"A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh."
- Leonard Cohen.
A scar is with us for eternity, it is burned into our skin with a brand so iron hot that even if the flesh could forget, the mind never will. A single word having the effect of thousands seems almost unthinkable, however things like "hope" "faith" "remember" and "forget" are words that bring thousands to mind.
Language used to "bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is often used in fictional writing to cover the skeleton of the story. Skeleton's are rough, scary, uncomfortable, and unseen in normal everyday life, as are the intended meanings of fictional writing. Writers as a general unspoken rule do not leave their writing in bear-bones-format. They cover it up.
Adjectives, sensory verbs and nouns, among other things are the "flesh" of most stories. It fills in the gaps left by the harsh surface of the skeleton and helps the reader view the story in a more socially acceptable light. Writers in the post-modern era liked to get down to business, if you will. The idea for them was not to cloud their ideas with useless facts and words that would be inconsequential to their argument either way. Whereas pre-modern writers found it more enlightening to generalize their works with pretty words that would get them remembered.
If the mind was taught to think in one way for it's entire existence then what would make it necessary to switch gears. To be able to feel your writing was the goal of pre-modern writers, but to be able to sympathize with it was the idea of the post-modern technique. We have all had those moments while reading a quote, a book, or even a magazine where we sat back and thought "Oh My God.....that is soo true." Which way of thinking does that for you...to feel...or to be?
- Leonard Cohen.
A scar is with us for eternity, it is burned into our skin with a brand so iron hot that even if the flesh could forget, the mind never will. A single word having the effect of thousands seems almost unthinkable, however things like "hope" "faith" "remember" and "forget" are words that bring thousands to mind.
Language used to "bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is often used in fictional writing to cover the skeleton of the story. Skeleton's are rough, scary, uncomfortable, and unseen in normal everyday life, as are the intended meanings of fictional writing. Writers as a general unspoken rule do not leave their writing in bear-bones-format. They cover it up.
Adjectives, sensory verbs and nouns, among other things are the "flesh" of most stories. It fills in the gaps left by the harsh surface of the skeleton and helps the reader view the story in a more socially acceptable light. Writers in the post-modern era liked to get down to business, if you will. The idea for them was not to cloud their ideas with useless facts and words that would be inconsequential to their argument either way. Whereas pre-modern writers found it more enlightening to generalize their works with pretty words that would get them remembered.
If the mind was taught to think in one way for it's entire existence then what would make it necessary to switch gears. To be able to feel your writing was the goal of pre-modern writers, but to be able to sympathize with it was the idea of the post-modern technique. We have all had those moments while reading a quote, a book, or even a magazine where we sat back and thought "Oh My God.....that is soo true." Which way of thinking does that for you...to feel...or to be?
I completely agree with your skeletal description of writing! The comparison to the body is a little gruesome but makes it so easy to comprehend!!
ReplyDeleteYour idea of the scar is rather intriguing. Could it be tied to writing in a way? Like being the blemish in the "flesh" of fictional writing? (I guess I am referring to when writers switch styles in a certain portion of a novel; sometimes it works and other times it basically ruins the rest of the story... like people view scars or blemishes on the body) Just a random thought provoked by another one of your alluring posts!
"A scar is with us for eternity, it is burned into our skin with a brand so iron hot that even if the flesh could forget, the mind never will."
ReplyDelete- It is fascinating to think about the story and its structure this way. Scars DO stay with us, as visual markers of events; reminders of when something changed. Maybe within Invisible Cities, the different cities he describes and the language used to describe them is a sort of visual marker that triggers a known form from our past in order to make the point obvious. according to Polo then, through this idea, to be 'perfect' is in fact to be completely scarred by all the times we change course and therefore change ourselves as we search for the perfect version; the fullness of what we are meant to be.