On Apr 8, 2005, at 11:35, Alison Croggon wrote:
> On 8/4/05 12:41 PM, "Frank Parker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> My bent is more esoteric, "In the beginning was the word...", that
>> naming
>> one's world is an act of divination, bringing into being,
>> acknowledging that
>> the conscious stones and our own consciousness is entwined. I also
>> think of
>> Jacob wrestling the angel who would not let him go until Jacob could
>> name
>> him (the angel). The power of language is not just in order to grasp
>> things
>> better, it is to know them and ourselves inter-related in the dance
>> (that
>> dancing sitting down even).
>
> Yes, I see what you're saying Hal... Handke's (and Sebald's) take on
> language is rather darker. And despite the beauty of St John's logos,
> I
> tend to gravitate towards the feeling that description is a form of
> ownership; the Victorians with their relentless imperial
> categorisations of
> nature come to mind... How is knowing _not_ grasping?
Or confining; by naming a thing we delimit it. Like that awful, awkward
gap between the poem envisioned and the poem writ. Sometimes I find
myself _not_ writing things so the idea of them can remain pure!
--Knut
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