As a whole, the book has an informal, almost stream-of-consciousness feel to it. Barthes' text is richly studded with numerous cultural references--Bataille, the Kama Sutra, Sade, Severo Sarduy, Marx, the Buddhist sangha, Poe, Chomsky, and much more. Barthes often uses sexual imagery as a vehicle by which to construct a philosophy of reading. The result of all these elements is a dizzying, yet oddly delightful reading experience.

One of the key themes of "The Pleasure of the Text" is Barthes' attempt to define "pleasure" and "bliss," and to delineate the differences between the text of pleasure and the text of bliss. From Barthes' project the close reader can thus derive a new way of looking at all texts.

Among other topics Barthes considers the hierarchical nature and pleasure factor of the sentence, as well as the erotic potential of the word. And throughout, his writing is marked by passages of wit and insight. A typical observation: "The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition [...]."

"The Pleasure of the Text" often takes on a metaphysical, almost prophetic flavor. For those who are willing to dig into this dense text with gusto, it may prove to be an intellectual treasure heap.

Given all that, then a re-reading of Barthes may be mandatory to remember that the good old fashioned word can be and has been in fact just as irrational and fearsomely enjoyable as anything else. Finally, it is far past time that Barthes be relinquished from the category of the avant gard and join the ranks of *covertly* Socialist products such as Coca Cola, Camels, and Kodak, and all the other bad habits that may now be used to prevent us from straying off into some atactile ionosphere of Internet affairs, book-of-the-month clubs and long-distance learning courses.