“The 7th Function of Language” by Laurent Binet

After how long it took me to choose this book, I decided to take a surprising new tack: I asked ChatGPT to choose my next four reads. The 7th Function of Language was one of the four. 

This is a book I probably should have read years ago (though aren’t they all, to some extent?) but better late than never, right? I must admit a lot of the delay probably came from the fact that I felt a bit intimidated by the subject matter. I mean, I’m not sure I’d even heard of semiology before I became aware of this book, and I am not familiar with any of the writings of Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, et al. 

Binet weaves a story around the death of semiotician Roland Barthes in 1980. History tells us Barthes died as a result of injuries sustained when he was run over by a laundry van in the streets of Paris. Binet tells us this death was no accident: Barthes was in possession of a document describing the “seventh function of language”, one that allows the speaker to persuade anyone to do anything. Just think how dangerous such a skill could be if it fell into the wrong hands. 

While it’s entirely possible (maybe even likely) that my reading experience was a more superficial one than it might have been if I had any sort of foundation in linguistics, I am living proof that such a foundation isn’t necessary for reading (and even enjoying) this book. It’s basically a spy novel, and (despite, I’m sure, missing many references) I enjoyed reading this more than I enjoyed reading The Tailor of Panama. I’m sure this was due at least in part to the impeccable translation! I’m obviously not surprised, but I did find myself amazed on more than one occasion; this must have been a very difficult book to translate, but somehow it has the appearance of effortlessness.