The Truth Series #4 The Literary Theorist

The Truth Series #4 The French Literary Theorist (or the Buddhist, depending)

A koan is a riddle of sorts, sometimes described as a paradoxical anecdote. Some say koans show the inadequacy of logic. A Buddhist friend told me that koans are used to bring about enlightenment.

An example: “The master holds the disciple’s head underwater for a long, long time; gradually the bubbles become fewer; at the last moment, the master pulls the disciple out and revives him: when you have craved truth as you crave air, then you will know what the truth is.”

I found this in Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Barthes was talking about love. He says that the absence of the lover, the other, holds the head underwater. By the way, he drowns. You can argue with Barthes about that but this koan is serious business as far as truth is concerned. There are a thousand different ways to parse and interpret everything Barthes wrote. He is that kind of writer. I think he is equating love and truth, not in the sense that they are the same thing but rather that love is a form of truth, or that a lover can be one’s truth, or that no other truth matters, or something else entirely that I cannot discern. Barthes’ writing somehow manages to provide illumination and opacity at the same time. He leaves me feeling as if I have found a deep insight about truth but it remains just barely out of reach. I can see it, I am reaching out my hand, my fingertips brush it, I am straining to grab it. I suppose that’s as good as tableau as any of man’s search for truth.