Uncertain Discourse

Ruminations on the word aporia.

Etymologically, from the Greek word aporos, meaning without passage, impenetrable, being at a loss.

In Rhetoric. The expression of a simulated or real doubt, as about where to begin or what to do or say.

IN Philosophy and Logic. A difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it.

Antonyms: trusting, believing.

Source: Dictionary.com Unabridged. Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

The word - unearthed in Beckett, ‘I will, I won’t go on’ or ‘I have enough trouble as it is in trying to say what I think I know.’

Could be something like this: I’m having difficulty getting started, and then, once in motion, I face the Impenetrable. This word has always been there, concealed below appearance and posturing, anchored in the ambivalence of ‘I’m not so sure.’ Surely a relative of Doubt, I hear you assert, although I’m not certain.

Borges preferred contemporary words for contemporary readers. Aporia is a rare and unusual word so he would not have approved of its use. The word is like a forgotten character in an obscure novel, an eccentric performer, a friend from another time and place, saying something precise in a distant and inaccessible language. Aporia traveled from Greece to England, and then to Beckett and finally onto this page. Aporia is reincarnated, so to speak, in The Aporetics.

The Aporetics – a Beginning, a Question and the Uncertain. Then discourse for the unraveling.

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Aporetica

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