"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug. " Mark Twain
The vehicle that language rides in is slippery while it attempts to avoid slipping right past the meaning it is trying to grasp. While the poem, The Problem of Describing Trees, is trying to forge an accurate description of a tree the language is being limited- while it tries to better understand the motion of the tree. To describe the motion of a tree perfectly while not going too far beyond what it is in actuality is the problem the author is struggling to capture the answer to. More than a vehicle in general, but similar to the mouse trap ride at an amusement park, it's whiplash as it hurls you back and forth between two boundaries, like the extremes of going too far or not far enough in finding the perfect words to tell about something so perfect in nature. Then you ask yourself if man made words can ever truly be worthy enough to explain the beauty of anything in nature at all. But then again, maybe they can.
Words mean something more, when they are written down. In Hubris at Zunzal the author's conundrum deals with capturing back the written words that are no longer in his possesion. They are no longer his, because as they were written they became for an audience, for anyone to take in. His thoughts about something so natural like the ocean were spilling out, however they spilled back into the ocean. The ocean is vast just like the world and once your words are in the ocean they can never be fully retrieved. Once you have taken that step, you have committed to your words until you chose to use others to recant but even then the language has been put out into the universe for always. To change them would be to attempt to retrieve rum from water as Jones says in the poem, impossible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow - words means SOMETHING MORE, when they are written down. Why do you think this is so? Do you confer some power on the written word over the spoken word? Why do you do this? How can you justify this?
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think?
I agree with Brooke because when something is written and in an authors case published, there is no going back and changing what you said. I wrote about this as well in my blog about The Fear of Writing. I believe that the written word is more powerful because it is harder to take it back. I feel like spoken language is always twisted and changed but when something is written down it is set in stone. You might want to take a look at my Fear of Writing blog and Lita's comment and argument regarding the spoken word.
ReplyDeleteI really like the analogies you used to describe in detail the vehicle as a slippery slope. The mouse trap car ride is a perfect example. I can see where you are coming from.
ReplyDeleteI feel that even if you write something, you should be able to change what you wrote before, if you want. When you wrote something the first time, that is what you truly thought. Everyone can change their minds and so they should be able to change what they wrote. OK, obviously what they wrote is set in stone, and will be on paper forever until it gets burned or something, but then if that happens, they could write a new thought and explain why they now think differently. They could explain what they think now and then argue for that. As we learn new things, we have different perspectives on topics. That is how we grow and learn. Even if we can't take back what we wrote first, we are allowed to work with what we think currently.
ReplyDelete