Janus Head 241 WHAT KIND OF SAYING IS A SONG?

This essay takes the risk of a formal adventure – both on and off the page – in order to do justice to the specificity of the event, the particular Saying, named ‘song. ’ Written by ear to be (read aloud as) heard it has been explicitly composed for oral presentation to perform the ‘truth ’ it tells. Taking Joni Mitchell’s rendering of ‘Answer Me ’ as its inspiration and point of departure, reference, and return, and drawing on the work of and intellectual tradition associated with Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Lacan, Irigaray, Nancy, and Derrida, for example, the essay explores the power of popular song in the spirit of song itself. Neither music nor philosophy, neither poetry nor prose, but something in between: mousikē-philosophy/ philosophy-mousikē. Singing is the gathering of Saying in song. If we fail to understand the lofty meaning of song as Saying it becomes the retroactive setting to music of what is spoken and written. Heidegger If one wants to take the event named ‘song ’ into account one must write, recount, demonstrate in another fashion. One must take the risk of a formal adventure. Derrida Answer Me Answer me Oh my love Just what sin have I been guilty of Tell me how I came to lose your love Please answer me my love 1 Whose words are these? To whom do they belong? What kind of saying is a song? Who is speaking? To whom do I respond? When I listen When I sing alon