Brought Before our Eyes

     Barthes conception of “The Reality Effect” strikes me somewhat as a reflection of  everyday perception. We move through any scene surrounded by details that remain unconscious, but without which our mind immediately identifies a dream. A landscape filled with only objects immediately in the consciousness, and which have meaning leaves all kinds of holes in peripheral vision, in a way that makes dreams strangely memorable, but only as signified meanings.
     For this conception to apply to literature however one must also (as Barthes does elsewhere) call into question authorial intention. While it is easy to accept that there is much description that does not advance the narrative structure of the work, there is, on the other hand, a foregrounding of certain details. Flaubert does not describe every detail in the room. Thus he has made a choice to bring certain items into focus. By privileging some and ignoring others, those that come to the foreground are given weight and therefore a type of meaning. The barometer means exactly because Flaubert chose it to present for our conscious recognition.