SARGASSO


seriousness, abandon and reserve, eagerness and
indifference" (Bourdieu 1977: 10). Baudrillard's
seductive discourse is much like Roland Barthes's
"amorous dis-cursus," that is, it is not dialectical--
the root of the- word discourse, in fact, implies
circular speech: currere (to run) dis- (in different
directions)--but turns, says Barthes, like a perpetual
calendar.

 Circular discourse puts an end to power in the
classical sense of something handed down from above
(in the way, say, that an orator in the time of Homer
was given a scepter as he was about to speak) precisely
because it functions in terms of a cycle where positions
of dominator and dominated interchange in endless
reversion. Such discourse is able to effectively resist
authoritative discourse because the power of the word
is located not in words themselves but in the position
of the person speaking them. If the position is shaky,
authority falls apart. The disruption of order and
authority, however, serves no purpose in itself. Total
liberty is not what is opposed to meaning because chance,
as Baudrillard points out in de la seduction, can produce
meaning too. In other words, we do not escape meaning
and logical sequences by disorder but rather by imposing
an order even more conventional than the original one
that is being imposed on us. This is the only way that
we can outwit both disorder (that is, chance) and (the
order of) meaning, be it political, historical, or
social meaning.

 Langage, which is sacred language used in Haitian
voodoo ceremonies, is an extreme example of how a ritual
order can abolish meaning. Langage occurs in songs
and various litanies and it is used primarily as a means
of direct communication with the loa, or Haitian deities.
Its origin is unclear. Some say (Maya Deren, for one)
that it is a vestige of African speech, yet we know
that there also existed at the time a secret language
used by Arawak priests when they were possessed by
spirits--and indeed, some of the prayers of Haitian
language contain Indian and Spanish words as well as
African. Be that as it may, the fact remains that only
the houngan, the Haitian priest, understands what the .
words actually mean, although even this is doubtful.