thln_002 (Martin) "time and human language now"


Before
getting {further}
into the content,
there are some mechanical
issues that (do) come to mind. First,
I (MALA/Martin Land) am writing this paragraph on the assumption
that at some future time we will prefer to have kept the entire record of our exchange in one text format
(as opposed to "principle content" in Word, delivered with meta-text in an email cover letter). That's why I'm making these comments
in the Word file - they can be edited out later, but experience has shown that over time it gets more and more difficult to distinguish content from meta-content, while maintaining the discipline to insure that everything gets filed in the right place. Second, some system of numbering and cross referencing these contributions will be necessary. I (ml) called this file THLN_002 (Time and Human Language Now-part 2) and it'll probably be sufficient for Jonathan (Boyarin) to send odd-numbered files and Martin to send even numbered files (the leading 00 will help the computer's file system keep them in order, taking account the far fetched possibility
that the number of separate files may reach 100).

It may also eventually become necessary to number paragraphs,
but I'm not getting that crazy yet. As you have probably discerned from JB's opening, this book [thln], a record of our (jb & ml's) dialogue on human language, touches on many apparently disparate themes, but is acutely concerned with the desire for redemption - organized prayer, especially prayers of mourning, collective delivery from political/historical catastrophe, millennial collapse of civilization, messianic salvation - and the more personal redemptions - escape from isolation and achievement of personal ambition. But ultimately he asks us to recognize the redemptive character of ordinary human language, and expresses the hope that we can leverage this recognition into an effective will to forestall our own extinction. His intent, as I understand it, is not just recommend "talking it over" as a solution to the dangers facing the world, even though an apparent decline in preference (even the fashionably disingenuous kind) for discussion instead of violence is among the greatest of those dangers. Rather, in the elementary act of speaking, he identifies the germ of an intellectually sound counterargument to the dominant nihilism of neo liberalism, and hopes that thinking about language can improve the prospects that we will have a future of any kind. What follows is our attempt to eleborate this argument, itself evolving
as an ongoing example
of our topic.

Describing
the origins of this project,
JOBO tells us that during a brief exchange of words,
drawing on a mix of English, Hebrew, and Yiddish (to which he now adds ancient Greek, by translating the oldfashioned word SHUL as the older SYNAGOGUE), he suddenly found himself astonished
at the very possibility of mundane communication
by language.

In part,
that astonishment expresses
a basic tension underlying many disciplines,
linguistics among them, between the utterly
commonplace phenomena they study
and the notorious difficulty
of giving a scholarly account
of these phenomena
and their origins.

Here I, Mor, take a break,
as usual, before these words and sentences become too complicated,
stretched out & tiresome! I have a problem with reading lately, and concentrating on a text for longer than fifteen or thirty minutes:
either I RACE though it, or get stuck in certain parts if I want too look up words, check cross-references, and/or give up completely because my eyes get too tired (& I fall asleep)! That's why I try to limit my myDi-entries by cutting up different sources, leaving out what doesn't fascinate me, & add what I think/feel/notice
at certain moments?

In short,
it helps to "myDi" in stages:
writing diaries
IS
actually,
to my mind, the same essential process
as "trying to survive", opening up to ourselves & each other at the same time,
and go on reacting as we see fit at any moment
(or refrain from doing so)!?

Kortom,
elk half uur MOET ik even stoppen!
Het in stukjes hakken van boeiende teksten is op deze manier de beste methode
om niet te snel vermoeid te raken of door de inhoud veelte snel heen te razen, zonder op de details te letten.
Ik laat weg wat me niet interesseert, voeg toe wat me onmisbaar, noodzakelijk {?} lijkt, & ben op deze manier veel beter in staat
om 'verder te lezen', gefascineerd te BLIJVEN, & één & ander te 'verwerken', "VERTEREN"! Ongeveer op de manier
van i/d tuin werken, etenkoken & 'n wandel- of fietstocht maken. Die afwisseling van geestelijke
& lichamelijke spijs verdient verre de voorkeur boven krampachtig, gefrustreerd & wanhopig
opgeven & blijven steken in de wereldwijde modder van tijd
& ruimte, de ene plaats of de andere,
deze of gene MENSCHEN,
van toen, nú
& straks!
OK!
01 mrt 2013 - bewerkt op 02 mrt 2013 - meld ongepast verhaal
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