Dividing into groups to focus on individual questions generated some excellent discussion. We talked about what poetry is according to Levinas. He calls it "the Exit," but we were uncertain from what we are exiting. Immanence?
We also contrasted Poetry with Not Poetry. Poetry, we think, opens the space between signifier and signified, while Not Poetry seeks to close this space. One thing I'm not totally clear on: there is a distinction between signifier and sign, but what is it, exactly? Is the space between signifier and signified where the other that is not the same is? Is transcendence in that space?
I'm realizing that the more I think about Levinas, the more I go back and read again, the less I feel like I understand. There's a duality to everything (the face, time, the trace) that I can't quite grasp. This is almost certainly intentional, but knowing that doesn't make dealing with it any easier.
All of the discussion of the "face" also makes me wonder about the difference between the actual, living face and the virtual face, the face on the television. If the living face is naked and obligates us, what does the virtual face do? Both speak, both are ostensibly other; is reality requisite to obligation?
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I would think that the question of the virtual face is really contingent upon what we would consider 'reality'. Especially in an age where life-like face can be constructed purely by computer and not be a sign for anything other than binary code.
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