STYLE
José Vela Castillo
Littré / (Étymologie): Provenç. estil ; espagn. estilo ; ital. stile ; du lat. stylus, proprement poinçon, puis style, qui vient du grec, colonne, pointe, poinçon, rattaché au grec, ériger, qui tient à sthã, stare, être debout.
Peri-style, acting precisely as a foreword, a word must be said, a word in advance and a word as advice, a fore-, before but also instead of, wherefore, I apologize for certain forced uses of the English words I’m going to write. It is important to know, then, that though I address this text in English, it is obviously and most necessary permeated by another language, indeed, languages: of course, French and of course, Spanish. But since both derive from Latin, I must say that I’m writing with stilus. In addition is necessary to remember that a stilus is, indeed, a στύλος so we have already five, not to forget German Stil. We do not speak nor write in a language, but in languages… stylishly coherent, I hope. Touchantes, I expect.
Nor that this foreword is intended to be any kind of stylobata, but needles to say (if you see below or beside my signature) I’m going to talk about architecture, basement (but not underground), and, yes, style; remember: στύλος means column, pillar, support. Peristyle, then.
Surely I’m interested in the relations between theory and style, between the regard of the theoros and the tracing (manipulation) of the stilus, a most technical operation. But I’m not sure that this relationship defines only the space of literature, or philosophy, nor that kind of writing that is neither of both… except that derridean writing being architecture. And that’s my point here: style in theory points to the point where a trace has been incised and a column is erected. Something substantial is touched here.
So, what is the role and place of style(s) in theory? But, where is, precisely, that place? How is it traced, upon what space, over which foundation, touching what? Where in the metaphor the true meaning and where the figured one? And, most demanding: where is the place of the column, in theory?
The whole question will be elaborated in two instances, under two related tittles, of which I only could offer a hint in this brief exposition.
Beginning with Questions of style : «La “Question du style”, sans doute l’avez-vous reconnue, c’est une citation» that manages with the meaning and etymology of style, and its various related terms and actions, considering mainly the thread that leads us to the graphic trace and the tracing, the palimpsest, the subiectum and the hyle (the wood of the waxed tablet incised by the stilus). And, of course to the place where a trace appears and marks and archives something, the space of a traject, of a jection, a movement forward, a project in space and then in time, the space of a text and the space in which the text appears.
Followed by Exercises on style (Exercises de style) : weaving, touching, playing that develops two interweaved lines that obey certain laws of the style, related with textiles and related with touching, trough some references to the writing work of the architect Gottfried Semper (mainly Der Stil) and the relevance of the Bekleidung and with some writing on (of) the body and touching graphiated (grapho, greffe) by Jean-Luc Nancy. Not to forget some Queneau. But remember,
La question du style, c’est tojours l’examen, le pesant d’un object pointu.
Jacques Derrida
