
The seventh function of language
by Laurent Binet · first published 2017
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The suspicious death of literary critic Roland Barthes in 1980 Paris reveals the secret history of the French intelligentsia, plunging a hapless police detective into the depths of literary theory as it was documented in a famed linguist's lost manuscript.
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This is straight out of The Seventh Function of Language, by Laurent Binet. The only reason we know that Socrates was against writing is because Plato (et al.) wrote those thoughts down.
on “Socrates Was Against Writing (2011)” ↗I probably could’ve/should’ve been clearer that I was quoting Laurent Binet’s _The Seventh Function of Language_ in a (likely poor) attempt at self-deprecating humor. For me, the point of the passage is that we’re all just recombining language, in the best cases cleverly to express our “own” ideas, in the worst,…
on “When Do We Become Adults, Really?” ↗