The Threshold of Discourse

A Preference that Borders on Silence as a Way to Hesitate in the Space where Words Become Critical

Abstract

Every speech is a project. Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" presents itself as the rupture of a continuous movement, that is a repetition of something identical which usually moves through a repetitive writing.
The act of destabilizing a continuous logic creates a kind of further space for words: it removes them from the kingdom of waiting and takes them where the act of becoming is visible. The linguistic gesture of a scrivener who escapes the expectations of his tasks which are made of words means that reading presents itself to our gaze as an invitation to the dimension of pause, we are invited to wait for the event of the words while they are about to be said. Or read.