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- 3 years 9 months ago
- Posts: 3323
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I'm gonna just stick to the first post of the thread, since ya'll kinda went all over the place and schtuff.... Ilikethepixies wrote:I've read/heard a few different things on the perfunctory nature of words and how they fail to convey emotions or abstract thoughts well.
Here is why: Words are symbols which have specific, assigned meanings: the denotative, which is the universally accepted definition of the word, and the connotative, which is the popular understanding of the word.
So for example, gay first meant something along the lines of "cheery" or "joyful", but eventually the connotative meaning changed and became the dominant understanding of the word, which meant "homosexual". Therefore, this inert symbol completely changed meanings in a generation.
Furthermore, words came into being as a tool for survival. Early man needed a way of communicating "there's shelter over there" or "watch out for the sabertooth tiger" or "eat these berries". Survival stuff, you know?
Well with each new generation comes a new society that we come to live in. Words and lingo evolve right alongside society. We don't live in a society where words could be the difference between life and death. BUT we still use words to obtain what we want of course.ilikethepixies wrote:But when it comes to more abstract things like "love", "remorse", "respect" or something being "bittersweet", words are clunky and hard to work with. What about those feelings we have that there are no words for? All we are stuck with is saying something like "I kinda felt down today."
Well the truth of the matter is that you felt something much more complex and subtle than just feeling "down", but there is no way to describe that. That, I think, is why visual art and music are so popular. They enable us to communicate things that there aren't any words for.
Yea you pretty much said it. Some people don't care to know about the true meanings of those feelings (because society says that's not "HAWT"
, or they just don't have that much of an understanding of it and throw words around like Love and Hate all too much. These words and feelings mean different things to different people during different, and it's just always going to be one of those unsolved mysterious that we might never get an actual concrete answer to. Ilikethepixies wrote:For example, Edvard Munch's "The Scream":
The picture speaks for itself in a way that 100 pages of description could never come close to matching.
It's all about interpretation. Do you want it to have some hidden meaning or message? Do you want it to show you a snapshot of a story? Do you want it to be a reflection on what society is today, with or without symbolic metaphors? Or do you just look at it and go "cool painting. He can draw pretty well. NEXT!" ?
It's all about knowing what you want and knowing what you want to get out of it. That's art for ya.Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes | No 
- 3 years 8 months ago
- Posts: 2116
Ilikethepixies wrote:I've read/heard a few different things on the perfunctory nature of words and how they fail to convey emotions or abstract thoughts well.
Here is why: Words are symbols which have specific, assigned meanings: the denotative, which is the universally accepted definition of the word, and the connotative, which is the popular understanding of the word.
So for example, gay first meant something along the lines of "cheery" or "joyful", but eventually the connotative meaning changed and became the dominant understanding of the word, which meant "homosexual". Therefore, this inert symbol completely changed meanings in a generation.
Furthermore, words came into being as a tool for survival. Early man needed a way of communicating "there's shelter over there" or "watch out for the sabertooth tiger" or "eat these berries". Survival stuff, you know?
But when it comes to more abstract things like "love", "remorse", "respect" or something being "bittersweet", words are clunky and hard to work with. What about those feelings we have that there are no words for? All we are stuck with is saying something like "I kinda felt down today."
Well the truth of the matter is that you felt something much more complex and subtle than just feeling "down", but there is no way to describe that. That, I think, is why visual art and music are so popular. They enable us to communicate things that there aren't any words for. For example, Edvard Munch's "The Scream":
The picture speaks for itself in a way that 100 pages of description could never come close to matching.
Is this interesting to you? Probably not. If you are interested in this stuff though, you're either pirateninja6 or mattnash. Hopefully someone will surprise me..Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes | No
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