The first signified

 

 

The essence of the sign, the signified, tends to be thought of in terms of presence.

The voice is the closest to the first signified. The first signified was the soul, truth, God. This first signified is the transcendental signified. But even this transcendental signified is simply a reflection of exteriority, a reflect of the outside that has been internalized and privileged, eventhough it is second.

Writing in the mathematical/technical sense and generally is the forgetting of the self. It is the exteriority opposite the interiority of memory. But alphabetic writing is phonetic. It is a system of phonetic signs. Signs of signs. Connecting appellations, names. The unity of breath and concept, noun and word. The voice. Nonphonetic writing is the destruction of this unity. It is the sterilization of spirit dual creation.

Nonphonetic writing is a sterilization, a death stalking, menacing the history life life, of presence. It is Différance, opposite being as presence. It is the end of presence, of totality. The end of the book.