AS 8/22
Postmodernity is not a dirty word. Postmodernity is not a dirty word. There, I feel better now. I’ve been comfortably insulated in ignorance and am pretty sure this class will be as rude a wake up call as an annoying, red-eyed alarm clock buzzing at 5am.
What struck me most from the first class was the idea that language is dead, that words have lost meaning, that maybe (GASP) they had no meaning to begin with. A concept deeply disturbing -- and strangely titillating -- to an English major like me. There is not one second of silence in this world – every moment of every day there is noise. Most of this sound pollution is comprised of human voices attempting communication. If there is no meaning, if the words are dead on our tongues, how has commentary formed reality? Commentary requires words. I think commentary has hijacked words and radically altered their stability, their reality. Nothing is as it seems, everything can be explained away – even DNA – commentary has supplanted authority (thank you, Dr. Roger) by murdering communication. Is that possible? Is that reality? Is reality just a myth and we simply have no words to reveal the truth?
My head is spinning right now and there are no words for it. Can’t wait for the proverbial light to go off, I’m tired of tripping in the dark.
posted by blogsquatch @ 8:16 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe it isn't that the words have "no meaning" but that we have created the meaning. That before us, before language, there was no real way for us to interact with our world or connect to it. It was entirely nebulous. But yes, what a terrifying idea to someone who makes a life out of/lives for words. Titillating indeed!
CC
Some good ideas, but you need to write more . . .
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