Silence is louder than words.
As cliche as the above, um, cliche sounds... Macherey makes his point in this passage that silence is not wasted space when it comes to understanding language and various texts. In essence, Macherey informs us that silence is the better, more important part of speech.
Why does he say this? Macherey states: "In order to say anything, there are other things which must not be said." (C 17)
What is left to the imagination is often what is the body of a text. Macherey does not mean interpretation when he says this. He mentions that interpretation requires pretexts and thus suggests that a text means something other than what it is stating. This is not his meaning. Macherey states that the spoken and silent build on each other. They are nothing one without the other. The spoken is the framework and the silence is the thread woven onto the framework. It is something like a rolling boulder gathering moss on a downhill trail.
The text is the theme, that which we understand inherently that the text is trying to get across to us. The silence, the unknown, the mystery gives meaning to the text. The silence is what holds the meaning, it is what you get out of the text. Silence gives meaning to meaning. The unknown enhances the known. Hence, if we knew everything, we would need to know nothing and would no longer serve a purpose. Themes are meant to get the juices of the mind flowing so the text builds up on each other and forms a coherent story. The reader has to be curious.
Curiosity is the key to further inquiry and discovery. Without this drive to discover the unknown, we would have no reason for existence. Ask questions! Discover! That is what Macherey is saying to do. The question: "What does he mean?" reveals from that which is shown and diverts our attention away from what we know into what we don't know. What do we need to find out to know more? Is there more to know? How can we discover more?
The questions that Macherey speaks of, the two essential questions, release us from the trap that is language. The one who reveals (the author) and the one who asks the first questions (the reader) are absolutely important for one another and the success of the text. Without each other, there would be questions left unanswered and unknowns left unexplored.
Thus we must embrace this unknown and weave it into a story within the framework, the theme, laid out for us. We must gain insight into the text and extract meaning. We must go beyond the limitations of works to bring out what a text is compelled to say so we can figure out what it really wants to say.
In other words, the artist has given us a half-painted canvas and certain paints; we must create a masterpiece from the guiding tools he has given us in order to discover not what we think the work is saying but to extract what it really means from the theme set before us.
As cliche as the above, um, cliche sounds... Macherey makes his point in this passage that silence is not wasted space when it comes to understanding language and various texts. In essence, Macherey informs us that silence is the better, more important part of speech.
Why does he say this? Macherey states: "In order to say anything, there are other things which must not be said." (C 17)
What is left to the imagination is often what is the body of a text. Macherey does not mean interpretation when he says this. He mentions that interpretation requires pretexts and thus suggests that a text means something other than what it is stating. This is not his meaning. Macherey states that the spoken and silent build on each other. They are nothing one without the other. The spoken is the framework and the silence is the thread woven onto the framework. It is something like a rolling boulder gathering moss on a downhill trail.
The text is the theme, that which we understand inherently that the text is trying to get across to us. The silence, the unknown, the mystery gives meaning to the text. The silence is what holds the meaning, it is what you get out of the text. Silence gives meaning to meaning. The unknown enhances the known. Hence, if we knew everything, we would need to know nothing and would no longer serve a purpose. Themes are meant to get the juices of the mind flowing so the text builds up on each other and forms a coherent story. The reader has to be curious.
Curiosity is the key to further inquiry and discovery. Without this drive to discover the unknown, we would have no reason for existence. Ask questions! Discover! That is what Macherey is saying to do. The question: "What does he mean?" reveals from that which is shown and diverts our attention away from what we know into what we don't know. What do we need to find out to know more? Is there more to know? How can we discover more?
Thus we must embrace this unknown and weave it into a story within the framework, the theme, laid out for us. We must gain insight into the text and extract meaning. We must go beyond the limitations of works to bring out what a text is compelled to say so we can figure out what it really wants to say.
In other words, the artist has given us a half-painted canvas and certain paints; we must create a masterpiece from the guiding tools he has given us in order to discover not what we think the work is saying but to extract what it really means from the theme set before us.
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