  This in turn gives a more specific meaning to the relation of the new and the old in expression. True expression (whether the first genuine self-expression of the learning speaker, a new scientific meaning, or true artistic achievement) is both totally idiosyncratic, and a re-composition of shared elements; it transforms the old. For true expression to occur, two forms of speech are thus required: “speaking speech” and “spoken speech” (Merleau-Ponty, 1945a, 197). This explains the puzzling fact that a true expression must be at once a true creation, something unheard of, and yet can be understood only if the language it uses (natural, scientific or artistic) is known. In other words, expression is always also a form of communication between one “speaker” and the community of speakers. Assuming that Merleau-Ponty’s analyses are representative of views that were shared by the other existentialist writers (see Sartre, 1948a, 56, in which the germane concept of “mediation” is used; “communication” is the central notion in Marcel’s philosophy of theatre), we can note that once again existentialist aesthetics seems at odds with many modern artistic currents, which have insisted on drawing a radical distinction between the functions and uses of artistic and everyday languages. For example, a major poet and theorist of literature like Paul Valéry was inspired by Mallarmé’s famous characterisation of poetry as “giving a purer sense to the words of the tribe.” We can also mention surrealist and expressionist painters and film directors who sought to break through everyday imagery in order to transfigure reality.