josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.

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27 Jan '13 01:33:59 AM

'Why…?' asks for an explanation or a justification.

'How…?' asks for an articulation, breaking something down in parts or steps, or putting something into words.

27 Jan '13 01:28:58 AM

Questions about how texts work are precluded by the belief that one knows what counts as work.

27 Jan '13 01:28:22 AM

How texts mean, before 'what does he mean?'.

How texts work, before 'what's been done?'.

27 Jan '13 12:42:31 AM

You really must admire any work in whose blurb the aggrieved or bewildered phrase 'Why the fuck…?' occurs.

26 Jan '13 06:36:31 AM

Since the detective usually never finds the body, she must almost always be called in; so she can always be shown being called away.

26 Jan '13 06:22:20 AM

'… he begins to search for the kind of statement that will show a way rather than be an answer, invite a further question rather than elicit direct assent.'

25 Jan '13 12:20:06 AM

If my words, too, are people, then wouldn't they also just be gatherings I've been at?

25 Jan '13 12:17:40 AM

'How To Do Things With Words': along with them, working together; not as if they are our instruments.

… which leaves open the possibility that we are theirs.

25 Jan '13 12:14:47 AM

If words are people, then what are we? —Maybe if we stay quiet we'll find out.