Notes From Me
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Monday, November 22, 2004
On the way to Nara yesterday, Japan's original capital city, I saw a pretty good sized monkey who was sitting on the side of the road, on the top of a riverbank. I've heard about wild monkeys here but hadn't seen one till then. She (I think it was a she) was very fluffy silver gray and far better looking than I thought a monkey would be for some reason. So when I think that Bush Jr. looks like a monkey maybe I mean he looks like a badly drawn cartoon. I've been here nine months but I didn't learn until yesterday the word for photo: its shashing! A great word. A thought about words. It's a common current popular idea to say that since words are an abstraction, using them encourages stupidity because when we hear a word we can only either associate its sound with the sequence of letters of the word, or we can come up with images/sounds/associations from our life's experience that will represent that word. I'm thinking that, since I am alive and therefore not in stasis, I continually come up with new things to associate with the words I see and hear, which isn't limiting and doesn't hinder my creativity. If someone says "monkey" and I imagine a long-nosed, colorful monkey playing a xylaphone, it won't detract from the speaker's intentions but rather open a way for more sharing of ideas, plus we can always incorporate gesture to further understanding, which isn't to say that words ever, ever tell what the wordless, pre-word idea was, but at least something akin to it can be pointed toward and something beyond it can be described. |
The Journal
Define and Concur, wild like cloudlight The Writer
Wooden boats, musical instruments and fireworks are some of the best inventions. And cameras. I don't believe in following any one person or set of ideas. There are tiny satiations like orchids along the viny forest floor, blooming unseen, more gorgeous than some could keep from weeping over. Whenever I see the occasional sun rise the colors always surprise me like the flavor of tahini in Holland. Subway cars make great rhythm along the tracks, as does wind in treebranches, the sound pattern of running engines, and sometimes clothes in a dryer. I like Sumerian poetry. Archives
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