When we hear or read a word that seems meaningless, our amazing brains will resort to onomatopoeia (which may be the origin of language). When I sound out 'foopgoom' and can't locate a meaning for it in my memory, my brain will propose a list of animal or nature sounds that could be spelled out as 'foopgoom'. For me, when I say 'foopgoom, I am reminded of frog sounds stashed away in memory or maybe bird sounds; right now, it's a loon sound. Again, I think the brain has the job of explaining whatever it senses. It will come up with a 'meaning', always. It may not be a meaning we want to admit or express and it may not have relevance to any task at hand or any communicative intent, but it will be an explanation. The brain will have done its duty and sometimes the result has enormous poetic or metaphorical benefits. wc
----- Original Message ---- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, August 31, 2012 7:10:20 AM Subject: Re: Aesthetic Ideal Tom wrote:I have to believe that if I were to ask you, "Do you ever use a foopgoom?" you'd respond with "What do you mean by 'foopgoom'?" That's because my use of "foopgoom" would trigger no memory whatever in your head. In contrast, "aesthetic ideal" triggers memory in such a way that at least three possible notions could be in the user's mind. Been a lot of foopgoom around here -earliest use was in 2008,plenty of time for various connotations of meaninglessness,shadows of mortality and something about a shepherd to pile up. I'm sorry that my approach -- when confronted with numerous possible notions behind a speaker's phrase, ask him what's on his mind - I am merely "sitting on the sidelines complaining about a lack of precision". I do this only because I don't agreed that "one usually learns a lot more and arrives at a better result more efficiently" by starting out assuming a single notion behind an ambiguous phrase. I claim the last week of shots-in-the-dark postings on this forum are evidence that it was a mistake not to ask Joseph at the outset to clarify what he was asking about. As has been often pointed put,Joseph doesn't seem clear himself on what he was talking about. Kate Sullivan -----Original Message----- From: Tom McCormack <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Aug 30, 2012 12:58 pm Subject: Re: Aesthetic Ideal Joseph asked: Aesthetic Ideal do you have one?
