Writing. Wrestling . . .

. . . with the alterity of language. I quote Leo Bersani, from an interview called "Beyond Redemption":

We’re usually not aware of the gap between the body that we’re happy to live in and this language which is not a creation of that body but on which we depend and which we use instrumentally so easily. Of course people have talked about that famous ‘otherness of language’ – but I think it becomes very physical and felt when you write, [. . .] and I think that’s different from the other kinds of professions that one might engage in. I mean the language is to writing what the football is to football but for the football player the football itself is not something that’s troubling, that is, this difference between the object and the person using it is not troubling. Whereas, in writing, you want to be identical to that foreign object from which you’re different. And I guess what happens in certain moments is that language comes to realize a certain rhythm in yourself – and it really is a rhythm where I can’t distinguish between mental and physical.

I prefer the pen. But every so often a ball is nice.