The Start of Things

Alas, the time has come. This blog and the articles herein contain works that I have spent many hours tweaking, refining and perfecting. While some might advise I should spend my time otherwise, this cathartic process many are inclined to call work has shown me how much I can do with just an ounce of creativity and a glass of juice. I have enjoyed myself tremendously, writing for everyone who has chanced upon them, and hopefully some of these pieces have offered you a little glimpse into the window of my thought processes. This blog is like a loyal friend, always there to publish whatever I had to say to it. It does not judge, nor tell me that I did not adhere to the rubric. Rather, it obligingly takes my works and shows it for all the world to see, in hopes that the people who come along their merry way might take away a little something. I have breached the various topics with a multitude of approaches, as it has always been an avenue for me to try the different styles of writing as I, along with all the other bloggers, attempt to develop our own style and carve our niche.

Maybe some already know where we are headed, some of us don’t. But for all of us, the journey is nonetheless a necessary one of self-discovery and realization, that we all have in us the ability to write, if only we would heighten our senses to the world around us and not be afraid of failure. Like Steve Garrison would say, moving from the familiar to the uncomfortable is the only way we grow, both as humans and as writers. As we begin to find ourselves and what we are passionate about, it is only then that we understand that all writing must come from the heart, and that it really is just a conversation between author and audience. This blog was an essential part of the creative energy cycle that feeds itself; reading what others wrote about greased the old memory cogs in the recesses of my mind and inspired me to write. While I may not always agree with my fellow writers, the respect that we had for each other and our individual quirks (and who can forget pet peeves) fostered a community of sorts, with healthy dialogue and comments populating communal discourse.

Like they say, all good things must come to an end. But maybe this is just a beginning for all of us; I know it is for me. I know this blog, and ILS for that matter, has sparked that childlike fascination in me, with the world and its never-ending source of questions the catalyst for endless ideas and topics to write about. Once in a while, someone or something comes along to give us a much needed kick in the behind, to get us off our laurels and out of our comfort zones, to shatter our rose-tinted glasses and push us to do something we never thought we could. For me, ILS and the blog was just that, and it will always be the source of all the good that is to come.

Language and the Enormity of Experience

The question initially provoked a simple response from me. I thought surely language, if wielded by an experienced enough author, could capture and contain the enormity of experience. That is why we have descriptors, tropes and schemes to paint a mental image and inspire the sensations that experience provides. Upon more thoughtful deliberation however, I realized that experience, like the word suggests, requires first-hand contact. On the contrary, language is inherently limited by the cultures, truths and notions held by its creators.

At the risk of sounding cliché, I have decided to resort to the example of love. Maybe it is such a basal emotion that everyone feels, but I am certain that all who have experienced love whether from family or from their partner can attest to the oft indescribable feelings it stirs in them. Language attempts to capture all of it, but often falls short of describing the subtle intricacies that you experience when you are in love. Granted, language can only go so far as to give us a vague idea of what the experience truly is; it is much like a sign post, pointing you in the right direction and clueing you in on what to expect, but never quite completely capturing the experience itself. Being at the scene of it all does not only create a visual or auditory image, it stirs your very soul.

Take skydiving for example. It is not really that hard to imagine how such an event would unfold, given that we have seen much of it on the television. Using language however might bring to mind the whole sensation of free falling, the wind rushing past you as you hurtle toward what would be certain doom, if not for the chute in your backpack. You notice how small everything is from up above, and the fear that might grip you. Stand in the doorway of a plane before taking that first step however, and it will be a totally different thing altogether. Language might try to describe the sensation to you, but you will definitely see skydiving in a whole new light once you experience it yourself. Like many always say, “you have to try it yourself because I cannot even begin to describe it to you.” Our mind and capacity for thought is very much bounded by our experiences; if we never truly experience it, we might fool ourselves into thinking that we understand the sensation, but it never is the case.

As a speaker of English, Mandarin and some Asian dialects, I have discovered how the very nature of language can limit the experiences it can accurately convey. In Mandarin, idioms which consist of 4 characters are commonly used to convey complex ideas quickly and intuitively. However, the English language is unable to replicate such phrases, and must resort to breaking down an idea into its components. On the contrary, there exist words in the English language that Mandarin does not have any characters for, many of which are more complex emotions. Thus, I have come to realized that language can sometimes be intrinsically limited by its origins and may not be able to convey certain ideas, let alone experiences. They are an integral part of life, possessing the ability to change and shake us to our core, whilst language is merely a tool that complements it, priming us on what to expect, but never quite capturing the enormity of it.

