Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 02:39:16 -0500
From: Claire Dinsmore <chantal-AT-bellatlantic.net>
Subject: MB: relationship of Blanchot's theory to his....




               The speech relation in which the unknown articulates itself is an act of infinity.
                                                - Maurice Blanchot

Dear Catherine -

I will, first, second Brian 13's vote for The Infinite Conversation - it was my introduction to Blanchot, and
opened a whole new world to me in reference to the creative act.

                                                      * * *
I can only reply personally, but I found some of Blanchot's attitude, shall we say, beautifully revealed in his
fictive work  the one who was standing apart
                                                      from me
This work is also a great exploration of the question of inside/outside as concerns the writer, (and, I suppose,
any aware human being in the world).  I found it amazingly compelling and frightening - darkly tinged with a
negative stance about the hopelessness of the act, the futility of the idea(l?) of actual communication -
nonetheless, nonetheless ... It is an obscure work of course - the reader constantly questioning the meaning,
root and inception of the  'voice' - is Blanchot speaking as the artist/writer or as critic of the act; then
again, of course, it is probably a host of voices (inner I believe)at work. But what is 'real' and what is idea,
conception vs. experience; and , then again: is that a point at all, or is it pointing away from such
distinction/to the irrelevancy of such?  What I found so particularly compelling about this work was that,
regardless of the constant haunt of that shadow of negativity, it was so alive, as it were, with the writer's
experience of creation - as demand - ahhhh yes: The EXIGENCY! To me, here was (some of) his theory applied and
'proved.' How this is 'proved' is that blanchot does not just talk about the experience of (the attempt at)
creation, the trial of the communicatory act, but evokes it, utterly - one is INSIDE the act as one reads this
work.  Although this act (as exemplified in the text) is performed via discursive language, clearly, it need not
be - it is a daily experience within the world where we must perform with the limited tools (language, etc.)  of
an/others' creation (that is if we perform these acts with awareness, see beyond mere habit).
                                                       ***

Claire



--
"We live in the dark.  We do what we can. We give what we have.
Our doubt is our passion.  Our passion is our task.  The rest of the madness is art."
- Henry James
http://www.StudioCleo.com

HTML VERSION:

Dear Catherine -

I will, first, second Brian 13's vote for The Infinite Conversation - it was my introduction to Blanchot, and opened a whole new world to me in reference to the creative act.

Claire
 
 

--
"We live in the dark.  We do what we can. We give what we have.
Our doubt is our passion.  Our passion is our task.  The rest of the madness is art."
- Henry James
http://www.StudioCleo.com