Problems with Translation
10. Untranslatable Words are words that are so succinct that they cannot be translated from one language to another, such as "huzeluch" (sp?) which is most closely translated into English as "sitting in a small room with a bunch of Dutchmen drinking coffee and smoking cigars" or something like that.
11. Idioms are colloquial phrases that cannot really be translated literally, word-for-word, into another language without losing the meaning, such as the foreign idiom which in English says "You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid" or expressions such as "off his rocker".
12. Labels are group names we assign to a collection of objects/people, etc. instead of naming each one individually, which would be very tiring and confusing. Instead of calling each table or grain of sand a specific name, we simply say "tables" or "sand".
13. Stereotypes are a common effect of labeling, when a group of (usually) people are given a label and then associations that accompany that label and every person inside it, such as "IB students are smart."
14. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is the theory (hypothesis) that how you use your language determines how you see your world, such as Americans' use of nouns before verbs which empowers and emphasizes the noun, person, or 'do-er' so that we see ourselves as more important.
Emotionally Laden Language
15. Emotive Meaning is when certain words have emotions connected to them, such as "gassy" which provokes disgust, so we say "sparkling water" instead of "gasyy water". Or the negative, depressing emotions we feel when "death" is mentioned that cause us to say "pro-choice" instead of "pro-death", because everyone wants "choice"!
16. Weasel Words are (vague) words we use to "weasel" our way out of things or give ourselves "wiggle-room" in uncomfortable situations or when we don't want to give definitive answers and tie ourselves to something. Examples of Weasle Words are "Probably, Maybe, and Kind of".
17. Grammar is the set of rules that governs how we form sentences, the order we place our words in, etc. An example would be that we say "Jason types the paper" not "The paper Jason types" and that we are required to put noun, verb, object in a sentence.
18. Revealing and Concealing can both be results of our use of grammar. If we say "The villages were bombed." instead of "We bombed the villages." it conceals the party accontable/responsible for the action and thus makes it sound almost like a natural disaster, a random tragedy that ocurred on its own.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Language Notes 12-18-08
Please post the following definitions by December 23. In your description of the term, please DEFINE it and the provide an EXAMPLE from class.
1. The Three Components of Language are 1) governing rules (i.e. grammar -punctuation/noun before verb- or vocabulary),
2) intention (not just unintentional communication such as yawning without realizing it), and 3) open-endedness and
creativity (words can be changed or created, such as Shakespeare's "obscene").
Theories of Meaning
2. Definition Theory
By defining something in words, such as a trangle, you should be able to distinguish it from anything else and/or draw it (like the triangle-the way it is defined, it could not possibly be drawn as anything else).
3. Denotation Theory
Drawing meaning from a meaningless word, usually based on context. An example of this is "France", just a meaningless assembly of letters or sounds, but from it we denote 'a country in western Europe between Spain and Germany on the Atlantic...'
4. Image Theory
There is a mental image brought to mind for each word, but some do not create a specific image if they are vague words or words that don't have tanglibe meanings, such as "freedom" or even "tree" - there is not really one specific image that most people's minds create upon hearing those words.
Problems with Language
5. Vagueness
The quality of a word which has no precise meaning, but is useful since we don't usually NEED to know all the specifics to get through the day (i.e. "slow").
6. Ambiguity
A word or phrase can have more than one meaning (i.e. "plane" or "mean").
7. Secondary Meaning (i.e. Denotation, Connotation and Euphemisms)
Denotation is the primary meaning of a word such as "death"="non-living".
Connotation is the web of associations and/or emotions that surround a word such as the sadness, anger, grief, and fear that we naturally feel when the word "death" is mentioned.
Euphemisms are words or phrases used in place of words with harsh negative connotations, such as how we say "passed on" instead of "died" to soften the blow.
8. Metaphor
A direct comparison of 2 words without using "like" or "as" such as when you say "Mike is a pillar in the community." (Mike and pillar are being compared but not literally).
9. Irony
Using one word or phrase but meaning another/not "face" meaning. "Great Weather!" could mean 'ugh this weather stinks!'
(I don't think we have gotten this far yet in class)
Problems with Translation
10. Untranslatable Words
11. Idioms
12. Labels
13. Stereotypes
14. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Emotionally Laden Language
15. Emotive Meaning
16. Weasel Words
17. Grammar
18. Revealing and Concealing
1. The Three Components of Language are 1) governing rules (i.e. grammar -punctuation/noun before verb- or vocabulary),
2) intention (not just unintentional communication such as yawning without realizing it), and 3) open-endedness and
creativity (words can be changed or created, such as Shakespeare's "obscene").
Theories of Meaning
2. Definition Theory
By defining something in words, such as a trangle, you should be able to distinguish it from anything else and/or draw it (like the triangle-the way it is defined, it could not possibly be drawn as anything else).
3. Denotation Theory
Drawing meaning from a meaningless word, usually based on context. An example of this is "France", just a meaningless assembly of letters or sounds, but from it we denote 'a country in western Europe between Spain and Germany on the Atlantic...'
4. Image Theory
There is a mental image brought to mind for each word, but some do not create a specific image if they are vague words or words that don't have tanglibe meanings, such as "freedom" or even "tree" - there is not really one specific image that most people's minds create upon hearing those words.
Problems with Language
5. Vagueness
The quality of a word which has no precise meaning, but is useful since we don't usually NEED to know all the specifics to get through the day (i.e. "slow").
6. Ambiguity
A word or phrase can have more than one meaning (i.e. "plane" or "mean").
7. Secondary Meaning (i.e. Denotation, Connotation and Euphemisms)
Denotation is the primary meaning of a word such as "death"="non-living".
