"These letters I print across the page, the scratches and scrawls you now focus upon, trailing off across the white surface, are hardly different from the footprints of prey left in the snow..."
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...We read these traces with organs honed over millennia by our tribal ancestors, moving instinctively from one track to the next, picking up the trail afresh whenever it leaves off, hunting the meaning, which would be the meeting with the other."
-David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (p. 96)
As humans, we strive to create meaning. We draw from all things outside of ourselves, gathering tiny clues to a vast + unsolvable mystery. We notice the gestures and expressions of animals, organisms and other humans around us, in efforts to make sense of the world we live in. It seems as though humans favor the belief that they are their own entity, separated from the "other." But without all of our external forces and the other creatures/living entities around us, would we be the same?
To fulfill humans' deep desire to reason with the world, and debatably gain power over the "other," languages slowly developed. First footprints, then outlines of animals or animal prints, soon leading to various ancient alphabets and languages. Abram believes that the alphabet is nothing short of magic-- as we read the tiny markings of ink on a page we are transported to a new world. Our senses come alive as we see, hear and live what we read. There is no power like the power of language and writing.
In an interview with Scott London, Abram describes the possible danger of underestimating the power of language--
-David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (p. 96)
As humans, we strive to create meaning. We draw from all things outside of ourselves, gathering tiny clues to a vast + unsolvable mystery. We notice the gestures and expressions of animals, organisms and other humans around us, in efforts to make sense of the world we live in. It seems as though humans favor the belief that they are their own entity, separated from the "other." But without all of our external forces and the other creatures/living entities around us, would we be the same?
To fulfill humans' deep desire to reason with the world, and debatably gain power over the "other," languages slowly developed. First footprints, then outlines of animals or animal prints, soon leading to various ancient alphabets and languages. Abram believes that the alphabet is nothing short of magic-- as we read the tiny markings of ink on a page we are transported to a new world. Our senses come alive as we see, hear and live what we read. There is no power like the power of language and writing.
In an interview with Scott London, Abram describes the possible danger of underestimating the power of language--
"...It also meant casting a kind of spell on our own senses. Unless we recognize writing as a form of magic, then we will not take much care with it. It's only when we recognize how profoundly it has altered our experience of nature and the rest of the sensory world, how profoundly it has altered our senses, that we can begin to use writing responsibly because we see how potent and profound an effect it has.
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"No culture with the written word seems to experience the natural landscape as animate and alive through and through. Yet every culture without writing experiences the whole of the earth — every aspect of the material world — to be alive and intelligent. So what is it that writing does? It has a very powerful effect upon our experience of language and meaning."
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Click here to read the whole interview.