Do words confine us, or set us free?

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Topic: Do words confine us, or set us free?

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- zoomi
- Dusty-footed philosopher.
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Do words confine us, or set us free?
OP - January 03, 2012, 01:57 PM

well?
- yeezevee
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #1 - January 03, 2012, 02:06 PM

Quote from: zoomi on January 03, 2012, 01:57 PM
well?

Off course they do zoomi ., without words.. without language and without what has been written in the past and without standing on the shoulders of great men/women of past .. we are as good as animals..

and whenever I get upset I watch & listen to this to calm me down..

So yes sounds do have profound effect on biological systems including animals..

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
- Colonel Q-Daffi
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #2 - January 03, 2012, 02:20 PM

They give me a stiffy...

...and syphilis.

fuck you
- passingaround
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #3 - January 03, 2012, 02:23 PM

Wrong forum to post such a serious topic.

Case in point ^
- Colonel Q-Daffi
- White Trash Sand Wigga
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #4 - January 03, 2012, 02:27 PM

Hey, passingaround-- kiss my ass.

Anyways it would help if zoomi moved beyond a brief question and gave some context for her thoughts-- internet forums not being the best place for Socratic-type inquiry.

fuck you
- yeezevee
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #5 - January 03, 2012, 02:31 PM

Quote from: Colonel Q-Daffi on January 03, 2012, 02:20 PM
They give me a stiffy...

...and syphilis.

Raccoon I agree they give you stiffy but you got that syphilis BRAIN from raping raccoons..

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
- yeezevee
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #6 - January 03, 2012, 02:32 PM

Quote from: passingaround on January 03, 2012, 02:23 PM
Wrong forum to post such a serious topic.

Case in point ^

Hello Passing.. You failed and You terrible FAILED me..

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
- Susie Cues
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #7 - January 03, 2012, 02:48 PM

Quote from: Colonel Q-Daffi on January 03, 2012, 02:27 PM
Hey, passingaround-- kiss my ass.

Anyways it would help if zoomi moved beyond a brief question and gave some context for her thoughts-- internet forums not being the best place for Socratic-type inquiry.

Disagree with the last bit but some context would be nice. It sounds like it'd be an interesting question with a little more substance added.

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."
Muhammad Ali
- passingaround
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #8 - January 03, 2012, 03:23 PM

Quote from: Colonel Q-Daffi on January 03, 2012, 02:27 PM
Hey, passingaround-- kiss my ass

lol

the question was an open one. I dont there needs to be anything mentioned by her.
- passingaround
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #9 - January 03, 2012, 03:25 PM

Q daffi you shouldnt get cross in every instance. Dont you know all this temper will make you live less longer?
- arX
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #10 - January 03, 2012, 03:43 PM

Ask this guy:

He seems to be dying to philosophise.

Against the ruin of the world, there
is only one defense: the creative act.

-- Kenneth Rexroth
- toor
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #11 - January 03, 2012, 04:01 PM

Quote from: arX on January 03, 2012, 03:43 PM
Ask this guy:

(Clicky for piccy!)

He seems to be dying to philosophise.

Speaking of which, has anyone read this?

Before it gets too late, you will find escape.
- arX
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #12 - January 03, 2012, 04:44 PM

I've been meaning to read it ever since Oliver Sacks referenced the author in his book, Musicophilia.

“Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes.” -- Oliver Sacks

Against the ruin of the world, there
is only one defense: the creative act.

-- Kenneth Rexroth
- Cato
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #13 - January 03, 2012, 06:34 PM

I believe it does set us free in many ways.

"I'm standing here like an asshole holding my Charles Dickens"

"No theory,No ready made system,no book that has ever been written to save the world. i cleave to no system.."-Bakunin
- z10
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #14 - January 03, 2012, 07:01 PM

Words are trivially confining in that there will always be a finite number of them attempting to describe a potentially infinite universe.
However, what do you mean by setting us free? Free from what?

At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings. - Stevens
- Ishina
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #15 - January 03, 2012, 07:15 PM

There may be a countable number of words, but the arrangement of them is where the magic is and that is what gives poetry power. The Haiku masters could say so much with so few of them.

Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
- osmanthus
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #16 - January 03, 2012, 07:26 PM

Quote from: zoomi on January 03, 2012, 01:57 PM
well?

Words are a product of our minds. You are asking the wrong question.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
- moi
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #17 - January 03, 2012, 09:22 PM

I am becoming hard of hearing. Words definitely set us free. I recommend David Lodge Deaf Sentence.

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- movingfeet
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #18 - January 04, 2012, 12:01 AM

Words allow for the intangible to become tangible. Initial thought process is abstract and more visually/olfactory/sound oriented. Once we learn language, the form of language greatly influences how we think. Not all languages are the same and some are more technical/restrictive than others. Someone in the thread mentioned poetry. Creative writing enables people to break out of the confines of formulatic thinking that language induces for most.

In short, yes and no.

"Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, and hope without an object cannot live." -Coleridge

http://sinofgreed.wordpress.com/
- ILuvChocolate
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #19 - January 14, 2012, 11:25 PM

It depends on the words that are being used. Some words confine us whilst other set us free. Some words are like cages whilst others are wings that will help us fly to places we otherwise wouldn’t be able to go.

However, if what you mean is that humans will do much better without the use of language, then no—because the invention of language has caused humans to reach such accomplishments that they otherwise wouldn’t have met.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.~Albert Einstein

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. ~Plato
- moi
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #20 - January 16, 2012, 07:01 PM

And I have read singing neanderthal. Brilliant. I can see music being before speech, but isn't there neurology that contradicts that?

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- nesrin
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #21 - January 16, 2012, 08:36 PM

forgiveness... validation.. acceptance vs. tolerance..

i love words.. just the simplest words.. used right can make the smallest hairs on the back of your neck stand up..
flip side*.. too many words can ruin a perfectly great conversation..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9vdUjuWxc
- moi
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #22 - January 16, 2012, 08:49 PM

Jeanette Winterson, Why be happy when you can be normal, discusses how she attempted suicide and how her love of words, reading and poetry brought her back from madness.

Fairy tales are extremely important. I wonder if Islam has fetishised words, and the emphasis on the alleged holy language of arabic is a guaranteed route to madness.

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- nesrin
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #23 - January 16, 2012, 10:00 PM

oui..
it's not a coincidence that the fairy tales in islam are written in a way that it's overwhelmingly ambiguous.. could drive men into a caves and stark, raving mad.. .. yeah

words ...
the most beautiful word i know is ... you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9vdUjuWxc
- Zaiba
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #24 - January 16, 2012, 10:05 PM

.
- zoomi
- Dusty-footed philosopher.
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #25 - January 17, 2012, 01:25 AM

I think what I was originally thinking is that while words allow us to express the intangible, the way language is set up from the original conditions (like the butterfly effect) allows us only to think and speak in a certain way. It molds our thoughts, and our concepts, and the reciprocal relationship between thought and language moves along a certain path. Who knows how we would think if our language had evolved differently? Or paradigm might be fundamentally different.
- nesrin
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #26 - January 17, 2012, 03:19 AM

... if we had evolved in a way, that we could communicate through telepathy (for example).. interesting.. we spend so much time trying to put our thoughts and feelings into words... interesting.. no lies, no misunderstandings, ... interesting..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9vdUjuWxc
- Prince Spinoza
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Re: Do words confine us, or set us free?
Reply #27 - January 17, 2012, 04:21 AM

^I think the act of putting thoughts into words itself can create ideas.
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