Jacques Derrida's Valentine
reBlogged from The Wit of the Staircase:
The Love Letter Always Reaches Its Destination: Jacques Derrida's Valentine
'The Postcard is a "collection" of various love-letters, supposedly burned in a fire, which has left pieces of text missing. Derrida has also included a few essays which he believes continue the analysis begun in the loveletters [envois]. The content of the loveletters covers a broad range of philosophical and personal questions - from philosophy of language - to the relation b/w Socrates and Plato - to personal encounters in (I suppose) Derrida's life as a philosopher.
But the overall effect of this - this "re-contextualization" or in other words, this casting of philosophical questions in a format not usually considered "serious" -> love letters... the profundity, the importance, the dissemination of the questions take on a wholly different feel and effect. The feel and effect, of course, is hard to describe, but it is a way of playing with "philosophical sensibilities" -- what is "real" philosophy? What is "serious" philosophy? And what is the meaning of such questions in the most private of all communications - love letters between two intimate lovers.
I know, this is merely one small aspect of Derrida's enterprise. But it is, I believe, the main purpose of The Postcard: to see how the meaning of philosophical questions regarding language, history, and the sequence of events, take on new meanings in the context of lost love letters-- the same way a Postcard which never reaches its destination takes on new meanings for the unintended third reader.'
--Jon Penney
Link: Amazon.com: The Post Card : From Socrates to Freud and Beyond.
The Olivetti "Valentine" typewriter, above, one of several vintage typewriters in The Wit Of The Staircase office. It's a bright red pop art riot that inspires me to write even though I always use an iBook.