Connotation is the web of associations and/or emotions that surround a word such as the sadness, anger, grief, and fear that we naturally feel when the word "death" is mentioned.
Euphemisms are words or phrases used in place of words with harsh negative connotations, such as how we say "passed on" instead of "died" to soften the blow.
8. Metaphor
A direct comparison of 2 words without using "like" or "as" such as when you say "Mike is a pillar in the community." (Mike and pillar are being compared but not literally).
9. Irony
Using one word or phrase but meaning another/not "face" meaning. "Great Weather!" could mean 'ugh this weather stinks!'
(I don't think we have gotten this far yet in class)
Problems with Translation
10. Untranslatable Words
11. Idioms
12. Labels
13. Stereotypes
14. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Emotionally Laden Language
15. Emotive Meaning
16. Weasel Words
17. Grammar
18. Revealing and Concealing
Monday, December 15, 2008
TOK Diving Bell Essay
Knowing as an individual can be distinguished from community
knowledge because it comes from yourSELF and it includes knowledge by
instinct, conviction, etc. Community knowledge consists more of
general theories or perceptions like racism or that racism is wrong,
or what is going on in areas like politics, etc. Bauby attains
individual knowledge through experiences in the hospital and then
retains that with memory. He also gains some knowledge by community,
like in his chapter "Tourists" in which he explains the psychological
groupings in the hospital (the obese patients, the paralytics...) and
how they "interact" with each other (most of the time avoiding
interaction, like when the patients in the gym "stare at the fire
detector" rather than making awkward eye contact with poor paralyzed
Bauby. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between our
individual vs. community knowledge because our individual beliefs can
be heavily influenced by community knowledge and beliefs, or we can
subconsciously assume that because WE think something, everyone else
does too (for example, maybe it IS just Bauby who pictures the
hospital split up like that into groups).
Knowing as an individual and knowing as a community are both
valuable ways of gaining knowledge, each with its limitations. Knowing
as an individual has value because it is the only way to gain personal
knowledge, such as knowledge by introspection. A community, as a
whole, cannot feel empathy or sympathy for a specific person or gain
instinctive knowledge such as how to breathe; those are things that
can only be known on a personal level. Personal knowledge of the
individual has the ability to be intrinsic and detailed, and a person
can be very sure in their personal knowledge and feel more certain
about what they know then something they have learned as part of a
community. However, perhaps this is not such a good thing and is more
of a limitation, because if the knower is satisfied and the knowledge
is just thought to be certain, who will challenge it to see if it is
really true and to make it more accurate? This same problem arises,
perhaps more, with knowledge of a community: community knowledge is
rarely challenged since either pretty much everyone belives it so
there is noone to disagree, or the person who thinks otherwise does
not have the courage to confront the whole community. Another weakness
of individual knowledge is that it is only ONE person's perspective
when multiple perspectives may need to be considered, and, as we know,
one person can perceive and interpret things very incorrectly or
heavily (perhaps too heavily) influenced by past experiences and
pre-associations, etc.
Community knowledge is a bunch of people's perspectives together,
which, hopefully, would create a more accurate picture, since claims
could be supported by multiple witnesses and considered by more than
one perspective, etc. However, this strength only goes so far because
it is still only ONE community who could be stuck in THEIR paradigms,
so ultimately, there will always be an element of inaccuracy from lack
of varied perspectives. Community knowledge is more easily shared with
other people/communities since it usually consists more of large ideas
than specific detailed knowledge or feelings of an individual, which,
with the limits of language and sounds, letters, or even words trying
to represent complex emotions and events, can be very difficult to put
into words understandable by another person. Bauby's complicated and
painfully slow method of transcribing words from the blinking of his
one eye is a good example of the language and translation barriers an
individual can face when trying to communicate knowledge. Not only was
he unable to describe things in full length because of the extremely
long time it took to "say" things, but Bauby's words were then
translated from French into English to be in the book, and some
meaning could have ben lost here (in cultural expressions which don't
provide a literal translation, etc.). A strength/limit (depending on
which standpoint you look at it from - the believing community's or
the influenced individual's) of community knowledge is that a big
group of people believing something can have influence on individuals,
such as the Nazis who influenced many many people to think that Jews
were inferior... Community rules, expectations, social groups, ideas
of "polite" behavior and language, etc. also limit the individual in
what they can do and believe ("know") if they really wanted to be
accepted by society, which I think is a natural desire in all of us,
although maybe subconsciously for some.
While I don't think that either knowledge by community or
knowledge as an individual is particularly stronger than the other
(each is better for separate things), I do think that most of the
knowledge we use on a daily basis to get through life is more personal
knowledge, attained solely by US, so individual knowledge could maybe
be considered more useful in day-to-day life than community knowledge
(things more like politics and celebrities than how to make yourself
food to eat).
How much of this knowledge, whether individually gained or
gained by community, depends on interactions with others? It is too
hard for me to put a number or percentage to this, but I would say a
fair amount is gained via interacting with other people. If you lived
on a desert island, all by yourself, how much would you know? Not very
much. Our perception of our world, geography, the existence of people
other than us and the ones directly around us, and so much more, is
all attained by talking with other people, sharing ideas and "putting
our heads together." Knowledge about ourselves is also gained in part
by interacting with others, for example, we can learn about our
patience level, our preferences, things that make us happy or sad or
excited, all from acting and reacting with and to other humans. But we
can also learn quite a lot on our own or by simply observing other
people. If a prep refuses to interact with a group of "nerds", she can
still notice what they wear or eat or talk about. However, observance
without interaction can produce warped views of people; maybe the prep
will think the nerds like being isolated when in reality they're
dieing to belong to a group. Perhaps when Bauby thinks the nurse is
being rough with him because she doesn't care, she is really just
ignorant of how her handholds really feel to him. This is one of the
many problems with knowledge... It can be WRONG!
