(the) American (Novel of)

112 Brian Schroeder
meaning. Temporality “resounds for the ‘eye that listens,’ with a resonance
unique in its kind, a resonance of silence,” writes Levinas. 17 Does
this resonance form a sort of language, albeit one without speech—a
rhythmic silence? Perhaps it is necessary then, as Merleau-Ponty writes,
that “if we want to understand language in its original mode of signifying,
we shall have to pretend never to have spoken. We must perform
a reduction on language, without which it would still be hidden from
our view—leading us back to what it signifies. We should look at
language the way deaf people look at those who are speaking. We
should compare the art of language with other arts of expression which
do not have recourse to language and try to see language as one of
these mute arts.” 18 Employing here his own listening eye, Merleau-
Ponty recognizes what many ancient peoples knew, what the ancient
Greeks expressed in the gesture of passing the staff, communicating
more than what could be contained in mere words, namely, that the
foundation of community is based on the recognition of the etiquette
of silence, the opening of a necessary sacred space that allows for free
discursive exchange.
Now if existence itself has a meaning, other than the meanings
that we assign to it, then it is a secret, at least to most of us. Does the
secret meaning of being lie in its silence, a silence beyond language but
in which language comes to reside? Following Heidegger’s famous
claim that “language is the house of being,” 19 Gadamer writes that
“being which can be understood is language.” 20 If this is so, then it is
only because silence is the groundless ground on which this house of
understanding is built, and the rhythmic play of silence and speech its
building material. The relation between silence and secrecy is intimate,
and etiquette demands respect for maintaining intimacy. But etiquette
also periodically requires breaking of silence—at the proper time. The
secret is as much a matter of knowing when to reveal secrets as it is
to keeping them. For this a sense of rhythm is needed. The rhythm of
silence attends to the status and well-being of both the self and the
other. Therein is community simultaneously constituted and preserved.
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Philosophy is by its very nature opposed to silence and in its own
way is an absolute breaking of silence. Indeed, the above said probably