I vs. You

I vs. You

            In Bulter’s, “Against Ethical Violence,” from Giving an Account of Oneself, there are many ideas from many other authors about this given topic about what is an I or a self? The one that stood out to me the most was the section “Who Are You”, which Adriana Cavarero ask this question. Bulter explains,

“In her view, I am not, as it were, an interior subject, closed upon myself, solipsistic, posing questions of myself alone. I exist in an important sense for you, and by virtue of you. If I have lost the conditions of address, if I have no “you” to address, then I have lost “myself.” In her view, one can tell an autobiography only to an other, and one can reference an “I” only in relation to a “you”: without the “you” my own story becomes impossible.”

(p.32)

This quote really got my wheel turning to this new perspective of a ‘self’ or an ‘I’. First, when telling a story, it is the telling that becomes the real, it is the telling that it become true, true, not the actual truth of the story but true to the person that you are telling.(if they believe you.)  Without the ‘you’ listen to my story it would not be spoken, and to not speak, to not give it life, there is no story, is no self, is no I. we will come to that later. 

When telling a story it is always flawed, as we are human, it is bound to happen. Memory is always changing. We can forget thing, make things up, and even remember things that we have never done, but have heard about it or have seen someone else do it and take it as our own. How many times have you told a story and someone tell you, ‘that wasn’t you or I wasn’t there with you’? It happens to me all the time.

Story telling is just what makes us human, we need interaction with society (other people). However when telling the story, the story can change depending on who you are telling. The same story would be different depending on who you are telling it to, like your mom, boss, friend or teacher. The story can change if you are trying to impress or holding back some of the information. The truth can change depending on the image of the self you are wanting to portray toward another individual.

To not get a chance to tell a story of one self, to not get the question “who you are?” Would the I exist? The self which I have taken form Cavarero cannot exist without you. This page of text does not exist until you read it. To tell a story or even write a story about oneself is the only way of existing. Language is the tool between you and I to create the ‘I’, ‘self’.  You listen or read about ‘I’ and I exist in your mind. You where not around and I was by myself I would have no use for language, only thought. I would think to myself as ‘I’ but I could not put it into words without you there to hear them, to make them true. To make it possible.