Tonight, I was musing on the fate of the Nymph, Echo who lost her own voice and was forced to repeat the words of others. I think that to some degree this is the fate of all of us. I mean think about it, what person or thing did you echo today?
Derrida suggests in this intriguing little video I found on uTube, that "Echo is able to appropriate Narcissus in such a way that he becomes her, in a sense." When we are in love with someone and blindly reflect back their persona to them, aren't we in effect doing the same thing?
In Ovid, Metamorphoses III we are told, "her name is Echo; she always answer back."
Does She? Do We?
What will enable us to find our own voice/identity?
Derrida interprets the myth as the juxtaposition of two blind people loving each other. How can they? How can we, who cannot see, make our way in the journey of self that we call love?
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3 comments:
That is such a profound thought - we really do echo everything that has been said before. It is an epic task, not to.
(P.S. I read the reference story in Ovid just a few months ago)
Wonderful thought. Specially "When we are in love with someone and blindly reflect back their persona to them, aren't we in effect doing the same thing?"
(Live TV)
Hello, stranger. I happened onto your blog through serendipitous googling, as is often the case with treasures in the ether. I was moved by this humble little post, as both an avid student and reader of Ovid and Derrida, entrenched independently in the duo as I am. Thank you for this.
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