index
Rhetorical connections
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Rhetorical gesture against expectations
A normatively assigned sign
Going against normative connections (Belfast, Maine)
It is not the same to say that a connection is meaningful, or that it is intentional, or that it creates a rhetorical effect, or that it is normative. Each of these can each be true without the others being true. Meaningful connections need not be intentional, rhetorical effects need not be normative, meaningful connections might not have any noticeable rhetorical effect, and so on. A major distinction lies between normativity and the other terms. Norms legitimize a selection from among possible or actual meaningful, rhetorical, or intentional connections. Place grammars legitimize only certain kinds of actions and connections and divisions in the place. But all grammars remain surrounded by wilder possibilities and connections. In a hypertext it may be that there are many links, but only some of them are normative: these might be suggested or even forced by the author, with the others remaining as a reserve for further exploration. But whether or not the authorial links are so divided, there will always be yet other unlinked potential connections, as there are in any text, which have their effects as you travel on the links. Echoes and contrasts will happen even among items that are not linked. Despite this excess, we cannot do without normative connections. Echoes and similarities and contrasts will have their effects whether or not there are explicit links. But there still have to be specific links, because if everything links to everything, or nothing links to anything, the echoes and contrasts will themselves have nothing to work against and with, and this will neutralize their effects. Although a given definition will never succeed in dominating the flow of meaning, if there were no place for a horizon to form around, there would be no way to distinguish any of the infinite echoes. We cannot read "the general text." The space of difference cannot be made to purely appear, since appearance is always as something definite against the space of difference.