Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 00:53:51 -0800 (PST)
From: James Ralph Westfall <jwest-AT-ea.oac.uci.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: silenced protest


On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Isaac Rodman wrote:

> I'm not sure I agree with the conclusions about authenticity that are
> drawn from the posited primacy of language (which would seem to indicate
> that no one could ever earn an A), but that aside, I for one still do not
> understand the "phallus" part of the answer.

Well, I don't think I made that very clear. Let me try to phrase what is
at issue here, using Hegel's terms. I wanted the <recognition> I thought
the paper warranted me. I thought that my "message" had been alienated,
and that I just needed to convince her that something great was right
there before her eyes in my paper. I wanted the negation of the
exteriority that divided me from the Other (my professor). I wanted us to
be "all on the same page." I wanted to undo the "death of the author,"
which demands that my text reject me in the moment that I give it to the
Other. I wanted from her the phallus: the recognition opposed to my texts'
rejection of me. 

entre deux morts,

James

P.S. I love talking about Lacan, but this autobio thread is feeling pretty
self-indulgent to me. I know I started it. Oh angst and alienation!



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