The petit-bourgeois is a man unable to imagine the Other. If he comes face to face with him, he blinds himself, ignores and denies him, or else transforms him into himself.

The discourse on the Text should itself be nothing other than text, research, textual activity, since the Text is that social space which leaves no language safe, outside, nor any subject of the enunciation in position as judge, master, analyst, confessor, decoder. The theory of the Text can coincide only with a practice of writing.

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition … always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.

What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.

The politician being interviewed clearly takes a great deal of trouble to imagine an ending to his sentence: and if he stopped short? His entire policy would be jeopardized!

Work has two levels of meaning: literal and concealed. A Text, on the other hand is engaged in a movement … a deferral … a dilation of meaning … the play of signification.

The Text is plural. Which is not simply to say that it has several meanings, but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The Text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an interpretation, even a liberal one, but to an explosion, a dissemination.

Related posts:

  1. Ken Wilber Quotes In fact, at this point in history, the most radical, pervasive, and earth-shaking transformation would occur simply if everybody truly evolved to a mature, rational, and responsible ego, capable of freely participating in the open exchange of mutual self-esteem. There...
  2. Why do philosophers make simple questions appear obscure, complicated and confusing? Expressing oneself astutely, stalwartly and unmistakably is an awkward challenge. This is why simple questions can often appear obscure, complicated and confusing, which is why philosophers are often beleaguered and ridiculed as crass, rather than appreciated, as they indeed sometimes...
  3. Why do identical twins have different fingerprints? Fingerprints are formed in the womb and are not impacted by genes, rather differing hormonal levels. Similarly, just like freckles, environment factors cause havoc on the skin, and can cause varying dissimilarity even though identical twins have exact DNA....
  4. Michel Foucault Quotes The soul is the prison of the body. Let us sin then, and sin to infinity. The most defenseless tenderness and the bloodiest of powers have a similar need of confession. Western man has become a confessing animal. Homosexuality appears...