{"id":14601,"date":"2013-09-06T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T17:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=14601"},"modified":"2013-09-06T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T17:00:16","slug":"so-little-to-say-so-many-ways-to-say-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/so-little-to-say-so-many-ways-to-say-it\/","title":{"rendered":"So Little to Say, So Many Ways to Say It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'IM,'<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “IM,” graphic by user “L.e.e.” on Flickr<\/a>. The descriptive text below the work there says, <\/em>FYI, I actually know 3 languages. This is the 3rd one =).]<\/em><\/p>\n

From\u00a0whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

We can set up a certain environment in which we have an agreement to suspend the rules — that is to say to meditate, to stop thinking for a while, to stop making formulations. <\/p>\n

This means, essentially, to stop talking to yourself<\/em>. That is the meaning of the word in Japanese — munen<\/em> — that is ordinarily translated as “no thought.” To meditate is to stop talking to yourself! <\/p>\n

We say, “Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness,” but we don’t follow our own advice. We’re talking to ourselves most of the time — and if you talk all the time you’ve got nothing else to talk about but your own talking! You never listen to what anybody else has to say, without a running commentary of your own talking. And if all you ever listen to is talking — be it your own or other people’s — you have nothing to talk about but talk. <\/p>\n

You have to stop talking<\/em> in order to have something to talk about!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Alan Watts, What Is Zen? [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The average human, on the other hand, thinks about all sorts of things around the clock, on all sorts of levels, with interruptions from dozens of biological calendars and timepieces. There’s thoughts about to be said, and private thoughts, and real thoughts, and thoughts about thoughts, and a whole gamut of subconscious thoughts. To a telepath the human head is a din. It is a railway terminus with all the Tannoys<\/a> talking at once. It is a complete FM waveband — and some of those stations aren’t reputable, they’re outlawed pirates on forbidden seas who play late-night records with limbic lyrics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Terry Pratchett <\/em>[source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from\u00a0whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Sotto Voce<\/strong><\/p>\n

To strip away this incessant chatter,
\nyes, but what lies underneath it?
\nDeath, of course, or our fear of death.
\nWhich is why we talk so much,
\nbury our heads in books, turn forests
\ninto pages and pages into mirrors
\nin which we see ourselves appear
\nand disappear. When I look up
\nfrom the story I’ve been reading
\nabout the Jews in Nazi Germany
\nand the silence that closed their
\nmouths forever, I see a girl outside
\nthe cafe smiling in at her father
\nwho smiles back but cannot hear her.
\nShe makes all kinds of gestures
\nwith her hands, mimes herself
\ninside an invisible box and breaks
\ndown laughing. Then she gathers
\nher breath and blows it against
\nthe window. It is not snowing
\noutside, the leaves have hardly begun
\nto turn, the season is merely poised
\nfor the long descent, but still
\nthe glass steams up. And in this
\nlittle cloud of warmth that’s come
\nfrom deep inside her body, she
\nwrites a single joyful word, which
\nvanishes almost before she finishes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(John Brehm [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Bolök’ otali ngole bomoto la mpoke.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Anal[ogy]<\/em>—<\/td>\nBolöko<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\nA chattering, jabber, idle talk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nbotali<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\nlong, lengthy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nngole<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\nlike<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nbomoto<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\nwoman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nla<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\nand<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nmpoke<\/td>\n <\/td>\n……<\/td>\npot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

His incessant chatter and idle talk are like a woman attending to a boiling pot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(A. E. Ruskin [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Subway<\/strong><\/p>\n

The station platform, clean and broad, his stage
\nfor push-ups, sit-ups, hamstring stretch,
\nas he laid aside his back pack, from which
\nhis necessaries bulged, as he bulged
\nthrough jeans torn at butt, knee and thigh,
\nin deep palaver with himself — sigh,
\nchatter, groan. Deranged but common.
\nWe sat at a careful distance to spy
\non his performance, beside a woman
\nin her thirties, dressed as in her teens—
\nthis is L.A. — singing to herself.
\nHow composed, complete and sane
\nshe seemed. A book by the Dalai Lama
\nin her hands, her face where pain and wrong
\nwere etched, here becalmed, with faint chirps
\nleaking from the headphones of her walkman.
\nNot talking. Singing, lost in song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Barry Goldensohn [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

Singer\/producer Joe Jones had what might be charitably called a colorful history of claiming other people’s songs as his own, and I don’t mean via cover versions. (To be fair, as AllMusic<\/a> points out, later in life he worked hard to see that black performers from the 1950s-’70s got both credit and compensation for their music.) Still, everybody seems in agreement that without him, probably nobody would know of 1960’s “You Talk Too Much<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>You Talk Too Much. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 2:41 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:youtalktoomuch_joejones.mp3|titles=’You Talk Too Much’|artists=Joe Jones]<\/div>\n

[Lyrics<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “IM,” graphic by user “L.e.e.” on Flickr. The descriptive text below the work there says, FYI, I actually know 3 languages. This is the 3rd one =).] From\u00a0whiskey river: We can set up a certain environment in which we have an agreement to suspend the rules — that is to say to meditate, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,74,250,5,251],"tags":[142,1211,2460,3606,3607,3608],"class_list":{"0":"post-14601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-terry-pratchett","13":"tag-alan-watts","14":"tag-john-brehm","15":"tag-a-e-ruskin","16":"tag-barry-goldensohn","17":"tag-joe-jones","18":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3Nv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14601"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14619,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14601\/revisions\/14619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}