5. From “Lexicon Rhetoricae,” in Counter-Statement, 149-158.
Patterns
of Experience
What
are symbols and experiences?
17.
Universal Experiences
Universal
experiences are those which all human beings are capable of experiencing. Their
names and types don’t matter so much as their function.
18.
Modes of Experience
The universal
becomes specific in the relationship between the human being and its
environment. Two different people living in two different places can derive
different universal experiences from a similar event. “The same universal
experience could invariably accompany the same mode of experience only if all
men’s modes of experience were identical” (150).
19.
Patterns of Experience
A
person’s adjustments or adaptations depend to a degree on the environment.
Environments entail certain types of beings. “They distinguish us as
‘characters’” (151).
20.
The Symbol
“The
Symbol is the verbal parallel to a pattern of experience” (152). It is “a
complex attitude,” or something invented by the artist to convey an experience
(153). It is a formula—a form.
21.
The Appeal of the Symbol
The
symbol is more powerful and influential when the reader and writer’s
experiences overlap.
A
Symbol appeals:
As
the interpretation of a situation.
By
favoring the acceptance of a situation.
As
the corrective of a situation.
As
the exerciser of “submerged” experience.
As
an “emancipator.”
As
a vehicle for “artistic” effects.
The
symbol orients and/or adjusts to a situation.
22.
The Symbol as Generating Principle
The
Symbol is also a generating or guiding principle. There are symbols within
symbols within symbols. Symbols convert experiential patterns into formulae for
affecting an audience.
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