Graham, Macherey

The quote from the chapter that I chose to9 discuss is "if the author does not always say what he states, he does not necessarily state what he says."
I believe that this is a great statement, meaning that sometimes the most important things for us to know are the things that we forget to mention. For instance, if we are reading a biography about an important figure in society, there is no way that the author will be able to capture every single fact about that individual that has impacted their life in an important way.
I believe that this quote is often relevant because we read something either in a textbook, or maybe even just a book or newspaper that we choose to read for our entertainment. We read a few hundred pages (in a book) or maybe even a few paragraphs (in a newspaper) and we feel as if we know an extensive amount of information about the topic. We later find out after other individuals do further research that we actually know nothing at all…well, at least about the most important things on the subject.
Sometimes the things that are not said are the things that we need to look into and investigate further. Maybe they are not openly discussed because the topic is something that is difficult to understand. But with time and proper research, everyone would benefit very well from knowing the unspoken details.
I believe that this also has to do with what we discussed last class (signs). Sometimes it is not necessarily what we say that matters, it is the way that people interpret it and the way that people choose to think about it based on their past experiences. Many things can be interpreted many different ways, so extensive research must be done in order to fully understand information that we read or hear. We will probably still be missing vital information even after the excessive research, which just goes to show that there are constantly new things for us to learn.