Re: lexicon

michael poxon scripsit:

> I think a large problem with the reductionist approach to art, language and
> human culture generally is that it seems to be formulated by people who have
> no experience of creative art or poetry. Thus we get sweeping statements of
> the "language is communication" variety. While something of language may be
> communication, a lot of these statements seem to imply that's all it is.
One of the purposes of my Essentialist Explanations
(http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/essential.html), besides being funny and
saying something about language, is to caricature essentialism.  Art,
like language, communicates.  And verbs are stronger than nouns any day.

> And I think you'll find that art has nothing at all to do with free
> expression. It always involves a certain amount of self-discipline; though
> to be sure after you've been through that stage you feel more able to break
> the rules that you've assimilated. Poetry regularly breaks rules of
> communication, but surely most poets must already have a better-than-average
> command of their own language in order to get to that stage.
I think that *is* free expression.  We aren't free to do X until we know
how to do X.

--
John Cowan                              <jcowan@...>
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              http://www.reutershealth.com
                Charles li reis, nostre emperesdre magnes,
                Set anz totz pleinz ad ested in Espagnes.