Dear MAPP Community,

As I reflect on the issue of writing, following Peter's presentation this last week I was reminded of French philosopher Jaques Derrida who so wonderfully articulated the process for himself in a beautiful text 'Memoirs of the Blind; The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins' - I offer some of his thoughts here in which he talks of an exercise of writing without seeing:

' What happens when one writes without seeing? A hand of the blind ventures forth alone or disconnected, in a poorly delimited space; it feels its way, it gropes, it caresses as much as it inscribes, trusting in the memory of signs and supplimenting sight. It is as if the lidless eye had opened at the tip of the fingers, as if one eye too many had grown right next to the nail, a single eye, the eye of the cyclops or one-eyed man. This eye guides the tracing of the outline (Trace); it is a miner's lamp at the point of writing, a curious and vigilant substitute, the prosthesis of the seer who is himself invisible. The image of the movement of these letters, of what this finger-eye inscribes, is thus sketched out within me.'

Jacques Derrida, J. 1993 Memoirs of the Blind; The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins; USA University of Chicago Press