Whether there is any way to gain knowledge by description and
knowledge by acquaintance without depending on interaction with
others, I suppose, depends on your definition of "interaction".
Knowledge by description, claiming you know something because you can
describe its existence or its properties or whatever, requires the
ability to use language, which I think depends not so much upon
interactions with other people, but upon a person's interactions with
language and their ability to handle it, combined with the properties
of the knowledge being described; if it is the knowledge of how an
emotion feels, it is very difficult to describe in words. Of course,
it helps if there is a another person to describe the knowledge TO,
and perhaps interacting with another person helps the describer come
up with words of description or to realize that the knowledge is not
quite how they thought it was... Knowledge by acquaintance usually
cannot be gained without interaction with others because you can't
really "know someone's nature through experience" if you HAVE no
experience with them, seeing how they react to things you say and
getting used to how they interact with you. However, you can still
gain acquaintance with someone's habits, moods, etc. by simply
watching them. If I watch my mom go through her daily routine singing
and dancing but don't actually say anything or make eye contact with
her, I can still know (as far as one CAN know the true emotions or
someone else) that she is feeling happy. Bauby sometimes interacted
with his nurses, blinking out a message to them and asking them to
close the window, or cooperating (or not) with his speech therapists
and such, but he also just sat and watched them a lot, and this is
mostly how he became "acquainted" with them - observation. In Bauby's
chapter, "At the Wax Museum", he says of his nurses, "I got to know
them better. They carried out as best they could their delicate
mission"(110) and "They readily lapse into their local patois as soon
as they are alone together."(111) Bauby did not gain all this
knowledge by sitting down and having a heart-to-heart chat with each
of the personnel or even by sharing very endearing looks with them -
after all, even his face is paralyzed, and I highly doubt each nurse
gazes thoughtfully into his eyes to decipher his look and then
responds to him...
So I think that neither knowledge by description nor knowledge
by acquaintance really DEPEND on interaction, but it certainly does
aid the gaining of the two.
Once we have gained this "knowledge" through the many ways we attain
information, we have to justify it to ourselves (we would not just
believe that a pink unicorn flew over our heads - what is there to
prove it?), so how do we do that? I think the most powerful way we
justify our knowledge claims is our own empirical sense perception. If
I saw something, "I KNOW I saw it! It was THERE! How could it not be
there if I SAW it and HEARD the noise it made?!" I think humans tend
to forget that our senses and sense perception can be faulty,
especially when pride or belief is a part of the picture; that is one
of the problems of knowledge: our attainment of what we claim to be
"knowledge" can be influnced by various factors and turn out a little
twisted, and we fail to see that. Anyway, in general, I think we
naturally tend to trust ourselves more than others and are more likely
to think THEY made a mistake, because "I KNOW what I saw"... Which is
why I think that our empirical sense perception is more powerful in
our justification of knowledge than, say, "authoritative or divine
revelation". However, if a person is highly religious or has been
trained to, wholeheartedly, in all situations, trust their father or
priest or doctor or whatever, I guess they might believe in knowledge
gained via that authority more so than what they thought they knew
themselves. For example, if a priest claimed to REALLY turn a glass
of wine into the blood of Jesus, and some devout follower drank it,
even though their tongue might have tasted only wine, they could claim
to KNOW it was really blood because their mind was so convinced it
was, that they believed what they were told more than what they
actually personally tasted.
Bauby was only told by his doctors and nurses that the reason he had
a stroke and was paralyzed was because he had locked-in syndrome, so
HE might say that in this case, authoritative revelation is more
powerful than more personal knowledge (such as empirical sense
perception); how could HE know he had locked-in syndrome? However,
BAUBY was the only one who could fully know how it feels to be
paralyzed and have the syndrome. He is the one feeling the drool all
over his cheek and the inability to move his muscles, not the doctors.
So in my mind, Bauby's empirical sense perception has more value and
power than something he knows because the doctor told him.
One might also argue that memory is the most powerful justification
of knowledge because, look at people with Alzheimers - can they really
KNOW much of anything? Almost all of Bauby's knowledge of his past
comes from his memory, so where would he be without that? However, he
did just come out of a coma, so how reliable is his memory for
justifying his knowledge of the past? (In his book The Diving Bell and
the Butterfly, Bauby describes his "Dream" (pages 49-52) or
recollection of events mixed with dreaming that took place while he
was in a coma. It is difficult to decipher which parts of this memory
really occurred and which were created by his imagination.) It could
also be argued that sense perception is not much good if you can't
REMEMBER it 2 minutes later, but I say there isn't too much to
remember if you don't first perceive it with your senses. If you
couldn't see, hear, feel, taste, and smell, and then interpret those
pieces of information (although you COULD interpret them incorrectly),
it would be really hard to tell what was going on.
knowledge because it comes from yourSELF and it includes knowledge by
instinct, conviction, etc. Community knowledge consists more of
general theories or perceptions like racism or that racism is wrong,
or what is going on in areas like politics, etc. Bauby attains
individual knowledge through experiences in the hospital and then
retains that with memory. He also gains some knowledge by community,
like in his chapter "Tourists" in which he explains the psychological
groupings in the hospital (the obese patients, the paralytics...) and
how they "interact" with each other (most of the time avoiding
interaction, like when the patients in the gym "stare at the fire
detector" rather than making awkward eye contact with poor paralyzed
Bauby. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between our
individual vs. community knowledge because our individual beliefs can
be heavily influenced by community knowledge and beliefs, or we can
subconsciously assume that because WE think something, everyone else
does too (for example, maybe it IS just Bauby who pictures the
hospital split up like that into groups).
