Daisy, Macherey

Pierre Macherey focused on the unspoken silence within texts. This is the idea that an article, book, or song is incomplete and there is some part of it that causes a larger meaning. The missing language within a text is what creates further questions. Texts have both an explicit and implicit meaning. According to Macherey, the explicit “is formally accounted for, expressed, and even concluded” (13). The implicit, on the other hand, is the meaning behind the explicit, the unspoken knowledge. It is what creates further discussion through language.
According to Macherey, “the explicit requires the implicit: for in order to say anything, there are other things which must not be said” (17). For a text to be effective it requires thought, more language. But before a text can have effective implicit meaning, the language requires effectiveness to produce the explicit. A couple years ago I heard a story about a Phil Collins song, “In the Air Tonight.” The story says when Phil Collins was young his best friend was drowning and a man passing by wouldn’t help save him. Later in life, Phil Collins wrote a song about it and tracked the man down and invited him to his concert to hear the song played. It was said that a week later the man committed suicide. Whether or not that story is true it can provide an example here. The language and silence within the song affected the man in a very powerful way. The song can be interpreted many different ways and create different feelings for different people, the key word here is different.
The idea of silence is that it is not quiet. Many times the silence is very loud as it was said to be for the man listening to the Phil Collins song. Another example is a friend might ask you how your day is, and you reply “fine.” But in reality the implicit meaning behind the “fine,” is that you’re having a horrible day, your boyfriend broke up with you and you just failed a test. Your friend might sense the silence within your reply and go on to ask you more questions, such as “Are you really fine? You seem kind of down.” The important part within this conversation was not the answer “fine,” but what was not said, the meaning behind the language.