The Idea of Order at Key West

Reading The Idea of Order at Key West, I am reminded of Saussure's idea of the signifier and the signified. The signifier itself possesses no meaning aside from that which our imagination grants it. Key West reminds me of the nature of both the written and spoken word. Such communication is empty and picture-less without imagination which creates a false reality out of nothing. 
This last idea (that imagination creates a false reality) is the one that intrigues me the most. Could it perhaps be that imagination is the only reality? After all, in the Bible it states that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). God, the omnipresent being responsible for all reality, is the signifier--not the signified. Additionally, God created a universe of reality, substance, or as Phineas Gilbert Nanson would say, "facts" out of words. Words are the carriers of imagination. Thus, I cannot help but think that although reality exists, it is imagination that is required for life and reality is nothing more than the shadow of imagination.


*this was written during the first week of class but is only now being published