Sunday, November 17, 2013

Nonsense, Falsity, Parody

An increase of the distance between X and Y can be sufficiently effected in any one of three ways: 1. X moving away from a stationary Y; 2. Y moving away from a stationary X; or, 3. X and Y each moving away from an initial point of coincidence.  Now, Parmenides, as Plato represents him, constructs an apparent 'paradox of motion' by analyzing 'P is aging' as #3, with 'P' as both 'X' and 'Y'.  Deleuze likewise analyzes "Alice becomes larger" as #3, with Alice as both 'X' and 'Y', from which he concludes that the proposition is nonsensical.  But, each of those representations is simply false--for #1 is the only correct interpretation in each case.  So, granting Deleuze the ontological thesis that Meaning is an 'Event', he still fails to also show that it is therefore essentially nonsensical, i. e. that its structure is necessarily represented as #3, in which case Alice's adventures are a playful dramatization of ambiguous Language, not an ontological excursion, i. e. Parody, not Paradox.

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