Thursday, April 17, 2014

We, Handwriting, Printing

As even Derrida seems to miss, a distinction between handwriting and printing suggests a criticism of Platonism.  For, while, as Criminologists and Psychologists tend to agree, handwriting expresses the personality of its author, printing is anonymous, thereby encouraging the impression that the content of Gutenberg medium is a stenography of an omniscient vantage point, e. g. a representation of a 'World of Forms'.  At the same, the distinction also refutes the Platonist thesis that Writing is a copy of a copy of the Forms--because Writing is handwriting, and, hence, is personal, and, thus, cannot be sufficiently derived from some impersonal original.  Likewise, the presumed 'universality' of a Philosophical book is grounded in the 'We' of its author and intended audience.  Even Nietzsche seems to overlook this overturning of Platonism, in the contrast between his subtitle of Thus Spoke Zarathrustra--"A Book for Everyone and No One"--and the titles of the chapters in Beyond Good and Evil that include "We".

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