Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to comment on the reading of a set of letters exchanged by Vilém Flusser and Sérgio Paulo Rouanet . The exchange comprising 56 letters altogether – 30 by Flusser himself – took place between 1980 and 1991. It focused on some of Flusser’s most important concepts: the relationship of discourse and dialogue, the idea of ‘Apparat’, the existential dimension of writing, as well as the meaning of death and entropy for a theory of communication. Rouanet’s pertinent criticism reveals also some unexpected sides of Flusser’s theoretical assumptions