The Paradox of Language: An Exploration of Abjection and Language in Play it as it Lays

Abstract

In Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion, we are presented with a character in the midst of a crisis of identity. Maria, a failed actress in Hollywood, is beset by many of the problems commonly associated with a rising star in the industry. A reliance on drugs, a commodification of the self, and a deteriorating sense of who she is all play into her downward spiral. Yet when we examine the reason that Maria lacks an actualized sense of self, the reader is presented with a paradox. If we take the words of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan to be true, then language serves to create a filter through which a subject is distanced from the true nature of the world. They are placed into the symbolic order, a realm of socially constructed understanding that shapes the way we interact with the outside world. Our identity is tied to a sense of self that exists within the outside world, separate and unique from others. Yet we see that Maria is driven away from the symbolic order and toward a state of collapse, as the boundaries of her identity are dissolved through language.