Meditations on Barthes's "The Pleasure of the Text"

rubén garcía marrufo

"The text needs its shadow: this shadow is a bit of ideology” (Barthes, 32).

my shadow is like the one in expressionistic german cinema.

my shadows text is painted into the walls

does text also needs a reader?

should texts written for yourself be published or shared a un publico? does the knowing of this happening changes the writer approach to the paper v screen v street sign v wall v bathroom v (place). a restraint it seems. for me a thing of restraint is a thing of the impossible and para truncar lo imposible we shout for miraculous.

“Neurosis is a makeshift: not with regard to health: but with regard to the 'impossible.' Bataille speaks of '“Neurosis is the fearful apprehension of an ultimate impossible'” (Barthes, 5).

what if a text that has to be read to a politicians in a third world country after a national catastrophe?

What if they would listen?

i have written for myself. i have written for a juror that can give me money. i have written in postcard to a loved one that i don't want to forget. i have written for my teacher eyes to read.

what if you read this in the woods of forest park?
what if you read it outloud in front of our class?
what if you never read any paper and still pass the class?

these written things would have not been written without my interaction with the text under the circumstances of being in school.

what if i wrote this on a typewriter and you notice this because of the quality of the print. no copies exists without a single mistake.

you hold it up and put it to light. There are small holes in the hole of all the 'a's in the text. hole in the paper when talking about the pleasure of the text. mutilating the poor piece of paper.

now i am thinking of expectations that you might have if this is blissful or pleasurable at all. i have consider that, this is the moment of the text that one likes. when a group comes to a conclusion that this part of the text is just nonsense. that it wasn't understood, that i didn't gave any continuation of what was above it. i still enjoyed this part. maybe you laugh too. we are all in the joke, playing the game, which one? Fuck, i don't know. but i don't know if this is academic writing. but writing it definitely is.

i would find pleasure writing texts about places i have never been and reading them once there in the future.

pleasure would be to write a duet of texts that is meant to be read by mutes in sign language.

text that inspire actions.

text as noise.

this is just dumb. how do i convince a doctor in letras that this thing is a thing?

my approach to pleasure in text is one que a veces es en español. porque cuando escribo en español escribo de otro lado, mi manos pueden tomar el riendo y me separo por completo del texto. por que este es mi primer lengua, mi primer iluminación ocurrió en español. es con lo que he construido mi entender. todo lo demás es solo una traduction. lo hablamos y entendimos en masas de gente.

yo no celebraría por méxico en el fútbol si no fuera en español. esto me lleva al uso del español en estos tipos de documentos. los cuales son aquellos que vienen del sentir de hogar y amor por mi pareja y familia que nunca deja de preguntarse sobre mi salud y si he comido bien el dia de hoy.

spanish also comes to use when i want to use words because i prefer their meanings. for example

desire, wish


story, history



joder, verga, no mames, a la veeergaa! chingado! puta madre, etc.


mierda, caca, cagada, popo, cerote

Among others
Entre otras.

everything else is just a translation. every thing is translation. ever things is in translation.

i want to create an exercise of pleasure in relationship to writing, also thinking about other ways one can create text. i have to address my most obvious concern which is the constant changing of the form of how the eye will move around the text. basically style. right now it's an stylistic choice, but I am also experimenting with different kinds of font to say different things. my voice is always in the same font, interruptions are in bold. quotes are in crimson text.

to address my use of lower case, i've read in english before, not a lot, but i have never written before. i always write in spanish. i started getting mad the use of uppercase “i” no matter where it. is is ridiculous. why should the individual and that case any individual use a capital “i” to stand above all text? I really don't know, ever since then i changed my approach to how i see the use of MAYUSCULAS y minusculas. also i've signed videos in this way before. The style now has substance.

the included video is about words read in public spaces that take us to different places around the city of mexicali that connect to the text is ways of an evocation of words through images y viceversa.



Barthes, Roland.The Pleasure of the Text (New York: Hill and Wang, 1975).