"People who read the nonsensical story checked off more letter strings –– clearly they were motivated to find structure," said Proulx. "But what's more important is that they were actually more accurate than those who read the more normal version of the story. They really did learn the pattern better than the other participants did." In a second study, the same results were evident among people who were led to feel alienated about themselves as they considered how their past actions were often contradictory. "You get the same pattern of effects whether you're reading Kafka or experiencing a breakdown in your sense of identity," Proulx explained. "People feel uncomfortable when their expected associations are violated, and that creates an unconscious desire to make sense of their surroundings. That feeling of discomfort may come from a surreal story, or from contemplating their own contradictory behaviors, but either way, people want to get rid of it. So they're motivated to learn new patterns."
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz on 9/16/09Reading Kafka Improves Learning, Suggests Psychology Study (ScienceDaily) Connections From Kafka: Exposure to Meaning Threats Improves Implicit Learning of an Artificial Grammar (Psychological Science)
Our use of euphemisms is proof of a deep-seated belief in the magic of words.
Steven Pinker explains:
"Taboo speech is part of a larger phenomenon known as word magic. Though one of the foundations of linguistics is that the pairing between a sound and a meaning is arbitrary, most humans intuitively believe otherwise. They treat the name for an entity as part of its essence, so that the mere act of uttering a name is seen as a way to impinge on its referent. Incantations, spells, prayers, and curses are ways that people try to affect the world through words, and taboos and euphemisms are ways that people try not to affect it." (The Stuff of Thought, p. 331)
Probably, it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one's meaning as clear as one can through pictures and sensations.
Art Credit: jocgart
via furry rabbits:
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (yes, that Joseph Campbell)
Finnegans Wake is a puzzle I am still trying to solve. Seems like its a lifetimes work.
Interesting note: (maybe a spoiler? - but not really)
the last line - A way a lone a last a loved a long the -
completes the first line - riverrun, past Eve and Adams, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
That was the first thing I noticed when I opened the book and I have been hooked ever since.
Finnegans Wake is neck-and-neck with Gravitys Rainbow as my desert island book.
Poet. Lover of academy and porch.
