Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“I have worked with the notion of “idiom” rather than “theory” or “knowledge” because I want to defer the possibility of any metalanguage that is not convertible into the language it describes along with the scenes upon which that form of language is enacted. Center study could be seen as a kind of metalanguage, converting all discourses into mimesis and deferral just psychoanalysis converts all discourse into desire and repression or historical materialism converts all discourse into base and superstructure. “Idiom,” for that matter, could be seen as a metalinguistic labeling of all forms of discourse. This would mean work within center study would be a kind of deconstruction, always dismantling metalanguages while always producing new ones to be dismantled as well. This dynamic is what kept deconstruction in business, because if metaphysics could be dismantled once and for all, deconstruction would become obsolete. There’s a kind of narrative problem here, because in either case (metalanguage or deconstruction) we all know how things turn out in the end. For center study, metaphysics or metalanguage is, more specifically, the metalanguage of literacy studied by David Olson, which means our engagement with metalanguage is scenic: the metalanguage of literacy creates an apparent non-scene that is really a disciplinary scene engaged in inquiry into language, that is, how to package or compress other scenes into speech on a particular scene.”

— Adam Katz, Idiom and the differend · Mar 01, 2026 · Bouvard Substack