Of Grammatology

This text is worth the effort and cost, if only for the fantastic introduction by Spivak -- perhaps the nicest introduction to Deconstruction available. The Introduction itself, was, in fact required reading for comp-lit classes studying Deconstruction at Yale in the mid-80s -- the time of DeMann, Hartmann and J. Hillis Miller.

This volume is central to Derrida's project and is, perhaps, his single most important work. In it, one finds the essentail contentions that inform his other essays. Whether one views, from the analytic tradition, these concepts as indulgent rubish or as culmination of a pre-Socratic force hidden under the ubiquitous effects of Plato and Aristotle, they are critical in understanding the disjunctions of philosophy.While Derrida's writing may be difficult because it is both dense and playful, allusive and iconoclastic,these presentational "quirks" are not empty but tied to the basic structures of his argumentation.Since its publication, popular characterizations of this book have attributed to it positions it does not hold. Derrida is, among his other gifts, a scholar of the first order and behind his statements are close readings of many of the philosphical greats that preceded his effort. This is not the babbling of the manic mind but a huge encounter with the dominant tradition of interpretation.Such a gigantic target cannot be exhausted in one volume, but even if one wishes to affirm the analytic tradition, this volume should be read with the respect and care one gives a worthy enemy.

I first read this in the eighties, before I was ready. If you want to understand deconstruction, I was told, "Of Grammatology" is the singlemost important text. Then I read the excellent introduction by Christopher Norris, went back and re-read Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," went back and read Plato's "Phaedrus," which Pirsig deconstructs in "Zen." Finally, the pieces came together and it became possible to appreciate Derrida for the genuine philosopher/philologist/phenomenologist/existential thinker that he is.In reading Derrida I find it useful to keep in mind several key ideas: first, language, spoken or written, is subject to the movement of "real" time. Any "now"utterance is necessarily a past "trace" and a hypothetical future. 2nd, language is not the expression of thought; rather, language "is" pure consciousness. All ideas are words, all words are "interpretations," meanings made by human minds. Hence, there is no escaping the "text." We can "know" nothing beyond the interpretations of the thinking (language-using/meaning-making) human subject. 3rd, the text, while "intranscendable," is necessarily inexhaustible, since every signified must in turn become a signifier. Hence, the awesome (dis)play of language by a thinking subject such as "Shakespeare," whose metaphors never attempt to posit a reality beyond the human world of language (there are no "truth claims" in Shakespeare's sonnets: every meaning can be "proven" by the words which create it. 4th, any "opposition" is more a trick/trope of language than an actual "event." Speaking vs. writing. male vs. female, white vs. black, life vs. death, ideal vs. mundane, the center vs. the margin are all "provisional" metaphors, more complementary than exclusive: the one term always depends upon the other for completion of its meaning. Finally, just as it is unwise to conflate Christian and biblical understandings about anything, it's mistaken to confuse Derrida with the "liberal, radical fringe" often accused of dismantling the canons and foundations of Western civilization. In fact, Derrida's respect for language has more in common with more "traditional" critics such as Bloom and Kermode than it does with the academic activists, political reformers, socialist zealots who have attached themselves to "positions," alliances, causes. These latter groupings violate the very nature of language and thought. (Unfortunately, the American public frequently vote for candidates on the basis of their "positions"--guns, taxes, abortion, etc.--rather than a candidate's ability to think and use language.)Frankly, I now find it curious that I once regarded Derrida with suspicion. His work belongs in the mainstream of philosophy and semantics.

In the context of Derrida's early project - to provide a critique of the foundational human science - linguistics - Of Grammatology is an essential book. In it he develops ideas about "writing" and about the "trace", ideas which illuminate much about the modern science of linguistics. His work is an astringent when applied to other more "analytical" philosophers of language (e.g. John Searle).Derrida's writing style may seem difficult at first, until one realizes that it embodies two other important ideas - play and undecideability. Of Grammatology is not exactly a book of philosophy, and not exactly a book on linguistics, and not exactly a literary work but one which rests uneasily among these three disciplines. By not drawing conclusions, by keeping in play many concepts at once, Derrida manages to provide provocative ideas on mental representations while at the same time instantiating these ideas in the ebb and flow of the work itself.Because of its kalidescopic style, the book can be read for the pure enjoyment of a rambunctious entertainment, and as an important philosophical text, and as a satire, and as profoundly serious.As the academic furor over "decontruction" dies down, Derrida's work perhaps can begun to be read for its human importance. Those who value an insistent questioning will find a champion here.

Having spent many frustrating hours looking for the substance in Derrida's many labyrinthine works, I make this suggestion to others: `Of Grammatology' is the thread text to start your wonderings through the rest of Derrida's thought.