Thursday, July 16, 2015

From The Philosophy of Literary Form, in On Symbols and Society, Ch. 3

3. The Philosophy of Literary Form, p. 1-3, 8-18.

Situations and Strategies
Words assume more than just the words themselves. They depend on and exist in situations and strategies. They depend on and exist in contexts and motives. The particular, insofar as it is particular, relates to the universal because it is a part of the whole. Situations also overlap with one another. Proverbs, for example, are strategies that apply in specific instances but are "universal" because they can apply in many different  contexts. “And in all work, as in proverbs, the naming is done ‘strategically’ or ‘stylistically,’ in modes that embody attitudes, of resignation, solace, vengeance, expectancy, etc.” (3). Speech carries with it attitudes.

Symbolic Action
Any verbal act is symbolic action. “The symbolic act is the dancing of an attitude” (9). Our body reveals who we are. The entire body acts. Richard Paget: when we grip something with our hands, if we really grip it, we grip it all over our body. The dentist: a man was "dancing" calmness as he sat in the dentist chair, but his glands betrayed his nervousness, and the dentist saw. Even the way we speak and use words is influenced by our attitude. Even our accent gets involved. Style is symbolic of burdens and burdens of style (17). 

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