"no signifier does justice linguistically." ~chris higgs

each sign in a language is a union of a signifier and a signified.






chris's beautiful and innovatively structured story,"mother: a deconstruction with critical apparatus" from which the above quote is taken, published in the most recent and "all-fiction" issue of diagram, pertains to the inherent fragility of this linkage. if you enjoy it half as much as i did, you will enjoy it very much.

somehow, nina katchadourian's mended spiderwebs (passed down to me via bb) align themselves perfectly with the notion of the tenuous associations we have with language. the image haunts and haunts me. for writing, too, attempts to repair the rents and ruptures in the texture of days.

but interestingly enough, nina has found that the spiders tend to undo the work she's done, leaving the red threads in a little heap below the web and fixing it themselves.

i wonder, could this be a signifier for literature itself?