Starting to see a way out of the procrastination-paralysis of the last month and a half. Rather than reading and preparing for exams, I’ve been worrying about what to write for the two papers I have to do this term. My philosophy of law class has been a real worry, because most of what we read and discuss has to do with the question of whether law and morality are separate. I can’t seem to become invested in that question. I just don’t see how it matters. What interests me is the construction of law, how it’s linguistic and textual. The problems of language and the problems of texts (indeterminacy, ambiguity, desire for closure) are the problems of law.

The light for me at the end of this particular tunnel is Barthes. I’m going to try to discuss the genres of legal texts in terms of the readerly/writerly distinction. Maybe I’ll also throw in some Saussure and discuss the difference between speech and writing and try to argue that because writing is inferior so is law...

Hmm. Yeah, this probably won’t work. But whatever, I get to read Barthes again, Yay!