GM, Derrida

Every concept is necessarily and essentially inscribed in a chain or a system, within which it refers to another and to other concepts, by the systematic play of differences. (Derrida 127)

I find the above Derrida quote to be the essence of defining post modernism. Everything is connected but there is a particular or subtle (albeit) chaos-ness in everything, there is no final definition, there are no absolutes, except for death; maybe.
It’s particularly interesting to see how this relates to some of the other theorists we have read. From Saussure’s “In language, one can see neither divide sound from thought, nor thought from sound…” (6) and “In language there are only differences” (10). One might argue that Derrida is in contract to Saussure; however, bottom line they are saying the same thing—differences.
Derrida’s quote also connects to Habermas’ “as a result, (Hegemony) the distance grows between the culture of the experts and that of the larger public” (103). Surely, Derrida’s “deconstruction” methods the binary oppositions of everything can’t be a “good-thing” for the “average Joe” public.
I also see reflections of Lyotard in Derrida’s quote. Derrida is saying that, at least to me, we have differences and we will always have differences, to be left unanswered, which leaves chaos. Then, I find Lyotard’s “We have the Idea of the world…But we do not have the capacity to show an example of it” (43) quite apropos here along with his “It is our business not to supply reality, but to invent allusions to the conceivable which cannot be presented” (46).
Yes, Derrida is saying the same, but only in a different way, as several of our theorists have. Like Dorfman’s “Fiction reinforces in a circular fashion” (128), Derrida is telling us the there is no center, only circular, unending movement.