"In this fragmented world, distorted by whirling appearances (the whole world is carnival), a pure and somehow terribly motionless element occasionally breaks through: pain" (Music, Voice, Language 296). Barthes goes on to say that there is no way to name pain, that it exists completely as itself. That "pain without object, the essence of pain, is...a madman's pain" (296). Barthes, says that Schumann suffers because he has no conflict, no "confrontation" (297). To capture a thing's essence, namely that of pain, one loses the rhythm of the sensation. This idea makes me wonder if the expression of pain through music is like the drinking of water when thirsty. Is the pain soothed by dint of being expressed through music, which has no "sign" but instead is purity felt through the body (311)? Dwight soothes, not only through the sight of those gorgeous leather pants but through his closeness to melancholic angst. This song causes a tremor through the heart strings as loneliness and sadness are felt through the high, whippoorwill-esque, longing of his voice.
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