[MD] indefensible yet enlightening

[Mary]

Hi John,

Yeah, it's a problem.  That ole symbol manipulation can be so subjective.


Does everybody think in pictures first, then grope around for words to fit?
Or is it just me?  

No, wait.  Pirsig wrote a couple of books about that pre-intellectual
cutting edge of reality thing.  That's good.  Thought I was crazy there for
a minute. :)

Mary

> 
> Meaning is uncertain;  therefore I must constantly fine-tune my
> language and
> work at reinterpreting the words I hear.  I try to understand what the
> other
> person says to me.  All language is more or less a riddle to be figured
> out;
> it is like interpreting a text that has many possible meanings.  In my
> effort at understanding and interpretation, I establish definitions,
> and
> finally  a meaning.
> 
> 
> The thick haze of discourse produces meaning.
> 
> 
> All of intellectual life (and I use the word "all" advisedly) even that
> of
> specialist in the most exact sciences, is based on these instabilities,
> failures to understand, and errors in interpretation, which we must
> find a
> way to go beyond and overcome.
> 
> 
> Mistaking a person's language keeps me from "taking" the person--from
> taking
> him prisoner.
> 
> 
> We are in the presence of an infinitely and unexpectedly rich tool, so
> that
> the tiniest phrase unleashes an entire polyphonic gamut of meaning, The
> ambiguity of language, and even its ambivalence and its contradiction,
> between the moment it is spoken and the moment it is received produce
> extremely intense activities.  Without such activities, we would be
> ants or
> bees, and our drama and tragedy would quickly be dried up and empty.
> 
> 
> Between the moment of speech and the moment of reception are born
> symbol,
> metaphor and analogy.
> 
> 
> Through language I lay hold of two completely different objects.  I
> bring
> them together, establishing between them a relationship of similarity
> or
> even identity.  In this manner I come to know this distant, unknown
> object,
> through its resemblance.
> 
> 
> It becomes intelligible to me, because through language I have brought
> it
> near this other one that I know well.  Tis an astonishing process, and
> logically a foolish one.  It is obviously an indefensible operation,
> yet
> there it is, utterly successful, utterly enlightening.