Knowing as an individual and knowing as a community are both
valuable ways of gaining knowledge, each with its limitations. Knowing
as an individual has value because it is the only way to gain personal
knowledge, such as knowledge by introspection. A community, as a
whole, cannot feel empathy or sympathy for a specific person or gain
instinctive knowledge such as how to breathe; those are things that
can only be known on a personal level. Personal knowledge of the
individual has the ability to be intrinsic and detailed, and a person
can be very sure in their personal knowledge and feel more certain
about what they know then something they have learned as part of a
community. However, perhaps this is not such a good thing and is more
of a limitation, because if the knower is satisfied and the knowledge
is just thought to be certain, who will challenge it to see if it is
really true and to make it more accurate? This same problem arises,
perhaps more, with knowledge of a community: community knowledge is
rarely challenged since either pretty much everyone belives it so
there is noone to disagree, or the person who thinks otherwise does
not have the courage to confront the whole community. Another weakness
of individual knowledge is that it is only ONE person's perspective
when multiple perspectives may need to be considered, and, as we know,
one person can perceive and interpret things very incorrectly or
heavily (perhaps too heavily) influenced by past experiences and
pre-associations, etc.
Community knowledge is a bunch of people's perspectives together,
which, hopefully, would create a more accurate picture, since claims
could be supported by multiple witnesses and considered by more than
one perspective, etc. However, this strength only goes so far because
it is still only ONE community who could be stuck in THEIR paradigms,
so ultimately, there will always be an element of inaccuracy from lack
of varied perspectives. Community knowledge is more easily shared with
other people/communities since it usually consists more of large ideas
than specific detailed knowledge or feelings of an individual, which,
with the limits of language and sounds, letters, or even words trying
to represent complex emotions and events, can be very difficult to put
into words understandable by another person. Bauby's complicated and
painfully slow method of transcribing words from the blinking of his
one eye is a good example of the language and translation barriers an
individual can face when trying to communicate knowledge. Not only was
he unable to describe things in full length because of the extremely
long time it took to "say" things, but Bauby's words were then
translated from French into English to be in the book, and some
meaning could have ben lost here (in cultural expressions which don't
provide a literal translation, etc.). A strength/limit (depending on
which standpoint you look at it from - the believing community's or
the influenced individual's) of community knowledge is that a big
group of people believing something can have influence on individuals,
such as the Nazis who influenced many many people to think that Jews
were inferior... Community rules, expectations, social groups, ideas
of "polite" behavior and language, etc. also limit the individual in
what they can do and believe ("know") if they really wanted to be
accepted by society, which I think is a natural desire in all of us,
although maybe subconsciously for some.
While I don't think that either knowledge by community or
knowledge as an individual is particularly stronger than the other
(each is better for separate things), I do think that most of the
knowledge we use on a daily basis to get through life is more personal
knowledge, attained solely by US, so individual knowledge could maybe
be considered more useful in day-to-day life than community knowledge
(things more like politics and celebrities than how to make yourself
food to eat).
How much of this knowledge, whether individually gained or
gained by community, depends on interactions with others? It is too
hard for me to put a number or percentage to this, but I would say a
fair amount is gained via interacting with other people. If you lived
on a desert island, all by yourself, how much would you know? Not very
much. Our perception of our world, geography, the existence of people
other than us and the ones directly around us, and so much more, is
all attained by talking with other people, sharing ideas and "putting
our heads together." Knowledge about ourselves is also gained in part
by interacting with others, for example, we can learn about our
patience level, our preferences, things that make us happy or sad or
excited, all from acting and reacting with and to other humans. But we
can also learn quite a lot on our own or by simply observing other
people. If a prep refuses to interact with a group of "nerds", she can
still notice what they wear or eat or talk about. However, observance
without interaction can produce warped views of people; maybe the prep
will think the nerds like being isolated when in reality they're
dieing to belong to a group. Perhaps when Bauby thinks the nurse is
being rough with him because she doesn't care, she is really just
ignorant of how her handholds really feel to him. This is one of the
many problems with knowledge... It can be WRONG!
Whether there is any way to gain knowledge by description and
knowledge by acquaintance without depending on interaction with
others, I suppose, depends on your definition of "interaction".
Knowledge by description, claiming you know something because you can
describe its existence or its properties or whatever, requires the
ability to use language, which I think depends not so much upon
interactions with other people, but upon a person's interactions with
language and their ability to handle it, combined with the properties
of the knowledge being described; if it is the knowledge of how an
emotion feels, it is very difficult to describe in words. Of course,
it helps if there is a another person to describe the knowledge TO,
and perhaps interacting with another person helps the describer come
up with words of description or to realize that the knowledge is not
quite how they thought it was... Knowledge by acquaintance usually
cannot be gained without interaction with others because you can't
really "know someone's nature through experience" if you HAVE no
experience with them, seeing how they react to things you say and
getting used to how they interact with you. However, you can still
gain acquaintance with someone's habits, moods, etc. by simply
watching them. If I watch my mom go through her daily routine singing
and dancing but don't actually say anything or make eye contact with
her, I can still know (as far as one CAN know the true emotions or
someone else) that she is feeling happy. Bauby sometimes interacted
with his nurses, blinking out a message to them and asking them to
close the window, or cooperating (or not) with his speech therapists
and such, but he also just sat and watched them a lot, and this is
mostly how he became "acquainted" with them - observation. In Bauby's
chapter, "At the Wax Museum", he says of his nurses, "I got to know
them better. They carried out as best they could their delicate
mission"(110) and "They readily lapse into their local patois as soon
as they are alone together."(111) Bauby did not gain all this
knowledge by sitting down and having a heart-to-heart chat with each
of the personnel or even by sharing very endearing looks with them -
after all, even his face is paralyzed, and I highly doubt each nurse
gazes thoughtfully into his eyes to decipher his look and then
responds to him...
