This book brings together the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jacques Lacan around their treatments of âastonishment,â an experience of being struck by something that appears to be extraordinarily significant. Both thinkers have a central interest in the dissatisfaction with meaning that these experiences generate when we attempt to articulate them, to bring language to bear on them. Maria Balaska argues that this frustration and difficulty with meaning reveals a more fundamental characteristic of our sense-making capacities ânamely, their groundlessness. Instead of disappointment with languageâs sense-making capacities, Balaska argues that Wittgenstein and Lacan can help us find in this revelation of meaningâs groundlessness an opportunity to acknowledge our own involvement in meaning, to creatively participate in it and thereby to enrich our forms of life with language.
