The Unspoken

A Theory of Literary Production by Pierre Macherey, was a reading I found to be a little difficult at first. It seemed somewhat contradictory and I had a hard time in understanding what was being said. At the very start of the reading, I found this to be difficult to decipher,” Because it has not said everything, there remains the possibility of saying something else”(15). When I read further I started to somewhat understand what Macherey was trying to bring to light, “We must distinguish the necessity of this silence”(16) and “ This silence gives it life”(16). It is through the importance of silence, whether in speech or writing, that creates real knowledge of the material through its interpretation and to make explicit that which is implicit, “the discovered and the concealed”(15). It’s in the silence where real ideas begin to take form, the message is not as easy attained as one would imagine but is meant to be looked at critically. To fully grasp the meaning, it must be observed and looked at from many different angles for the best interpretation to be made; “To know the work, we must move outside it”(20).

This reading brought to mind the common saying, “Actions speak louder than words”. This saying separates speech from action and gives action more power because in a sense, words are just words and the real underlying meaning is more deeply imbedded than the immediate value of words alone. A way I can relate this to my life would be in communication with others, when someone speaks repeatably it loses interest and begins to lose its importance; words are just words, spoken or written. Maybe what Macherey is saying is that in the moments of silence, real understanding becomes possible through critically analyzing the meaning through that which has not been brought to light in its absence.

“On my honor I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work”