So I think that neither knowledge by description nor knowledge
by acquaintance really DEPEND on interaction, but it certainly does
aid the gaining of the two.
Once we have gained this "knowledge" through the many ways we attain
information, we have to justify it to ourselves (we would not just
believe that a pink unicorn flew over our heads - what is there to
prove it?), so how do we do that? I think the most powerful way we
justify our knowledge claims is our own empirical sense perception. If
I saw something, "I KNOW I saw it! It was THERE! How could it not be
there if I SAW it and HEARD the noise it made?!" I think humans tend
to forget that our senses and sense perception can be faulty,
especially when pride or belief is a part of the picture; that is one
of the problems of knowledge: our attainment of what we claim to be
"knowledge" can be influnced by various factors and turn out a little
twisted, and we fail to see that. Anyway, in general, I think we
naturally tend to trust ourselves more than others and are more likely
to think THEY made a mistake, because "I KNOW what I saw"... Which is
why I think that our empirical sense perception is more powerful in
our justification of knowledge than, say, "authoritative or divine
revelation". However, if a person is highly religious or has been
trained to, wholeheartedly, in all situations, trust their father or
priest or doctor or whatever, I guess they might believe in knowledge
gained via that authority more so than what they thought they knew
themselves. For example, if a priest claimed to REALLY turn a glass
of wine into the blood of Jesus, and some devout follower drank it,
even though their tongue might have tasted only wine, they could claim
to KNOW it was really blood because their mind was so convinced it
was, that they believed what they were told more than what they
actually personally tasted.
Bauby was only told by his doctors and nurses that the reason he had
a stroke and was paralyzed was because he had locked-in syndrome, so
HE might say that in this case, authoritative revelation is more
powerful than more personal knowledge (such as empirical sense
perception); how could HE know he had locked-in syndrome? However,
BAUBY was the only one who could fully know how it feels to be
paralyzed and have the syndrome. He is the one feeling the drool all
over his cheek and the inability to move his muscles, not the doctors.
So in my mind, Bauby's empirical sense perception has more value and
power than something he knows because the doctor told him.
One might also argue that memory is the most powerful justification
of knowledge because, look at people with Alzheimers - can they really
KNOW much of anything? Almost all of Bauby's knowledge of his past
comes from his memory, so where would he be without that? However, he
did just come out of a coma, so how reliable is his memory for
justifying his knowledge of the past? (In his book The Diving Bell and
the Butterfly, Bauby describes his "Dream" (pages 49-52) or
recollection of events mixed with dreaming that took place while he
was in a coma. It is difficult to decipher which parts of this memory
really occurred and which were created by his imagination.) It could
also be argued that sense perception is not much good if you can't
REMEMBER it 2 minutes later, but I say there isn't too much to
remember if you don't first perceive it with your senses. If you
couldn't see, hear, feel, taste, and smell, and then interpret those
pieces of information (although you COULD interpret them incorrectly),
it would be really hard to tell what was going on.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Diving Bell #5
1. Read The Ladies of Hong Kong. Think of a place you know by smell. Can you adequately describe it? Which situation is more horrific? Bauby's or Jean-Paul K. Please explain your answer.
I know my grandparents' house in Pensylvania partly by the smells that fill it. Downstairs it smells lightly of liquor and cigarettes, but a good cozy smell, not overpowering or disgusting. Upstairs it smells vaguely of mothballs and something else you can't describe; it just smells like my grandparents. And yes, I could describe a million things about their house, but it is partly the memories that have been made there and my infatuation with objects and such when I was a young girl that make these things stand out so clearly in my mind. The way their house used to be (they recently renevated it), you would walk in a small office and down through a little hallway with a fridge and a beer/wine cooler along the sides. Then you enter their kitchen, dining area, and living room, big open spaces that look very distinguished, not unlike my grandparents themselves. Outside is a whole other story that would take a while to fully describe, but I definitely have specific memories of that place.
I would say Bauby's situation is more horrific because at least Jean-Paul K. got OUT of his situation, but Bauby's is permanent. He cannot speak, or walk, or more, or even express himself more than slowlyyyy with words, and he will never get much better than that.
2. After reading Wax Museum, why do you think Bauby is "fond of all these torturers"?
He is fond of all his nurses and orderlies because even though some are rough with him or indifferent or whatever, he realizes that they are all just trying "to ease our burden a little when our crosses bruised our shoulders too painfully." I think seeing these people every day, all the different types with the different personalities and different roles, is very interesting for Bauby. He notices a lot about people and their habits and ways, and studying all his "torturers" gives him something to do all day. Plus, they are something of familiarity for him, he sees them everyday, and they are the ones taking care of him, doing things for him, and helping him - even if maybe not to the extent or in the way that he would most greatly appreciate.
3. Read The Mythmaker and explain why you think Bauby has admiration for Olivier. What is the connection between memory and emotion?
Bauby had an admiration for Olivier because he had a talent for making up incredulous stories, having lots of fun doing it, and letting himself go from real-life boring life, and then defending them so adamantly, unashamed of his imaginative stories. Bauby wishes so bad he could do that with his little "butterfly", stuck inside his diving bell day after day.
