ABSTRACT

Writing (whether with pen, keyboard, or virtual tools) is an odd activity. We may even ask if it is really an activity at all. The activities of a carpenter, cook, painter, athlete, salesperson, and so forth can be observed and described. But writing is unlike most human activities in that there is little to be observed in the experience. How would one determine the process of writing? Does it happen in the moment that a finger hits the keyboard? Or would certain thoughts have to be externalized as visible words? Could writing be performed silently before sitting down with the tools of writing? If someone is entering words on paper or on the computer screen, but nothing of consequence is being produced, is this writing? Merleau-Ponty and Marion remark that if one looks too closely at a painting one will only see paint, pigment, and canvas; instead one must look at it as a whole and orient to what is seen in this view which is almost totally incommensurable with the close-up. The same is true of written text.