Derrida's afraid of writing... I mean he writes and all, but still he's afraid of writing.

Jacques Derrida: author, philosopher, speaker.
He is many things, but his one skill that accounts for much of his success, he claims to fear. Why is that? Derrida's fear of writing is something that not is not uncommon. I believe this fear doesn't come from the writing itself, but the fear of human reaction. Every person, every individual judges and reacts to all of other peoples actions. Its natural and unavoidable because of different opinions, different ways of life, and just different people. He uses writing to face his fears, he uses it to venture forward into the unknown of opinions and confrontations.

I have only once really experienced fear after writing. It was a rhetorical analysis of the Bad Romance music video. When I picked Lady Gaga as my topic I knew right away it would be controversial, but not until after the paper was printed and handed in did I start feeling the anxiety build up in my body. My entire paper was about women and their sexuality. What I had experienced in the past at school was these kinds of topics were not discussed and were deemed inappropriate. The Irish catholic girl inside of me became nervous at what my professor would do. I was afraid she would think of me in a negative light and grade my paper poorly because of the blunt topic I was addressing. Later after receiving an A on my paper, I realized that- yes- the subject was controversial but I wasn't being graded on being appropriate.

Derrida uses language as his vehicle to propel his ideas forward. He fears the back lash but never takes back anything he publishes. Its a constant battle between himself. Believing in what he is writing in and fearing the reaction of what he believes.