Sunday, March 21, 2010

Metaphor By Boring Metaphor: Deconstruction Theory Explored


The most prominent term associated with post-modernist analysis would no doubt be Jacques Derrida’s term, “deconstruction.” Deconstruction is a way of interpretation, deconstructing the meaning of a text to more than simplistic binaries. Several meanings can in fact be derived from more than the supposed central paradox of a text. Essentially, nothing is entirely what it seems and literature is thusly, plural. Because deconstruction is firmly rooted in language, and the picking apart of language, there is no better way to examine this post-modernist analysis than to use the trope of metaphor. It is by way of metaphor in which we will deconstruct Paramore’s “Brick By Boring Brick” and reveal that there is in fact no central paradox, to not only this particular song, but to any text which has preceded it and will follow it.
To understand metaphor, we must first understand the established relationship between Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Derrida. Derrida in his work “Differance” noted that the spoken word did not allow for the hearer to see the difference between sound images and concepts. To put it metaphorically, Saussure married a couple consisting of signifier (sound-image) and signified (concept), assured that they would essentially be married forever to one another, thus creating a single unit known as the sign. However, Derrida divorced the happily married couple, for he noted that the signifier coveted other signifies and cheated on the entity of the sign. The supposed “love” (the eternally bounding contract) between the signifier and signified is ever changing, never once staying in the present moment and thus attaches itself to future lovers. The trope, metaphor, does the exact same thing. No one metaphor attaches itself permanently to a concept because essentially there is no designated concept. This is important to understand considering this very metaphor of marriage could apply to anything, not just Saussure’s linguistic theories nor Derrida’s deconstruction theory.
All texts are unstable, despite they may seem to provide one central paradox and concrete goal. Professor of Political Science at Carleton College, Catherine Zuckert writes, “[t]he deconstructionist critic brings out the fundamental instability of meaning at the core of every text […] the text necessarily deconstructs itself” (338).  While all texts seem to have determinative meanings, they in fact carry no absolute value. Singer/songwriter Hayley Williams has written a song using the metaphor of fairytale, which in itself seems concrete; there seems to be only one absolute narrative drive regarding the song. In the song she sings, “Go get your shovel/And we’ll dig a deep hole/ to bury the castle” (11-13). The central paradox would suggest that Williams is singing about raging war over the monarchy while the “bury” suggests the physical aspect of war, and the “castle” suggests the ruler in power. While true, this metaphor could extend itself to read in other ways: perhaps the “castle” is not a “castle” and its signifier could instead marry to the term “Hollywood.” Because “Hollywood” resembles power, as does monarchy, it is no wonder why this metaphor would seem appropriate. However, the metaphor could go on to mean an array of things which is relative to the term “power”: patriarchy, the President of the United States etc. Similarly, even the term “bury” could suggest something other than war and could signify other signifieds such as: forgetting, repressing etc.
Our lives are impacted by language which indicates that language is not just a means of communication, but it is a way of life.  Zuckert goes on to write, “[i]f things, words, ideas, and their relations were determinate and hence determinable, the world would be static. There would be no history: indeed, there would be no creation or life” (339). It is due to this infinite value that the cycle of life can in fact, continue. Metaphors are more than tropes used in literature to propel figurative language and instead have become the center of our being, as implied by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in the book “Metaphors We Live By”. In short, metaphors are constructed through experience of a culture. Due to the many existing cultures in the world, there are then many different views, or “practices” from which our theories and concepts are produced. Experience justifies the way one sees the world, reads a metaphor and interprets a text.  It is because of this that literature then produces a plurality of meaning. Examining the lyrics again, depending on what a person has experienced, “castle”, “bury”, “shovel”—all such words could imply varieties of signifieds (concepts). “Shovel” may only be a “shovel” or it may in fact be a tool that represents voice, defiance and the like. Based on personal experience, I justify the “shovel” as resembling that of a pitchfork, in that I am about to conquer the “castle” (the ruler in power) and “bury” the suppressions of its ruling. While that is my interpretation, perhaps another reader/hearer will relate the metaphor to some other experience that they have gone through in their own life.
