Re: The real problem...

And on we go....

Daniel,

You actually write:

"From what I read Derrida's differences were very specific to the text and he
did not refer to the larger context of those author's body of writings ..."

Then you have read very little Derrida. Many of his most important and fully
developed works are just such comparative studies. His long essay on Freud's
work in the Post Card looks at a large number of Freud's texts in relation to
each other and even and especially in relation to Freud's autobiography. His
book on Marx does the same, critiquing the entire expanse of Marx's work. His
essays in The Truth in Painting not only look at a number of different texts
by an author in each essay but also a number of different paintings and visual
works by each artist in question. Throughout his career he has written
essays that read single texts closely and also written essays that compare a number
of different texts by the same author and some that compare texts by
different authors as well.

In fact, perhaps his largest and most compelling work examines in detail the
writings of Hegel (and includes careful, critical comments on almost all of
Hegel's major works) and Genet (and compares and reads from all of Genet's
published novels and many of his plays and essays). All in the same book.

Again, I really wish you'd be careful about the claims you make.

And Derrida is not engaged in any sort of "process" from one text to the
other. That's simply your convenient made-up narrative about a collection of
texts you obviously have not read.

Then you assume:

"We read texts to understand people..."

I don't.

Finally, you ask, digging up an old chestnut:

"I am sure that you will say that there is a boundary to the possible
meanings but
again I say it as I have said it often before how do you draw those field
boundaries with only 't'ruth?"

They draw themselves, within a discussion like this one, for instance. And
they do so with only 't'ruth because that's all that we have.

The rest is just your children's stories again.

--John

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Received on Thu Aug 14 14:29:55 2003