開始．旅程．宿命．終焉... - Ξ Reading the Novel-- Insufficient Language

Ξ Reading the Novel-- Insufficient Language

2008-05-05(15:36) /
Ξ 其他

The signals in the writing and speaking system have the limit, but they can be constituted through different ways to become different sentences or compose different compositions. Although the result of different constitutions seems illimitable, it still has the limitation. Since a result of constitution may just has one small difference with another constitution, but all theses similar texts have the same content that they want to express. In other words, their format and style are different, but their meaning is the same. Hence people cannot claim his writing or speech is original, we cannot assure whether the meaning in these lines has existed or not.

    A main idea in John Barth’s essay Literature of Exhaustion is he tries to explain the exhaustion of the literature form and the question of the innovation of the literature. This can be applied to his novels Echo and Menelaiad and Borges’ novel The Library of Babel. The voice from Echo is just repeated what Narcissus’s speaking, but every time she echoes, something in her voice changes: “Echo never, as popularly held, repeats all, like gossip or mirror. She edits, heightens, mutes, turns others’ word to her end” (Lost in the Funhouse 100). It is similar to the books in the Library of the Babel: “In the vast Library there are no two identical books” (Labyrinths 54). Although the difference between two books is very small, this one may add one comma, but the other one doesn’t. They are still not the same book.   This is the reason why the Librarian in The Library of the Babel does not fear that someone throws out the books in the Library: “[E]very copy is unique, irreplaceable, but there are always several hundred thousand imperfect facsimiles” (Labyrinths 56).    Barth’s novel Menelaiad is talking about the famous story all we have known, but Barth changes the writing style of the original narrative, making it reborn in a different way; nevertheless, the characters, plots, places, don’t change in his novel. During this writing skill, Barth wants us to know: there is no originality in the text, poems, literature, speech, and anything we have to use the words, the orthographical symbols (Labyrinths 53).

    The exhaustion of literature also proves there is no origin. Hence the content old authors and new authors write or the opinions they want to express may be displayed in different form but have the same meaning. Hence this is where the intertextuality comes from. All texts are based on other texts; we cannot find an original text. Since the language, the word we use has its restriction: we cannot jump out the arrangement of 25 symbols, even the numbers of ways to arrange them is very large, but it still has its limit. Although that number is very large that we consider easily it is infinite, the meanings of signals and symbols are not infinite. Because those are invented from the “nature”: “[T]he inventors of this writing imitated the twenty-five natural symbols” (Labyrinths 53). It is impossible to express everything in the world during those symbols and signals; there are still lots of objects or events we cannot explain through the words. On the other hand, if there is one thing called originality, I think it just could be the “nature.” As a result, when the Librarian writes “imperfect facsimiles;” unfortunately, in fact, there is no one can recognize whether these books, texts are perfect or not since there is no originality, no one can assure which copy is really complete, true, or natural.

    According to Barth’s essay Literature of Exhaustion, the development of the literature has reached to a climax, thus authors begin to introspect the usage of the language. More and more people also discover that the language we use is useless to describe one object we want to say. Sometimes, especially when we try to describe our emotions, we will find how language insufficient is.

Works cited:
1. Barth, John. Lost in the Funhouse. 1968. New York: Anchor Books, 1988.
2. Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. New York: New Directions, 1964.

Reference:
1. 王建平，不可言說的言說