Current emotion can effect the way we remember things, for instance if we are really nervous or distressed, we can not remember events as clearly or accurately as when we are calm and collected. Or if we angry, our memory of a frustrating day can be exaggerated and seem much worse. Memory can also affect our emotions, for example if I am feeling very happy and then I see a spot where I remember having a very bad experience, my mood can be turned around and I will feel very sad.
4. Why do you think Bauby likes the song A Day in the Life? Why do humans always wait for life's crescendo? Why do you think he places this chapter towards the end of the book?
I think he likes the song because not only is it interesting to listen to because it is very calming and then very exhilarating in its crescendo, but it relates to his life in that his life came to a big crescendo when he had his stroke, and then crashed down, just like the instruments in the song, so in a way it's like telling the story of his stroke.
I do not think humans wait for "life's crescendo" because I don't really think life has one crescendo or that people view life that way, but I do think they (we) wait for better times, that we keep hoping that things will get better and more exciting than they are and that opportunities will arise for us if we wait for them. We always wait for the best parts of our lives because we enjoy the natural high we get when we feel like things are going well, and when we experience anything less than that we keep hoping for more. It's what keeps us alive, or I'm sure we all would have given up the will to live by now.
Bauby said he kept putting off this part of his story; he probably had a really hard time accepting what had happened to him and that it had led to his current, permanent stage of horror, so he was not really sure enough or emotionally stable enough to remember all that had happened to him, especially right after he had just gotten out of a coma and his mind was all foggy. I also think he would not want to put it in words, his falling into a barely-human state because of a horrendous sudden stroke, because then it would seem so much more like reality, no longer like a dream he might wake up from. But he must have decided it was important, to clarify for the reader (and for himself) what had really happened that fateful day and to let out his memory, probably one that had been plagueing him since he woke up out of his coma. If he had placed this chapter near the beginning, I think the reader would have been less intrigued, and not have gotten to experience the sense of confusion and disorder that was going on in Bauby's mind once awakened from his deep sleep.
5. Read Season of Renewal. Why is he savoring the last week of August? Is there something we can learn from him beause of his reaction to the end of vacation?
He is savoring the last week of August because "for the first time in a long while, [he doesn't] have that awful sense of a countdown" - the countdown till fall. I think he was so eager for fall to come because he hated knowing it was summer and everyone else was out there freed from work and school and having fun DOING things, and he was still stuck in his bed unable to move. I think this teaches us that he is only human, not liking the feeling of being left out while everyone else is on vacation and he is just bored, all alone... Now he won't feel quite so alienated and different than everyone else in the world.
I know my grandparents' house in Pensylvania partly by the smells that fill it. Downstairs it smells lightly of liquor and cigarettes, but a good cozy smell, not overpowering or disgusting. Upstairs it smells vaguely of mothballs and something else you can't describe; it just smells like my grandparents. And yes, I could describe a million things about their house, but it is partly the memories that have been made there and my infatuation with objects and such when I was a young girl that make these things stand out so clearly in my mind. The way their house used to be (they recently renevated it), you would walk in a small office and down through a little hallway with a fridge and a beer/wine cooler along the sides. Then you enter their kitchen, dining area, and living room, big open spaces that look very distinguished, not unlike my grandparents themselves. Outside is a whole other story that would take a while to fully describe, but I definitely have specific memories of that place.
I would say Bauby's situation is more horrific because at least Jean-Paul K. got OUT of his situation, but Bauby's is permanent. He cannot speak, or walk, or more, or even express himself more than slowlyyyy with words, and he will never get much better than that.
2. After reading Wax Museum, why do you think Bauby is "fond of all these torturers"?
He is fond of all his nurses and orderlies because even though some are rough with him or indifferent or whatever, he realizes that they are all just trying "to ease our burden a little when our crosses bruised our shoulders too painfully." I think seeing these people every day, all the different types with the different personalities and different roles, is very interesting for Bauby. He notices a lot about people and their habits and ways, and studying all his "torturers" gives him something to do all day. Plus, they are something of familiarity for him, he sees them everyday, and they are the ones taking care of him, doing things for him, and helping him - even if maybe not to the extent or in the way that he would most greatly appreciate.
3. Read The Mythmaker and explain why you think Bauby has admiration for Olivier. What is the connection between memory and emotion?
Bauby had an admiration for Olivier because he had a talent for making up incredulous stories, having lots of fun doing it, and letting himself go from real-life boring life, and then defending them so adamantly, unashamed of his imaginative stories. Bauby wishes so bad he could do that with his little "butterfly", stuck inside his diving bell day after day.
Current emotion can effect the way we remember things, for instance if we are really nervous or distressed, we can not remember events as clearly or accurately as when we are calm and collected. Or if we angry, our memory of a frustrating day can be exaggerated and seem much worse. Memory can also affect our emotions, for example if I am feeling very happy and then I see a spot where I remember having a very bad experience, my mood can be turned around and I will feel very sad.
4. Why do you think Bauby likes the song A Day in the Life? Why do humans always wait for life's crescendo? Why do you think he places this chapter towards the end of the book?
I think he likes the song because not only is it interesting to listen to because it is very calming and then very exhilarating in its crescendo, but it relates to his life in that his life came to a big crescendo when he had his stroke, and then crashed down, just like the instruments in the song, so in a way it's like telling the story of his stroke.
