(Untitled)

Apr 13, 2006 17:32

There is something fundamental that the modern world or perhaps society in general and as a concept endeavors to hide from us -- something fundamental about human nature, deep-rooted universalities masked over by the static buffers that mediate communication between individuals and thus enable society to function on a basic level. These hidden ( Read more... )

lou, philosophy, books

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Comments 8

wisdom_seeker April 14 2006, 00:40:48 UTC
There are times when I am envious of others' ability to put the big thoughts in their heads into words. This is one of those times. Thanks for this entry.

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zhai April 14 2006, 04:10:04 UTC
Thank you. =)

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braunian April 15 2006, 16:19:24 UTC
In my experience, it's not so bad, but that same experience helps to understand where you're coming from ( ... )

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zhai April 20 2006, 04:14:07 UTC
You're already living the truth out, because, you are living.

This is interesting, and I think approaches a sort of zen by a side-blow... but it is also somewhat antithetical to philosophy in general. It is *a* philosophy (or maybe several), one of materialism, but the inevitable questions are a) how do we know we are living?, b) relatedly, what IS living?, c) is truth reality? -- and then you get into asking what reality is, ad nauseum... to some degree it is necessary to see the forest for the trees, so to speak, not to focus so inwardly that awareness of greater patterns does not emerge, but I think the inspection of these ideas is at a much closer range, if that makes sense.

What is truth to you? Now, if I knew that, there would be little left to figure out. ;) I am finding new truth constantly. I don't believe truth is a concrete thing, or static, or even definable. In a Buddhist sense all living things exist in a constant state of change. Therefore their core principles will also be in a state of flux, if only on a lower ( ... )

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wijsgeer April 20 2006, 21:48:16 UTC
I recognize a lot in your post, having books from and about Lou on my 'to read list'. There are allways reasons why it doesn't happen. But what did particular strike me your feeling of inadequacy of your form of expression compared to that of people from Lou's era.
I have often felt the same. I wonder, would they have felt a similar lacking when reading letters of other ages?

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zhai April 20 2006, 21:54:29 UTC
Hello. =) Thanks for your comment. How did you find my journal, out of curiosity? =)

I think the inadequacy we feel when viewing their use of language is the inadequacy they would feel when looking at our technology. People in the modern world are forced to accept a much higher level of informational input. I also believe that globalization causes our communication levels to decrease in terms of favoring communication (information transfer) over lyricism.

It is interesting, though, to wonder what they thought of the language used by previous eras. I think that that time was still rooted in the heyday of complex language that started with the Renaissance. In eras prior, language was not yet even regulated, so to us (and I would imagine, to them) it appears very rough and unschooled, even when beautiful, as in the Canterbury Tales.

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