Derrida's fear of writing occurs to him when he is in a half sleep half awake stage. At that point he feels he sees the truth more clearly than ever and the part on his brain he names vigilance tells him that what he is doing is crazy and this "gesture," which I think to be his writing, is crazy and might offend people. But when he is awake, vigilance is asleep and he no longer thinks about if his writing is acceptable, he simply thinks about his writing and says what he wants to say.
I have a similar fear, but not quite exactly what Derrida is describing. I always have a good a idea, but I fear the correct way to articulate my thoughts into comprehensible writing. It goes along with Derrida's fear because if I fail to articulate myself well, then what I'm really trying to say won't be expressed to my reader and then I have failed as a writer.
The motivation of this fear is really the proper way to go about communicating with your reader. Writing is indeed a conversation and if you fail to express your thoughts clearly and understandably, then the reader has no way to accept the ideas you intended to communicate. Derrida feels that his written word is what he wanted to say and therefore will not fail to communicate his point.
I also fear that the person who is reading my piece will not understand the point that I was trying to get across. Like we discussed in class, it is very hard to sound sarcastic in a piece of writing because the reader just reads what you have written down, not knowing the complete meaning behind it.
ReplyDeleteWriting does become fearful, in the sense that people may not understand your view. It is much easier to communicate by words through speaking, but writing is really the way to make it stick.
ReplyDeleteYou never truly fail, as a writer. Yes, initially, your readers may not understand what you are trying to articulate, but there is always room for a revision; a second chance to explain yourself. And it doesn't just stop at two. You can revise for life. Critiques should be wished for.