Lit 101 - Essay #1, Rewrite

Darlene McCoy
Jody Greene
Lit 101
31 January 2011

Concepts, Employed

    In his essay, Creation and the Other, Derek Attridge argues that, "Creation is both an act and an event, both something that is done intentionally by an effort of the will and something that happens without warning to a passive, though alert, consciousness" (26). To reach his conclusion, he defines two concepts: the other, and the idioculture. He then employs the two concepts to explain his overall argument.
    The first part of Attridge's essay contains the definition of the idea of the other, "that which is, at a given moment, outside the horizon provided by the culture for thinking, understanding, imagining, feeling, perceiving" (19). It is necessary for the reader to understand the idea and workings of the other, because the other is used in the process of explaining Attridge's thesis. In this paragraph, Attridge also writes on how the other operates. He states that the other is something that is just out of grasp of the would-be creator, and that it can only operate within the materials present in the creative mind. It must probe the limits of that mind (22). Attridge gives this information because it will become relevant when he explains his thesis later in the essay.
    The second subsection of Attridge's essay deals with the concept of the idioculture. He begins by defining "culture" in the way that he will use it. Then, after clearing up his idea of culture for the sake of clarity, he introduces idioculture as, "the name for the totality of the cultural codes constituting a subject, at a given time, as an overdetermined, self-contradictory system that manifests itself materially in a host of ways" (22). He explains idioculture a bit further, "The complexity of a cultural field or an idioculture is something we can barley fathom; it is certainly not something to which we can achieve discreet access," in the hopes that the reader will retain the additional information, for he will need to recall it later (22).
    After Attridge defines the two previously mentioned concepts, he commences explaining his thesis in the third component of the essay. The process of creation begins with a human sitting down and beginning to write. He wills himself into the creative mindset, and labors, which Attridge then defines as an act. He then encounters the other, which reforges his prior knowledge into new knowledge. Attridge defines this as an event. Both are components of creation, one needs the other in order to function. The other cannot be encountered if the human does not will himself into the creative mindset, the act, but creation cannot take place until the other comes to him at a certain point in time, the event. Without the definitions, the thesis would continue to cause confusion. Yet, one loophole remains without further explanation -- where does the other come from? Attridge draws upon the previously retained information presented in the earlier sections of the text. Because humans do not have the capacity to fully comprehend their idioculture, there are cracks in their minds. The other creeps into these cracks, and lies in wait until its encounter with said human. Without the retained information, this once loophole could not be fixed, but because Attridge implemented it, there are no holes in his argument. The patching up of loopholes and the use of defined concepts make his thesis clear and irrefutable.