We are constantly influx with our notions and perceptions about the world. In Zuckert’s essay she writes that, “the world is thus continually being reconstituted anew in somewhat different form by each and every individual, but these individuals are not conscious, much less in control of the process”(351). In the future to come, Williams might see her song to mean something different than she thought to have meant it in the past. As mentioned earlier, there is no present essence, so whatever William may have intended to write in “Brick By Boring Brick” is irrelevant. Her experience in life will have changed and therefore, her perceptions of the song and her world view will have also. The same goes for myself. While I have interpreted the song in regards to committing acts of homicide against Hollywood, in the future, perhaps I will assign the song and entirely new meaning. James Seitz, assistant professor of English at Long Island University notes, that Derrida advocated the fact that “we are selected by language”, in other words, metaphors are a natural occurrence (291). Because of this, we are not fully in control of meaning. “Lens” as sung in the line by Williams, “It’s all about the exposure/ the lens/ that told her” (3-5), for photographers could be a camera, but in my interpretation, the “lens” is a human. For anyone native to Los Angeles, the implications with “lens” and “Hollywood” are easily derived. Others in the world might conceive of this the “lens” as the eye, and not with things which link closely to Hollywood. We use words according to how our culture uses it, and even then, culture itself is neither stable nor absolute.
All things which one conceives as literal, is in fact, metaphorical by nature and it is because of this, that new concepts are continually assembled. Lakoff and Johnson remark that even the very usage of the word “in” suggests something metaphorical. “In” is what is known as a container metaphor, in that, when using “in” the noun is being held in a container of another noun. Turning back to Paramore’s song, Williams sings “If it’s not real You can’t hold it in your hand”(31), implies that the “it” is being held “in” a hand, as opposed to “on” a hand. Similarly the opening lyrics “she lives in a fairytale”, also implicates that the character is contained “in” something magical. Changing “in” to “on” could give the song an entirely different meaning. Seitz remarks that Derrida  “argue[d] that metaphor serves as they very process by which new concepts are produced”(289). While the fairytale metaphor is not exactly a new, Williams uses it in a way to conceive a new concept of the world. Similarly, if an adoring fan chose to rewrite this song, perhaps he/she would change the word “in” to “on” and thus would reanimate the metaphor, creating a new conception on how one “lives ON a fairytale”.   It is because of the metaphor that any one person can see the inter-workings of language and the texts themselves.
Deconstruction theory can be used to destabilize more than literature. Zuckert writes that “Derrida suggests that social and political institutions represent the unintended, incremental accretions or traces of past actions” (354). While nothing has a concrete meaning, for Derrida, there is no escaping the histories which have preceded us. The past never stays in the past for it drives itself continuously towards a future. Of course then, this would explain how the fairytales of Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs are easily incorporated into William’s song. All texts contain intertextuallity and allude to a text that has previously been written. “So build your home brick/ by boring brick or the wolfs gonna blow/ it down” (20-22), Williams sings, and there we find The Three Little Pigs, as we find Cinderella in the lines, “But it was a trick and the clock stuck 12” (19). And it is because of the past texts which allow us to deconstruct the texts presented in the future, while simultaneously allowing us to examine the life cycle of metaphors and language itself.
Thus, because humans are made up of language and histories, humans themselves are texts made up of metaphors and the like. Whatever an author writes, the text is derived from their human practice, or experience, which is then deconstructed by another human who has another perception in life. Deconstruction is a cycle that is unending. Despite that Williams’s song reflects that of a paradoxal relationship between a fairytale and Hollywood (at least in my understanding), the future generation may rewrite the metaphor, conceiving a completely different meaning. However while one metaphor dies, another generation revives it which thus creates new concepts, a new language and a new perception in life.

Works Cited
Derrida, Jacques, and J.-L. Houdebine. "Interview: Jacques Derrida." Diacritics 1st ser. 3 (1973): 33-46. JSTOR. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
Hartman, Charles O. "Cognitive Metaphor." New Literary History 2nd ser. 13 (1982): 327-39. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. .
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live by. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980. Print.
Rivkin, Julie. "Course in General Linguistics." Literary Theory an Anthology. Malden, Mass.  
[u.a.]: Blackwell, 2004. Print.
Seitz, James. "Composition's Misunderstanding of Metaphor." College Composition and Communication 3rd ser. 42 (1991): 288-98. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. .
Zuckert, Cahterine. "The Politics of Derridean Deconstruction." Polity 3rd ser. 23 (1991): 335-56. JSTOR. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
Williams, Hayley. "Brick By Boring Brick." Brand New Eyes. Paramore. 2009. MP3.

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