the X

Is it possible to erase matter? Is it possible to totally eradicate a specific existing sign? When we write our thoughts, when we formulate thought into linguistics, when we write a word, draw a line, make a statement, can we metaphysically play god and erase that sign from existence? There can be no erasure. Yet it is possible to cross something out, or cover it up, to morph that sign into a different meaning. Since meaning is a fluid and subjective device, we are able to transcend signs so that they continue to exist yet intend to mean something different than what their original intention had been. To cross out a word, to cover up a line, to turn around and reconstruct meaning through the simple device, the X, we are able to transform signifiers into completely new signifiers. This, I believe, is called a contextual shift. Crossing out signifiers reestablishes form, thus reestablishing intentional meaning. This is not to say that there lies any truth to either meaning, uncrossed or crossed out, however, the intention of the sign is where we find ourselves asymptotically approaching what humans call truth.

I was considering what it means to be an ex-boyfriend, an ex-husband, an ex-lover. By using the X we are essentially crossing out the context of our relationships. We never forget the history of the actions; moreover, we never allow the words themselves to forget their own history. Our system of linguistics is built in a way which allows a historicity of language, an institution of hegemonic relationships between reestablishing signs. Lacan once wrote, "A human without language is considered clinically insane". Language controls our memories, or rather, the signs of language allow the human mind to develop a sense of history, of a past and present. Without language, the mind could not interpret signs and therefore could not differentiate the stimulus input. (Language here is not necessarily words, but rather a system of categorization for input and definition as output).

And so, with the X, we can continue to exist with our histories, never forgetting, but rather, re-contextualizing and re-categorizing our relationship with the signs we use to construct our reality.