Baraka included many definitions of words like speech, context, social, culture to highlight his main message I believe he is trying to convey: “…it is the users that establish the world’s realities.”
What does this mean?
This means that each word has a different meaning to every individual. Each individual has a different perception of his/her surroundings and society. Therefore, the sound, the rhythm, the syntax, the tone, the context - all these casualties in one word can have a million different meanings. For example, if someone says “I like, I like….”. This simple statement can be interpreted in many different ways.
Someone’s reaction could be:
HOLY COW. HE’S GONNA SAY IT! HE’S GONNA SAY HE LIKES ME!!!!!! OMG YAY!!!!!!!!
Someone else’s reaction could be:
Oh no!! How do I tell him I don’t like him in THAT way?
Someone else’s reaction could be:
Ohmygodthisistoogoodtobetrue (and then proceeds to jump off a cliff)
Alright, I’m stretching that last reaction a bit. Anyway, you get my point – every person interprets statements differently and thus their emotions vary. The power of the word “like” is so dominant in this statement and the situation that people are in impacts their reaction. CONTEXT. These responses are based in a situation where a boy is confiding his feelings to a girl. The environment and social status of a person also impacts a certain response. Perhaps the person who said “I like you” is a wealthy brat and you are in the same college on a scholarship barely scraping enough money to live in your one bedroom apartment. Your reaction could depend on your social status and hence one’s response could be “I’m not good enough for him”. Or what if the person who said “I like you” is not the best looking guy and you’re the prettiest girl in school and feel you deserve better.
This example I used is mainly to portray the power of words, especially in poetry. As I mentioned last class, each poem is unique to everyone because everyone has a different perception. The rhythm of words, the pronunciation of each word, the tone of each word, the syntax – these can significantly contribute to the meaning of the entire poem. Furthermore, the environment you are in, your culture, your social background – these all contribute to the way you interpret and respond to it. If everyone were to have a common perception on everything in life, life would be dull. We would all react in the same way to every little thing and in a way we would be like robots - all controlled by a common perception.
I really enjoyed reading your take on Baraka's essay, Monique (especially the role playing scenes). You describe how language can be interpreted in many ways, and that is what makes it so powerful, but i was wondering what you think is the impact of culture on language. Baraka talks about how different cultures deal with different connotations in regards to different words, how do you feel that impacts the power of language? Additionally, a concept that was discussed in many other blogs (including my own you can check it out ;) was the idea of controlling thought through language, since it is such a powerful tool. This relates back to 1984 and the manipulation of language. What's your opinion?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow Pooja! I never thought about 1984 when I was writing my response to Baraka's "Expressive Language". But yes, now that I think about it, language can be a source of manipulation. It was effectively used in 1984 as well. Certain words were prevented from being used. I also remember weird words that existed like "ungood" was the substitute word for "bad". I didn't understand the purpose of this though because the mean the same thing. Was this a way of controlling the people in Oceania?
ReplyDeleteAs for the culture aspect, I agree that the connotations of words differ in many cultures and thus the message that is conveyed is different in every culture.
Like Pooja, I also enjoyed reading your thoughts on Baraka's essay. While reading this, I thought about how how everyone interprets words, phrases differently. Its like that game (so fun to play!) when you say a word and the other person has to say the first thing that comes to their mind. Everyone thinks of different things based on their culture, their experiences and background, where they are, and what they like to do. Everything around a person can change how they react to language. This thought made me think of art (on my blog post about Baraka's essay Saumya's comment also led me to think about this). Every artist paints with an idea in his or her mind. It might not be thought out completely, but it is there, even with abstract art. Art always represents an idea. However unlike writing, much of the time the idea is not clearly shown in the art work. There is so much room for interpretation. An abstract artist could make a piece about trees and someone could see it and think its about something completely different. This just has to do with what the artist and the viewer have seen in their life and what they relate the shapes in the art work too. It all comes down to experience and surroundings. Also like you, I didn't think about 1984 at all either. But it makes sense, by controlling people's past, you control their experiences, and their language. Not leaving much space for interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHi Ash! I love that game! And yes your absolutely right. When someone says a word, that word sparks an emotion, a certain connotation which then sparks another word to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe art aspect is fascinating! Art does convey a certain idea although it is more ambiguous because the picture can bring to mind a range of emotions and a word like "happy" will bring ONLY joyful emotions. Experiences are key in our interpretations of everything in life.