SURVIVAL OR FLIGHT OF FANTASY - MORE MUSINGS ON LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITY

Thinking over dinner, it occurred to me that perhaps language might be as interchangeable as our personalities. It might be argued that we have more than one identity, and in just the same way that a chameleon changes colour to suit its environment in order to survive, perhaps homo sapiens changes his/her identity to do the same. I wonder about people who become insane. Do they stop interchanging identities? Is there a mechanism in their brain that finally says, 'That's it... this is just too much trouble and slip into the murkiness of madness!' Human beings are fragile, sensitive and easily hurt, and quite often more than they like to admit to themselves or others. There has to be some kind of in-built, mental protection system.

If we have a box of identities, in which to dip and don, then perhaps there is also a box of matching languages comprising: love, reason, disappointment, anger, frustration, sensible, nurturing etc. etc.

It would seem that there is a basic language of survival that we use in our everyday living, buying houses, insurance, cars, shopping, teaching our children right from wrong ...etc.

Then perhaps there is a language of transportation; a 'flight of fancy' vehicle that can take us anywhere we dare to go; the language of our imaginations, poetry, prose, music and art. If we were locked in the basic everyday language of living, perhaps we would go insane, or at least become indifferent to the simple joys of life. In that case then, perhaps this could also be called a language of survival... Mk II

There is no doubt that I have moved on considerably from my starting point of earlier today, when I spoke about removing conventional language from the exercises involved in my youngsters' work in action yesterday. There is no doubt in my mind, that certain words can trap us into a stifling uniformity of reactionary behaviour. The responses of these children to their partners who spoke nonsensical 'gobbledegook' were spontaneous reactions to physical gestures and vocalized intention and intonation, rather than a verbalized language. Within a play, unless there are specific stage directions as in Samuel Becketts' plays, (The Beckett foundation are totalitarian in their approach to performance. Every stage direction has to be strictly adhered to.) the interpretation of the written word is up for grabs, with much depending upon director and actors. However, within the drama of REAL life and the modern times in which we live, electronic communications, such as emails and texts, with their obvious absence of vocalized intent and intonation, are by their nature open to serious mis-interpretation!

Ciao for now!

ps. My apolgies once more for untidiness of lay-out. Can't change position of photos, paragraphs etc. Gadget widget has disappeared too. Haven't been able to publish comments either. Will try to organize from another computer! Please be patient with me. Think its to do with browsers etc.!?!?