Binet

The plot of Laurent Binet's novel The Seventh Function of Language centers on the bizarre premise that famous semiologist and literary critic Roland Barthes who died in a pedestrian accident in Paris in 1980 was actually assassinated, and Binet posits that a police inspector assigned to the case knows nothing about Barthes'a philosophy so he recruits a young prof to "decode" the "signs" as he investigates the case. They determine that some sinister outside force - probably Bulgarian agents in link w Soviets - are seeking a paper RB left behind in which he describes his latest theory, the eponymous 7th function. In one great scene we watch the paper disappear into the Seine but we also know that RB entrusted a homosexual prostitute, Hamad, w the info, which hamad has committed to memory. Aside from why this theory would be so valuable to various top government officials (including eg Andropov and the French PM) the novel raises the question: what are the other 6 functions? The sidekick, herzog, gives a good summary of the 6, as per Jakobson's theories: referential (relating to the work around is the central function ), expression (the I function), influence on others (the you function), beauty (poetry literature), the "phat" function which is the funniest and we might call small talk - talking about meaningless stuff eg last night's sports eg just to keep up communication without anyone's caring about the content (majority of spoken communication), and meta communication ie communication about language itself eg do you understand me?, dictionaries, learning a foreign language. It was speculated that magical formulae might be a 7th but that is rejected. Strange novel - but informative, too.

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