Chapter 2 Writing
In: Inhuman EducationsSearch for other papers by Derek R. Ford in
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Proposing that Lyotard could be approached as a writer who writes in order to think about writing, this chapter begins by demonstrating that writing, for Lyotard, is a process of thinking or of witnessing thought—or, better, of trying to do both. It does so by focusing on two Lyotardian forms of re-writing which align with the modern and the postmodern. One form of re-writing is after a new “zero point” or beginning, and seeks to clarify errors from past writings under the command of the intellect and understanding. The second form of re-writing is one in which the writing works over the subject and takes on a life of its own. Here the task is not to shore up errors but to let the ineffable infiltrate the writing—and by consequence, the writer. In the end, I advance the list and the ellipses as two forms of re-writing that set thought apart from knowledge.