From: gvcarter-AT-purdue.edu Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 13:19:05 -0500 Subject: Re: Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run Quoting hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>: > Glen wrote: > > > Another irony, I enjoy reading and sometimes contributing to this list > > and others. They certainly have helped with the development of my > > thinking. So, in some way, it actually does make a difference. > > > Yes, when you see what you say you know what you think? > > regards, > Hugh Hugh, Your sentiment reminds me of an adage for writers: "How will I know what I'll say until I've said it?" Just to pause on each, it's interesting how the first--"when you see what you see you know what you think"--relies on an optical metaphor. Reading does, of course, call for a visual engagement. I wonder, though, if the hearing metaphor changes the impact of the adage. "When you hear what you say you know what you think." Is it hard to "hear" oneself? Listen for sub-t[it]le differences here: "Do you see what I mean?" versus "Do you hear what I'm saying?" Do "Seeing" and "meaning" go together, generally? What about "hearing" and "saying"? Here are two more to look at: "Do you hear what I mean?" versus "Do you see what I'm saying?" What's the "meaning" of "saying" versus the "meaning" of "meaning," one wonders... *** But anyway: "How will I know what I'll say until I've said it?" I trust to this often--perhaps too often--though it relies ever-so-much on the chance that I will "know" something after the invention of having "said" it. Eric suggests that he has "no illusions" about this virtual drive-thru really making a difference. Does such a sentiment translate to "I know what I'll say, and I've said it?," though? hmmmmm... *** In the case of Levinas, of course, there is the rather systematic approach to the Idea which in some ways eschews a knowing that does not consistently take into account the Other. "How will I know what I'll say until I've said it" becomes problematic in that there are so many "said's" out there. Levinas might say, "never mind the (chance) creation-invention of so-called new 'saids'; the goal is the 'un-saying' of 'saids.'" Thus, the adage (may) be rendered: "I can never know what I will 'un-say' until I've listened to the 'said' that has said it." More complicated, of course. *** Here's one by John Cage that is simpler: "I have nothing to say, and I'm saying it." Nuff 'said'? best, gc
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