CMCstudent, 4/19

My favorite part of class on Thursday was learning to deconstruct a text in a variety of ways. For example we deconstructed a word that I thought was so easy to define: “dog”. I would have though it was described as a mammal having four legs, and fur, used as a house pet, to round up herds, or track other animals. I was astonished to find out all these underlying meanings that one could take from it. When we deconstructed the word “dog” we found an entirely new way to look at the word. I do not think anyone in the class will ever think of this word without remembering our class activity, I know I certainly will not. What I remember from class is that a “dog” is domesticated, eats flesh, and does not eat grass, however nothing said they do not smoke it. Now, when I hear the term “dog” a mental picture pops into my head. I imagine my house dog smoking a joint, mouth covered in blood, and a ripped apart carcass in which he feeds on the flesh lying next to him. Keep in mind my house dog is a Bichon Frise, which makes my metal picture all the funnier. As Lyotard said, reality becomes a mockery and that is why we can look at these words we find in the dictionary and laugh at them. Benjamin and Lyotard would be proud of us because instead of just accepting what we see as a text we are taking it and perverting it, deconstructing it, and being critical with alterity. After learning about this form of deconstruction I now do not merely look at words, but instead as Barthes would say I “jouer” and perverse the text which I read. In this way I get to play with the text as well as look at it in ways I have not previous done. I also take Derrida’s notion of alterity, and think of the otherness that fills all language. This lets me have fun with the text I am reading and opens my mind.