I do not think humans wait for "life's crescendo" because I don't really think life has one crescendo or that people view life that way, but I do think they (we) wait for better times, that we keep hoping that things will get better and more exciting than they are and that opportunities will arise for us if we wait for them. We always wait for the best parts of our lives because we enjoy the natural high we get when we feel like things are going well, and when we experience anything less than that we keep hoping for more. It's what keeps us alive, or I'm sure we all would have given up the will to live by now.
Bauby said he kept putting off this part of his story; he probably had a really hard time accepting what had happened to him and that it had led to his current, permanent stage of horror, so he was not really sure enough or emotionally stable enough to remember all that had happened to him, especially right after he had just gotten out of a coma and his mind was all foggy. I also think he would not want to put it in words, his falling into a barely-human state because of a horrendous sudden stroke, because then it would seem so much more like reality, no longer like a dream he might wake up from. But he must have decided it was important, to clarify for the reader (and for himself) what had really happened that fateful day and to let out his memory, probably one that had been plagueing him since he woke up out of his coma. If he had placed this chapter near the beginning, I think the reader would have been less intrigued, and not have gotten to experience the sense of confusion and disorder that was going on in Bauby's mind once awakened from his deep sleep.
5. Read Season of Renewal. Why is he savoring the last week of August? Is there something we can learn from him beause of his reaction to the end of vacation?
He is savoring the last week of August because "for the first time in a long while, [he doesn't] have that awful sense of a countdown" - the countdown till fall. I think he was so eager for fall to come because he hated knowing it was summer and everyone else was out there freed from work and school and having fun DOING things, and he was still stuck in his bed unable to move. I think this teaches us that he is only human, not liking the feeling of being left out while everyone else is on vacation and he is just bored, all alone... Now he won't feel quite so alienated and different than everyone else in the world.
Diving Bell #4
1. After reading Vegetable, respond to Bauby's statement: "I belonged on a vegetable stall and not the human race." Why do you think it is necessary for humans to put people into categories? Is our language so limiting in describing the world that we need a way to organize our thoughts?
The human race is typically characterized by developed thinking, emotions, and action. Giving someone a hug, laughing, talking... If you can't do all this, you "don't belong to the human race" and you are thought of as something else, a "vegetable".
I think it is necessary for humans to place people in categories because this is how our brain works: "I am like these people, I am NOT like THESE people, so I belong HERE." And that is how we know that WE are not "vegetables". I am a teenager, I am a Sturgis student, I am... whatever I happen to categorize myself as at that specific moment so that I know what role to play, how to act, etc. And we know who we can talk to and who we can not, for example, if there are people grouped as "nerds" in the cafeteria, and one wants to be seen as "cool", one cannot talk to the "nerds".
Yes, I think language does limit us, but THAT is not WHY we need a way to organize our thoughts - our limited language is one of the many ways we attempt TO organize our thoughts, it just needs some help sometimes. Plus-I'm not sure how to phrase this- some things simply aren't thought of with words in our minds, like groups of people can be more of an idea or an image.
2. Bauby claims that, "Capturing the moment, these small slices of life...I hoard all these letters like treaure." What do you hoard and why?
I tend to hoard, mentally, memories of moments in time when I did things with people I love, a hug, a conversation, etc., maybe even only a dream I had about them. I write a lot of these things down in a sort of diary so I won't forget these moments of bliss, so I can look back at them later and smile and wish I was right back in that moment... I hold onto these moments because I like to feel acceptance and to share things with people, a look, a touch, a connection. I value them... What if the person died or went away or... I need these moments of life and joy to hang onto.
3. Read Outing and respond to Bauby's statement: "I know who he is, but who is he really?" Is he getting any closer to understanding what makes people tick? Also, why will Bauby never tire of the smell of French Fries?
Bauby knows who "Fangio" IS, he is the guy from the hospital who can't sit... But Bauby doesn't know what kind of person the man is or what his job was or how he used to be - Bauby had just finished talking about how people don't know how HE was before the accident happened, the editor of the Elle, etc.
Bauby is discovering certain things about what makes people the way they are: perhaps the reason people like him, paralyzed or severely disabled, are not all full of smiles is that we don't understand how frustrating and depressing it is to have to sit all day without moving, barely (but painfully and SLOWLY) communicating with others, and being perceived as a pitiable lump, a "vegetable". He is also discovering firsthand the way people separate themselves from other categories of people, such as the still-mobile patients in the gym who turn away from Bauby on his board to "stare at the fire detector" or the way the hospital is mentally divided between the groups of obese people, old people, paralyzed people... Humans feel uncomfortable when presented with other people that are very unfamiliar to them or more misfortunate than them because they do not quite know how to react to a different situation than they are used to. We like our comfort zones.
Bauby will never tire of the smell of French fries because olfactory sense memory is the strongest to conjure images and memories, so he probably has pleasant memories of his childhood or something when he smells the fries. ( I don't remember his mentioning fries before/after to explain why they would be specifically important to him...). Bauby cannot eat real food through his mouth, so potent food smells to him are probably very valuable because he loves food but cannot eat it, so at least he can smell it.
4. Read Twenty to One. Bauby claims that, "the memory of that event has only come back to me now, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities." Do you ever look back on something in your life as a "small near miss"? Is it ever beneficial to have regrets?
I definitely think back on times when I should have done something, or moments when I wish I had taken an opportunity, or just acted differently. Sometimes I say something to a friend or family member that later I really wish I hadn't, or I don't give someone a compliment because I'm too scared or just think it doesn't matter, to find out later that they were having a crummy day and would have loved a compliment...
I think it can be beneficial to have SOME regrets because it teaches you (hopefully) not to make those mistakes again in the future. For example, if I tell my friend the truth about what I think she is wearing, and then later regret saying that because it did not do good for our relationship, then I will probably NOT say something like that next time. However, we cannot control the past, and if we focus too much on our past failings and missed opportunities, it will do us no good and our hearts/minds will not thrive. So we should consider our regrets and learn from them, but now dwell on them like a cancer.
