i mean who says one must be sharp and at attention and acutely missing nothing in order just to speak.
speak.
speak.
if you don't speak no one will hear. what if one can't speak. levinas writes of listening to the other but what if the other can't speak. is there listening to be done where there is no speech. is there a way of listening in touching and watching. is there an auditory component to sight much the same way there is a visual component to listening.
can one listen by moving in sympathy with. i am thinking of course of what happens when you hold a cat down to do something you must do that is good for the cat but scares the bejesus out of it and how do you coax the fear out of the cat by nothing but gesture or pressure or rhythm. is there a speaking and listening there.
levinas seems to want to say that the world is offered in speech by the other without touching the same but i wonder about where the same touches the other and what kind of offering there is there in speech which is not speech exactly. what world is offered by the other who is so other it does not speak exactly.