Clarice writes in An Apprenticeship or the Book of Pleasures , ‘Don’t pretend you’re strong enough to ask a human beings worst questions. I, who am stronger than you, can’t ask myself “who am I” without getting lost’. These are the words of a man who’s lost as the texts protagonist suggests and I too once thought asking this question expecting an answer to be awfully presumptuous and the heights of anthropocentrism. However, the questions asked from a position of strength feigning as weakness, holding absolutely minimal presuppositions for the possibility of an answer, the enunciator hides more than themself another because the I and the who are equivocal terms. The “who” in question does not predicate the “I” for the enunciator and “I” is presupposed to have posited the question, hence the enunciator is not separated from “who” despite appearing so and their internal divide is the condition for “I”. The “I” which precedes the “I” is therefore foreclosed and its appearance in the last instance is unknwon.
There’d be no difference to rephrase the question as “who am who?” or “I am I?”, but for the purposes here we shall stick with I since I too must be I insofar as knowing who asks the question. I reply, “I am?” whilst blushing and hiding my smirk because in truth I’m flattered I would think so and a little shocked. I turn my head to the left and right to make sure I’m not mistaken but thats impossible, there’s nothing else to mistake for I.