5. Read Duck Hunt and explain what Bauby means by the statement: "I must have butterfly hearing."
He tunes in specifically on the sounds of the"butterflies" flapping their wings; what he is really doing is training himself to let go of the situation and his current circumstances, and focus on good happy thoughts of freedom, to let his imagination run away. He needs to do this because otherwise he will sink under the depression of his "diving bell" and he will go insane.
6. Read Sunday. Why do you think Bauby dreads this day?
There is noone in the hospital to talk to him and cheer him up and distract him from his oppressive "diving bell" and he feels very lonely and bored on Sundays. He LIKES communication and talking to people, using his brain (and his (one eyelid), and when he cannot do that for a whole day, he dreads it.
The human race is typically characterized by developed thinking, emotions, and action. Giving someone a hug, laughing, talking... If you can't do all this, you "don't belong to the human race" and you are thought of as something else, a "vegetable".
I think it is necessary for humans to place people in categories because this is how our brain works: "I am like these people, I am NOT like THESE people, so I belong HERE." And that is how we know that WE are not "vegetables". I am a teenager, I am a Sturgis student, I am... whatever I happen to categorize myself as at that specific moment so that I know what role to play, how to act, etc. And we know who we can talk to and who we can not, for example, if there are people grouped as "nerds" in the cafeteria, and one wants to be seen as "cool", one cannot talk to the "nerds".
Yes, I think language does limit us, but THAT is not WHY we need a way to organize our thoughts - our limited language is one of the many ways we attempt TO organize our thoughts, it just needs some help sometimes. Plus-I'm not sure how to phrase this- some things simply aren't thought of with words in our minds, like groups of people can be more of an idea or an image.
2. Bauby claims that, "Capturing the moment, these small slices of life...I hoard all these letters like treaure." What do you hoard and why?
I tend to hoard, mentally, memories of moments in time when I did things with people I love, a hug, a conversation, etc., maybe even only a dream I had about them. I write a lot of these things down in a sort of diary so I won't forget these moments of bliss, so I can look back at them later and smile and wish I was right back in that moment... I hold onto these moments because I like to feel acceptance and to share things with people, a look, a touch, a connection. I value them... What if the person died or went away or... I need these moments of life and joy to hang onto.
3. Read Outing and respond to Bauby's statement: "I know who he is, but who is he really?" Is he getting any closer to understanding what makes people tick? Also, why will Bauby never tire of the smell of French Fries?
Bauby knows who "Fangio" IS, he is the guy from the hospital who can't sit... But Bauby doesn't know what kind of person the man is or what his job was or how he used to be - Bauby had just finished talking about how people don't know how HE was before the accident happened, the editor of the Elle, etc.
Bauby is discovering certain things about what makes people the way they are: perhaps the reason people like him, paralyzed or severely disabled, are not all full of smiles is that we don't understand how frustrating and depressing it is to have to sit all day without moving, barely (but painfully and SLOWLY) communicating with others, and being perceived as a pitiable lump, a "vegetable". He is also discovering firsthand the way people separate themselves from other categories of people, such as the still-mobile patients in the gym who turn away from Bauby on his board to "stare at the fire detector" or the way the hospital is mentally divided between the groups of obese people, old people, paralyzed people... Humans feel uncomfortable when presented with other people that are very unfamiliar to them or more misfortunate than them because they do not quite know how to react to a different situation than they are used to. We like our comfort zones.
Bauby will never tire of the smell of French fries because olfactory sense memory is the strongest to conjure images and memories, so he probably has pleasant memories of his childhood or something when he smells the fries. ( I don't remember his mentioning fries before/after to explain why they would be specifically important to him...). Bauby cannot eat real food through his mouth, so potent food smells to him are probably very valuable because he loves food but cannot eat it, so at least he can smell it.
4. Read Twenty to One. Bauby claims that, "the memory of that event has only come back to me now, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities." Do you ever look back on something in your life as a "small near miss"? Is it ever beneficial to have regrets?
I definitely think back on times when I should have done something, or moments when I wish I had taken an opportunity, or just acted differently. Sometimes I say something to a friend or family member that later I really wish I hadn't, or I don't give someone a compliment because I'm too scared or just think it doesn't matter, to find out later that they were having a crummy day and would have loved a compliment...
I think it can be beneficial to have SOME regrets because it teaches you (hopefully) not to make those mistakes again in the future. For example, if I tell my friend the truth about what I think she is wearing, and then later regret saying that because it did not do good for our relationship, then I will probably NOT say something like that next time. However, we cannot control the past, and if we focus too much on our past failings and missed opportunities, it will do us no good and our hearts/minds will not thrive. So we should consider our regrets and learn from them, but now dwell on them like a cancer.
5. Read Duck Hunt and explain what Bauby means by the statement: "I must have butterfly hearing."
He tunes in specifically on the sounds of the"butterflies" flapping their wings; what he is really doing is training himself to let go of the situation and his current circumstances, and focus on good happy thoughts of freedom, to let his imagination run away. He needs to do this because otherwise he will sink under the depression of his "diving bell" and he will go insane.
6. Read Sunday. Why do you think Bauby dreads this day?
There is noone in the hospital to talk to him and cheer him up and distract him from his oppressive "diving bell" and he feels very lonely and bored on Sundays. He LIKES communication and talking to people, using his brain (and his (one eyelid), and when he cannot do that for a whole day, he dreads it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)