Ante-Scriptum I
by Michael Hampton
Ante-Scriptum I
‘a faux Beckett text'getting ahead of...what you want to say...sketching out the pre-conditions of
speech... well...in all honesty...not real speech...but a written articulation of silent words...so far so good...since the toil of escaping...escaping private
language...only begets...and begets more...yet more...private language...which
promises freedom... but...causes a roadblock...at the same time...what a fine
aporia...that lure of making intelligible statements...so let's get started...
beforehand...ante-scriptum...out from the shadows... on a haunted page...
ghostly white 80gsm sheets...marred by dumb pain... and so on... verbal
etiquette...self-absorption...death...etc...no ecphonemes either...thank-you very much...not real speech...but fakery...colossal fakery...going in a wayward
direction... unheimlich through and through...gloriamundi...erm
Description:
I have been interested for some time in the anterior space before we commit to words, either spoken or discursive, the precondition of utterance, of articulation. This began one day when I was attempting to compose an email, and found my mind wandering and unable to focus on the matter in hand, more concerned with the mechanics of framing, and originary space, predating the break down of human culture into classes, categories etc.
This submission is not so much interdisciplinary, as undisciplinary, virtually formless,language addressing itself, as symptom and cure, the inverted mirror image of the standard p.s. which can be added to any item of correspondence: the Ante-Scriptum.
The medium is also important, i.e. email. This text was affected en passant, in between doing other online tasks, and spent time suspended in Drafts. Therefore, it differs from formal textual content projected into a Word file, which must be repeatedly opened, added to, saved and closed.
What of the subtitle 'a faux Beckett text'? Certain important writers or influencers to use contemporary parlance, get under your skin, if they have been read assiduously, and eventually must be dealt with as intrusive voices. Take, for example Beckett's schtick of the disembodied voice endlessly uttering and yet negating itself at the same time; a kind of joyful torture..