Language Limitations

Our lives have been filled with experiences. From the moment our lives began we have been seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and doing things. Life is full of experiences; they are never-ending and always happening. Even if you are simply sitting on at a desk bored out of your mind you are living an experience. Everyone’s experiences are different and personal, and it is because of this that language, no matter how sophisticated, will never be able to capture the entire picture of the lives we live.
Think about a time where you had a feeling that you couldn’t put into words. You know what happened and how you felt, but there weren’t words even close enough to describe the event to even yourself. Whether it was a feeling of extreme loss, joy, surprise, or accomplishment you had to “tone down” the experience to fit into a category defined by language. It was only after you put this experience into a category, predetermined by the boundaries of our language, that you could comprehend what happened and transmit that feeling or thought to other people.
Despite the fact that our lives are an amazing composition of events, feelings, and emotions, the capacity of our language defines how we view the world. Take for example the variation between a horrible moment and an exciting, happy moment. When something happens in our life there is a scale between these two feelings, and this scale possesses an infinite number of levels. However, because language limits how we could describe a circumstance, the way we feel about a situation is limited to a relatively small number of increments. You might come home from work and tell your spouse, “I had a bad day at work.” The experiences at work that happened to define it as a “bad day” have a range. Without question, the reasons you had a bad day at work this week are different than the reasons you had a bad day at work last month; however, due to the limitations set upon us by language both days and both experiences were interpreted as bad. We can try to be more descriptive with our words and stories, but the range of feelings associated with experiences, which in theory are infinite, are actually categorized into distinct levels depending on the words we have to describe them.
It is for reasons like this that language will never capture the enormity of experience. Our lives are so diverse and eventful that it would be impossible to invent a language that is able to capture and describe each and every one of our experiences. This language would not be understood by all members of a society; it would only be understood by the individual who lived the life the language is designed for. Language helps us communicate with others, but in reality we are telling them something that is categorized, not specified. When we tell someone “I enjoyed the concert last night”, they adapt that to their own experiences, and truly will never know how you felt about the concert. Language limits our experiences to the boundaries created by it.

Goodbye

I just want to take this time and thank everyone who took the time and interest to follow my personal blog on the Bascom Bloggers. Throughout the duration of the semester, I was instructed to share my personal thoughts and opinions about rhetoric and the use of language. The stages of the rhetorical situation – logos, pathos, and ethos – were the primary focus of this course. I learned how to appeal to the text, the audience and to myself as a writer all through the play of words and language. As the semester comes dwindling to a halt, I want to use this time, this opportune moment, to thank all of my followers for putting up with my thoughts and personal anecdotes. So I say, thank you and goodbye.

Will Words Suffice?

Language thrives throughout varying cultures as the primary form of communication. Not only does language exist in verbal form, but body language and written language flourish. As effective as language is, some instances occur where the use of language cannot capture the enormity of the experience.

No matter how brilliant of a writer a person is, there are some situations where you just have to be there. As a critique, most circumstances can be thoroughly explicated with the use of language, but the extent of some requires personal attendance in order to grasp the entirety of the picture.

From personal experience, I have had difficulty putting certain events into words. On the day of my father’s traumatic accident, I lacked the ability to form words to give that day justice. The feelings, emotions and thoughts running through my head like a rampant disease simply could not be expressed into words. I did not know how to craft my ethos to successfully portray my experience on the day of August 16, 2009. I felt that if I tried to argue my case, I would undermine the severity of the accident, so instead of telling my story, I kept it bottled up inside.

Other instances can be shared through an adequate use of language. Some people make careers out of doing just that. Journalists and novelists get paid to capture the essence of the experience and artistically paint a picture with words. The simultaneous use of logos, pathos and ethos makes for a picture perfect story.

Language has the ability to encapsulate the enormity of experience depending on the level of emotion of the certain experience. Some things, you just have to be there in order to understand it. However, some great writers and speakers have a gift where they can do just this. Their use of word choice and word order, diction and syntax, grasps the situation and clearly and vividly explains it. To truthfully represent an experience, the right person and correct language needs to be utilized to fully capture and narrate the situation.