In a message dated 12/18/13 10:22:16 PM, [email protected] writes:
> As I see it, every thing under the sun has an essence, that is impossible > to > express. > It is as evasive as the individuals that express it. > Yes, the notion behind the word 'essence' is evasive, and that's because it's almost never clear, stable, specific. And that, say I, is because none of the wildly various notions of "essence" has what I'll call a "referent" in the way we might loosely say our "notion" of the Eiffel Tower (and the term 'Eiffel Tower') has a referent: the "real" iron structure in Paris. The following is an excerpt from something I've been writing. I'm aware that my saying there "are" no "real world" non-notional "words" will immediately be considered by some to be so nutty they'll hang up right there: BREN Should have said that earlier. Words don't exist. KIT Excuse me? Excuse me!? Watch this! [KIT picks up a book, riffles pages.] KIT (CONT'D) I see thousands of words printed on paper! Right here! Wheeee! [KIT tosses a couple of books to BREN.] BREN I catch your drift, Woman. But no. You see ink on paper; you've never seen a "word" in your life. Or heard one. "Foopgoom!" You heard a sound there. But did you hear a "word"? How would you tell? Run to your nice little dictionary? The latest ones have lots of "new words". But they're only sounds they've at last decided to call "words". What was their "is-ness" before? KIT Their 'is-ness'. What's their "is-ness"?! BREN You know -- that fictitious "essence" thing that you believe makes a thing not merely what you call it, but what it "really IS"! "Wordness" -- like all "nesses" -- is a strictly mental invention, like unicorns. And etiquette. KIT Not fictitious! Some sounds are words, and some just aren't! BREN I'll bet you never thought about how some lucky sounds get to become "words". Remember Clarence, in It's a Wonderful Life? He has to remain an "angel-second-class" until he gets his wings and somewhere a bell rings? "Sounds-second-class" are like Clarence. Here's how. One winter in Switzerland, I found a thing in my room that I called a 'foopgoom'. I thought it was so apt a label, I put my case to Plato and his Word Committee way up there. In their meeting last Thursday, they unanimously declared 'foopgoom' to be a real word! And they made it official by ringing a big bell they call the verbell! That Swiss object now really IS a foopgoom!...Get the point, Kit? KIT That's a bad joke. BREN Isn't it!
