What an astonishing meadow of words. I can't even remember how I got here. In a few moments I'll use my browser's "Back" button to solve the mystery but even so, how trippy was that!? First I was puzzling out the new Substack notes feature... then I was cartwheeling across space with Kirsten Durst - an inspired choice, may I admiringly add - and the species' interpenetration and barnacles and the cats and people walking in circles and all of the rest. Wow.
I was rereading also some of your previous articles on symbiosism of algea and lichen on your website. This entire topic of co-existing organisms and coevolution is fascinating. You might want to also check out Professor Georg Van Driem, dutch linguist, who is exploring the tantalizing and intriguing idea that language could be classified as an organism/ virus that infects the brain and how the brain thinks and how we ultimately act (and evolve). Languages infect each new host individually, evolve with us and are ultimately shaping our mode of thinking and behaving, generate new offspring/ reproduces, and dies. In a similar vein, culture is such an organism, too. These supra-organisms live across populations and generations, and carry within them their own metaphorically speaking DNA. And like viruses, language isn’t only benign, but can be (is) deadly. E.g. when language makes you believe your aunt is a witch and should be burned, or when language puts into Putin’s head that there’s a “Russia” with fixed existence in the world that needs to be restored. Or other such linguistic and cultural unicorns that lead humans into irrational behavior against their better interests/ human thriving. Of course, languages and cultures could be just as well beneficial, in which case an actual symbiosis (van Driem uses another word, to connotate more explicit mutual beneficence). I love this thinking, because it opens up “proactive health pruning” of both our use of language, and culture. So we are not blind victims of a Bezirk language/ culture gone haywire, but actively cultivate our language and culture, so they remain conductive to our wellbeing and continued thriving. The rest we need to treat as diseased, siren calls of irrationality, best enjoyed when we’re all tied up and can’t act upon them. What this also does is to demystify the “value” of language and culture as “sacred goods” that are often placed before human interest. Have a great day!
Alors celle là, elle est bien bonne ! Belle trouvaille ! Je me demande comment le fonctionnaire inspiré aurait écrit William Shakespeare ?
What an astonishing meadow of words. I can't even remember how I got here. In a few moments I'll use my browser's "Back" button to solve the mystery but even so, how trippy was that!? First I was puzzling out the new Substack notes feature... then I was cartwheeling across space with Kirsten Durst - an inspired choice, may I admiringly add - and the species' interpenetration and barnacles and the cats and people walking in circles and all of the rest. Wow.
Édgar Poë ? Seriously ? That must be the Tundra Nenets spelling.
I was rereading also some of your previous articles on symbiosism of algea and lichen on your website. This entire topic of co-existing organisms and coevolution is fascinating. You might want to also check out Professor Georg Van Driem, dutch linguist, who is exploring the tantalizing and intriguing idea that language could be classified as an organism/ virus that infects the brain and how the brain thinks and how we ultimately act (and evolve). Languages infect each new host individually, evolve with us and are ultimately shaping our mode of thinking and behaving, generate new offspring/ reproduces, and dies. In a similar vein, culture is such an organism, too. These supra-organisms live across populations and generations, and carry within them their own metaphorically speaking DNA. And like viruses, language isn’t only benign, but can be (is) deadly. E.g. when language makes you believe your aunt is a witch and should be burned, or when language puts into Putin’s head that there’s a “Russia” with fixed existence in the world that needs to be restored. Or other such linguistic and cultural unicorns that lead humans into irrational behavior against their better interests/ human thriving. Of course, languages and cultures could be just as well beneficial, in which case an actual symbiosis (van Driem uses another word, to connotate more explicit mutual beneficence). I love this thinking, because it opens up “proactive health pruning” of both our use of language, and culture. So we are not blind victims of a Bezirk language/ culture gone haywire, but actively cultivate our language and culture, so they remain conductive to our wellbeing and continued thriving. The rest we need to treat as diseased, siren calls of irrationality, best enjoyed when we’re all tied up and can’t act upon them. What this also does is to demystify the “value” of language and culture as “sacred goods” that are often placed before human interest. Have a great day!