For love of the ritual : Derrida-philosophy

Abstract

which book would you take with you if you were to be deserted on an uninhabited island? It is only a game, it is never completely serious. But it says something about the one who is asked to make the choice. Many people would hesitate and might not be able or might not be willing to make a choice. Others spontaneously would say: the bible, Plato, the Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, one or other great novel or the work of a great thinker. I myself would take with me... the big dictionary of my language. Again, my saying so is not completely serious, it is only a game. Why the dictionary? In the first place because all texts and books that are written in Dutch, and that I would otherwise like to take with me, are written with words that one can find in the Van Dale. Het Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Texts are weaves or constructions, woven or built from material that is in the dictionary. An English text cannot be something other than a particular combination of English words, registered in the Oxford English Dictionary. Second, when you open the dictionary on any page -or, let me express myself more modestly- when I open that book on any page, I fall from one wonder into another. I am constantly referred to all sorts of different words. All sorts of memories come up and all sorts of expectations are raised. I suddenly see connections that I had never seen or suspected before, and whole narratives begin to outline themselves: all that on the pursuit of mere words.