeper meaning of the text. The other way that Barthes explains that people can read is where the reader covers the text very carefully, looking through it for the layers of meaning.

What I personally did not understand with this particular section is what Barthes meant when he spoke of “…what happens to the language does not happen to the discourse…” and proceeding “… to be aristocratic readers.”