Å våkne med Wittgenstein

In this inspired essay, Line Norman Hjorth explores the possibilities and limitations of language. The eponymous protagonist works as a church minister while struggling to write a text about «the topicality of philosophy and the connection between skepticism and the culture of insult, or was it deconstructivism and power criticism? Alas, I hardly knew it myself.»

By chance, she comes into contact with the younger nurse Mari. This meeting and the conversation that occurs between them inspire her in a way that she does not initially understand. But something is happening, a movement is underway.

The dialogues and reflections they make do not yield any clear conclusions, but discuss questions that give Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language a surprising topicality and echo current debates about language and interaction.

«Something in me still believed that it was the offended who had to practice recognition. At the same time, I realized that it could just as well be as she had suggested on the bench, that it was I who was the blind one and who projected my darkness onto the offended.»