Would the writing, the act thereof, constitute the experience, then? Is writing simply the constitution of experience? It seems common to think of writing as imitation (of yet more imitation, maybe, depending on who you ask), or historiography, even, but does an experience not exist, for all intents and purposes, without review and interpretation? I suppose the difference in my mind is the time referent, of which the depth of interpretation is a factor. An experience is a momentary thing, immediate and visceral in nature; we can reflect on that viscera, and maybe at that point what we’re doing can be called writing. But this is assuming that we aren’t writing ourselves at all times, which could be a possibility.

Shall we take this a step further? How could human experience itself exist without writing – that is, without subjective review and interpretation?

“To be perceived is to mean” — yeah, I go on about that whenever I get a chance. I think total lack of meaning is not only unimpressive, but impossible. If Shirou, whose only imagination to speak of seems to revolve around swords (lol phalloi) can do it, anyone can. I’d really like someone better-versed in epistemology and hermeneutics to swoop in here and elaborate.

That Book of Nature stuff is crazy. I knew Barthes drew from all sorts of linguists, but I didn’t realize he had been beaten to the punch so handily.

Actually, come to think of it, it reminds me of the atheist’s nightmare.

The invention of meaning is an interesting one. It’s an idea I’m not well-equipped to talk about but, for what it’s worth, as a good Berkeleyan idealist I’m unimpressed by formlessness and chaos, as they sound difficult to experience. To be is to be perceived, and to be perceived is to mean, which leaves the world dripping meaning. This is (forgive the neophyte medievalist) an old idea — though I guess the introduction of God might bring chaos and formlessness back in. Berkeley might know.

Anyhows, I apologise if that’s not especially related to your post and a bit everything/nothing.