Let us begin by addressing the complete dissonance with reality overly formal speech creates in life, in writing, in fiction.
If the end is to be taken seriously, I think we may have missed the mark.
You and I.
The vacant us of literature.
Me, I guess.
Ha.
About Me
- FIERI
- Mad Girl's Love Song -Sylvia Plath I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, And arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.) God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade: Exit seraphim and Satan's men: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I fancied you'd return the way you said, But I grow old and I forget your name. (I think I made you up inside my head.) I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. (I think I made you up inside my head.)
5 comments:
Overly formal speech does create dissonance. The dis-ambiguised storied of most of my peers do the same to me. Why do most of us filter our reality into entertaining stories? Well, to be socially successful of course. But once you can see through it, it irks every time you see it happening. Self-aggrandisement. Everywhere.
Have you ever been totally absorbed in a book (usually self-help) and being taken along by it's instructive narrative completely... often a book like this can save you from depression... but most instructional books have a detachment to them you realise later... and lead, in me, to the dissonance you talk about here. Plus I struggle to remember much of what I've read. I gulp down interesting reads too quickly, and only remember bits. That annoys me.
We are all marketers, so entwined with this society we live in, the society of gluttony, the McAmerica, that we market as second nature. There is no question that we must edit our own life stories to suit the palate of our peers, that we must edit our opinions likewise. To not do that, in the place we are now, is to basically ostracize yourself. There is no place for frank and honest.
My friend was talking to me about a phenomenon he noticed a while back. He is not American, and although English culture has a whole lot in common with ours, he noticed something peculiar about the American story teller. What he noticed is that every American can recount a life event as if it were a made for tv movie, the colors are bright, the language interesting. he noticed that Americans are excellent at making stories larger than life, while he'll turn on the news in his place of birth and sit down and watch interviews with common guys and they trip over their own words.
I haven't really read self help books, but I think I can identify the thing you're talking about with that genre. You read it and it all sounds good and then it occurs to you that the person is probably a bullshit artist. Probably either never lived what he attempts to teach you to cure, or it is so vague that the meaning has as much weight as Tarot or star gazing would have. A one size fits all psychology.
If you come back and read from here, you should let me know what your i.org persona is.
:)
To not do that, in the place we are now, is to basically ostracize yourself. There is no place for frank and honest.
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I fear you may be right about this, but I want to rally against it with every cell - and I do feel the pain of ostrasization at times. But if self-development is truly a major theme of our secular humanist times, then how are you supposed to develop if there is no honesty between people?
I think films and TV have a lot to do with this. They are constructed life; only the exciting bits. And watching so much of this stuff I'm sure makes you try to construct your own life in it's image. Not to mention adverts, glossy mags and all that trash.
I am from England btw. I can see your friends point, but I also see the storytelling reality aspect here too. I wonder if it is the pretty strong US influence on our culture. I don't know.
I have achieved an escape from this actually amongst very close friends. With those able to take it, I have managed, without really planning it, to push us more towards sheer honesty. With my ex-girlfriend, Amy, I definitely fostered a air of this. That had it's wonderful and it's stressful consequences but I don't regret one second doing that. Facing reality is a very very healthy thing I feel and I more or less can't do without it. I'm construed that way. I think I was inadequately socialised during my teen years!
I have been thinking a lot lately about how much of the cultural pressures we feel come from the need for civilisation/society/ideologies to maintain themselves. You know what I mean? We are encouraged very strongly to follow a certain path in life: well paying job, marriage, 2.4 children. Aside from the biological aspects of this; why this certain path? Because it adds up most efficiently to a "society" in whose members natural urges are suppressed and the machine can trundle on with you as a cog. Capitalism breaks our backs, steals our souls and destroys the earth to maintain itself. Odd that. Ideologies are Darwinian?! Perhaps the net is changing all of this....
I've just joined introspective. It's Loster (I haven't made any posts yet). PM on there? Sorry this is such a long comment - I think there is a lot we could talk about.
I had a funny feeling you wouldn't be American. I'm sorry for the assumption. I hate that, really. I have to get to class! Will respond to your comment soon, as there is a lot there to think about. I look forward to hearing from you here or on the site, either way.
"I have been thinking a lot lately about how much of the cultural pressures we feel come from the need for civilisation/society/ideologies to maintain themselves. You know what I mean? We are encouraged very strongly to follow a certain path in life: well paying job, marriage, 2.4 children. Aside from the biological aspects of this; why this certain path? Because it adds up most efficiently to a "society" in whose members natural urges are suppressed and the machine can trundle on with you as a cog. Capitalism breaks our backs, steals our souls and destroys the earth to maintain itself. Odd that. Ideologies are Darwinian?! Perhaps the net is changing all of this...."
Very interesting.
It's a strange thing to think about, the pressures of culture and society- their need to perpetuate themselves, because it all comes back to our nature as human beings. I think it has come to the point where culture has a life of its own, and we almost revere it as Godlike. It's bigger than us, it knows what our plan in life should be, it has our best interests at heart (these are the assumptions anyway), and we feel we NEED it to live.
And maybe we do. After all, if you look at any moderately sized group of people, you will see the makings of society- maybe on a micro scale some places, but it's everywhere. From families to continents. We create and perpetuate these mores, they are OF us, and yet they rule us, determine our fate. Very godlike, actually.
Our basic instincts can be rewired so that they are adequately satisfied while we fulfill a role as an integral part of something larger.
Being a rational animal is a completely odd thing.
Makes me want to go back and read the social theorists, Locke, Marx etc.
We exists on several planes of reality. One is completely fabricated, but it determines our lives in very real ways.
It's strange to think of.
Government, law, morals, finance... all large nets of make believe most of the planet has agreed to accept as reality.
heh.
I hope that wasn't way too scattered.
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