Touch is the subject of both miracles and mistrust. Revered for its healing potential – the laying on of hands – it is also treated with some suspicion, requiring a good deal of tact. In Touch, Gabriel Josipovici stresses the need ‘to feel one’s way forward with care’ (Josipovici 1996, p.1); the subject of touch is never in hand – far from it – for when could it ever be fully grasped? Instead, the slipperiness of the skin can only be addressed in terms of fumbling and feeling, of groping and grasping. Writing with tact is a journey in the dark, endeavouring to feel its own way forward.

References:

Gabriel Josipovici, Touch (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996)