Not all of Derrida's writing is to everyone's taste. He had an irritating habit of overusing the rhetorical question, which lends itself easily to parody: 'What is it, to speak? How can I even speak of this? Who is this "I" who speaks of speaking?

Terry Eagleton
About This Quote

Overusing rhetorical questions is a very common and annoying habit. The irony of someone using rhetorical questions to address what they are doing is almost funny if the person isn’t trying to make a point. Derrida is referring to the question “what is it?” here. He uses this to make the point that language is such a complicated and integral part of life that we often forget just how much we rely on it.

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