dmariel, 4/15

I would like to say that I understand Derrida much better after class today but unfortunately I still find myself confused with most of his concepts. Even if Derrida taught me himself I would probably still be stumped! The one thing that did interest me (aka what I could understand :)) was the idea that “no transcendent truth is present outside the sphere of writing”. I have been in a jewish religion class all semester and I often find myself referring aspects of religion to the critical theorists we are learning about. I feel as if both of them are very abstract, therefore relatable. The purpose of most religion is to find truth in the existence of their people. Most religions, like Judaism and Christianity, use meta narratives to explain their presence in the world. Christianity believes that the word is God and God is everything. The constructed bible is the word of god, unquestionable and permanent within the religion. Above all, beyond all religion, language is created in order to get back to the beginning of the creation of humanity.
I also liked the idea of the inability to capture presence at its exact moment. This reminded me of the idea that Television is no longer the best medium for news, whereas blogging has become to fastest and most facilitated form of communication among people. But according to Derrida, even the best bloggers could never capture reality, because once the word is typed, the now is already over! Derrida’s concept of the “metaphysics of presence” is the way in which we search for our individual meaning in the world and language is our struggle to try and give us a presence. But ultimately, words cannot give actual meaning to presence because the second it is conceptualized it has already passed us.
I definitely agree with Dr. Casey’s prediction about our new signature transforming into a DNA swab. What is the essence of a signature anyway!? Anyone can write your name if they practice it well enough! Although, I do believe that our names are extremely powerful and give use some sense of identity and belonging. Behind our signature there is a ‘trace’ to our approval of whatever it is that is being signed. Our signature becomes much more than written words when used for documentation. I believe that the idea that we have to sign things for approval shows humanity is locked into logocentrism.