Tennessen


interpretation is one of economy. Wit, he explains,
consists of using a single word (i.e., a signifier) in
more than one way and the two things, in addition, are
said simultaneously; that is, we get more meaning under
the same signifier. As in dreams, a kind of condensation
or compression of meaning takes place which produces
both a saving of psychic effort and the resultant
pleasure.

 Jean Baudrillard does not agree, however. There's
not much chance of a "real" meaning behind the meaning,
he tells Freud, because meaning stays in suspension like
goods in symbolic exchange. Thus it is not meaning itself
or an increase of meaning which allows us to enjoy a joke
but rather the neutralization of meaning which fascinates.
Baudrillard's emphasis is not so much on the double
meaning of a witty remark as on the cancelling of one
meaning for another. His interpretation, contrary to
Freud's, is one of anti-economy. Baudrillard talks
about the infinitesimal time lapse in which the signifier
turns back on itself--here, he says, is where there is an
infinity of meaning (and pleasure). In that space of
time when one meaning is annulled, suddenly all meanings
are possible and there can be virtually endless
substitution of meaning. The result is not saving but
extravagant spending of meaning and at the same time a
sort of instantaneous and perfidious short-circuiting of
messages. For Baudrillard too much meaning is
considerably more dangerous than any hidden meaning.
It is excess of meaning (and of words), he insists, which
is the "fatal strategy." While Freud's position on this
point is not to be discredited, the possibility that
excess, in the form of intemperate language, for instance,
might be yet another means to challenge authority must
not be overlooked.



 III

 A gigantic circonvolution, circumlocution of
 the spoken word, which amounts to irredeemable
 blackmail and irremovable deterrence of the
 subject supposed to speak, but left without a
 word to say. . (Jean Baudrillard 1983: 78)