An Emergent Language of Paradox: Riffs on Steven M. Rosen's Kleinian Signification of Being

Abstract

First, I briefly recapitulate the main points of Rosen's article, namely, that the word "Being” does not adequately signify the paradoxical unification of subject and object and that the Klein bottle can serve as a more appropriate sign-vehicle than the word. I then propose to apply his insight more widely; however, in order to do that, it is first necessary to identify infra- and exostructures of language, including culture, category structure, logic, metaphor, semantics, syntax, concept, and sign vehicles, that preserve the status quo and keep subject and object disjunct. After analyzing those infra/exostructures, I engage a complementary process, coagulatio, in order to spark ideas for innovating ways in which more of those facets of language can embrace paradox.