Introducing Barthes

IT’S CERTAINLY NATURAL TO EAT, TO SLEEP, TO MAKE LOVE AND TO USE LANGUAGE.
BUT WHAT WE EAT, WHEN WE SLEEP, HOW WE MAKE LOVE AND WHAT KIND OF WORDS WE USE VARIES ACCORDING TO THE SOCIETY AND CLASS TO WHICH WE BELONG.

The second is in Barthes’ comment that Sarrasine dies “d’un blanc dans le discours des autres” (of a blank in the speech of other people). Because he is a foreigner, he does not know about the custom in 18th-century Italy which forbade women from appearing on stage