A Critical Load, beyond That Door; Or, before the Ultimate Confrontation; Or, When

Thinking of Deconstructionist Structuralists; Or, A Hermeneutic Fantasy

Author(s): Kenneth Burke
Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 5, No. 1, Special Issue on Metaphor (Autumn, 1978), pp. 199-200
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1342989
Accessed: 04/10/2010 10:06
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A Critical Load, Beyond That Door; or,

Before the Ultimate Confrontation; or,
When Thinking of Deconstructionist
Structuralists; or,
A Hermeneutic Fantasy
KennethBurke

Dedicated to the humanisticissimusand/or humanisticissimaEditoreality

of Critical Inquiry, an enterprisethat is doing all possible to restorefor
Criticism its rightful home, namely: a state of perpetual Crisis.
How now?
You say
"The man
walks down the street."
Then tell me how
(in the name of whatever)
your words
make sense.

Next, suppose:
right over there
to the left, lo!
a door.
A voice says:
To enter
you need but open that door and
when inside, let it fall shut.

0093-1896/78/0501-0013$00.75

199

200

KennethBurke

A Critical Load

A door to what? You'll there be shown

the ultimate scheme of withinnesses
of withinnesses whereby implications go on
for ever implicating further implications.
And in a flash you'll know
how a sentence
could possibly
make sense.
A Voice (The Voice) says:
"Enter if you will, but
once within,
there'll be a charge.
"Come somehow the moment of Revelation
it's then for you to choose
then knowing from inside and outside
how a sentence makes sense.
"Will you come back to those
you love and love you, or
(a loaded gun will be there)
use it?"
He didn't use itAnd on returning
he never knew again
who he was ...