From: "Eric" <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: Lyotard
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 22:40:23 -0500


Carine,

I don't think this is the exact passage you are looking for, but it
shares some similar themes. It is taken from the end of his essay "After
the Sublime, the State of Aesthetics" in his book "The Inhuman":

"Can we find an analogue of matter in the order of thought itself? Is
there a matter of thought, a nuance, a grain, a timbre which makes an
event for thought and unsettles it, analogously with what I have
described in the sensory order? Perhaps we have to invoke words. Perhaps
words themselves, in the most secret place of thought, are its matter,
its timbre, its nuance, i.e. what it cannot manage to think. Words
'say', sound, touch, always 'before' thought. And the always 'say'
something other than what thought signifies, and what it wants to
signify by putting them into form. Words want nothing. They are the
'un-will', the 'non-sense' of thought, its mass. They are innumerable
like the nuances of a colour or sound-continuum. They are always older
than thought. They can be semiologized, philogized, just as nuances are
chromatized and timbres gradualized. But like timbres and nuances, they
are always being born. Thought tries to tidy them up, arrange them,
control them and manipulate them. But as they are old people and
children, words are not obedient. As Gertrude Stein thought, to write is
to respect their candour and their age, as Cezanne or Karel Appel
respect colours." 

Hope this helps!

eric

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
[mailto:owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU] On Behalf Of Carine
Defoort
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 2:58 PM
To: lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Lyotard


>Dear sir,
>
>I am not sure that I can ask this question without being member of the 
>Lyotard list. There is a passage in which Lyotard insists that words
have 
>to be preserved, while their meaning may change. We therefore have to 
>respect the words themselves, but also treat them somewhat
respectlessly 
>to change their meaning. I am not sure that this paraphrase is correct,

>nor where the passage can be found. Do you have any idea?
>
>Best regards,
>C. Defoort
>
>


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