tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post8814780763851931671..comments2024-02-05T00:16:13.698-05:00Comments on Banjo52: Hamlet's Words, Words, Words and "America" by Tony Hoagland Banjo52http://www.blogger.com/profile/04342397136888422440noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-22219092052830747832013-02-02T16:37:22.412-05:002013-02-02T16:37:22.412-05:00Ken, thanks for those examples. I don't want t...Ken, thanks for those examples. I don't want to make too much of the issue, but when I'm in the woods or by the ocean, the silence or the noises of nature are so different that everything in my typical day seems like a mall or a subway station. To need a lot of chatter on top of all that machinery . . . . Even when I'm the one causing it, I wonder what this need for noise is all about.<br /><br /><br />RuneE, Your "talk as an artificial fog" is precisely the kind of thing I'm trying to get at. And your fine point about spin-doctors and "bureaucratic innocuous nonsense"--I'd say you've done a dandy job of commenting. Thanks! <br /><br /> As for my seeing too much symbolism at your place, that's the way an English teacher rolls. We've never seen an object we couldn't turn into a symbol. :)<br />Banjo52https://www.blogger.com/profile/04342397136888422440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-86853575839966009812013-02-02T04:02:50.807-05:002013-02-02T04:02:50.807-05:00I have looked at this post several times, but admi...I have looked at this post several times, but admit to problems with commenting it (except for the usual high standard of the photography). Maybe it gets to specific American. On the other hand: Talk - instead of action is a global phenomenon. And talk as an artificial fog that we surround us with is likewise universal. In addition we have all the "new" words coined by the spin-doctors to translate direct communication into a kind of bureaucratic innocuous nonsense. Perhaps the best example is: Civilians killed my military action > collateral damage. <br /><br />PS Thank you for the comment! I'm afraid you put to much symbolism into my poor photo of a multifaceted, curved mirror :-)Rune Eidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01008247272056395901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-52883358342211693982013-02-01T16:24:25.491-05:002013-02-01T16:24:25.491-05:00This goes along rather well with a recent NY Times...This goes along rather well with a recent NY Times OP ed about Amtrak's Quiet Car, how society is all noise these days, from malls to parks to public transport. Reflection? Quiet? WTF!<br />I agree re Amish land...I was surprised to see the usual roadside commercial fare at the Shartlesville turnoff, it wasn't there the last time -- early 00s-- that I passed. But Haags remains a gem. Ken Machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09100185198750536244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-2800385269859837582013-01-31T09:02:45.168-05:002013-01-31T09:02:45.168-05:00Hanna, I was doing some wink wink till your final ...Hanna, I was doing some wink wink till your final line. That's really interesting, provocative. Thanks! <br /><br />AH, I never read Dr. Johnson, though some very credible people practically memorize him. So your passage is exceptionally interesting and it sounds valid (I'm not qualified to say for sure). <br /><br />And btw, if anyone's looking for a working definition of "aphorism" or "epigrammatic," you can find a few in AH's quotation. On the negative side, maybe also definitions of "sententious," "bombastic," "didactic," "pedantic." But those words aren't as off-putting when the author/speaker has something important to say, as Johnson does. Banjo52https://www.blogger.com/profile/04342397136888422440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-38518470386850336712013-01-30T23:26:49.531-05:002013-01-30T23:26:49.531-05:00Samuel Johnson wasn't known for brevity, but y...Samuel Johnson wasn't known for brevity, but you might agree with this: "When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have undergone some labour in improving themselves, they set a proportionate value on their own thoughts, and wish to enforce them by efficacious expressions; speech becomes embodied and permanent; different modes and phrases are compared, and the best obtains an establishment. By degrees one age improves upon another. Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books."<br /><br />i.e., of the hundred words we speak, only ten are worth writing down. That's what makes writing so exciting -- finding the ten.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-67063044130010133992013-01-30T19:29:49.645-05:002013-01-30T19:29:49.645-05:00Hm...we do talk a lot.
I have to admit I am very ...Hm...we do talk a lot.<br /><br />I have to admit I am very chatty. I talk on the phone with friends for a loooooong time.....have coffee dates and talk talk talk.<br /><br />But a good portion of this talking has some content, I swear. I think we are starved for content and authenticity.Hannah Stephensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15792203070774504501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-90496662873843257832013-01-30T11:53:20.644-05:002013-01-30T11:53:20.644-05:00Brenda, the mall is in suburban Detroit--you know,...Brenda, the mall is in suburban Detroit--you know, the city that looks like a bombed out war zone, or post-apocalyptic ruins, or a Martian landfill . . . . To be fair, some of the place is in serious disrepair. But I ask, as you sort of do, are elaborate malls in the 'burbs the best medicine? Banjo52https://www.blogger.com/profile/04342397136888422440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-18323706367276026282013-01-30T10:02:17.427-05:002013-01-30T10:02:17.427-05:00Whoops, maybe I made a huge assumption. I'll j...Whoops, maybe I made a huge assumption. I'll just stick with 'too "rich", spoiled".<br />Brenda's Arizonahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17880225110712592548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883979841111173610.post-12855700441931731862013-01-30T09:56:33.002-05:002013-01-30T09:56:33.002-05:00The poem... I was expecting the Simon and Garfunkl...The poem... I was expecting the Simon and Garfunkle song. <br /><br />What a bunch of too rich, spoiled Americans! That is all I can say - and I never say that. <br /><br />Where did you take the 'tree in the mall' photo? Interesting!Brenda's Arizonahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17880225110712592548noreply@blogger.com