Hi Alan, My phrase below is obviously an oversimplification of Bakhtin's position. Along with J.L. Austin and Lakoff/Johnson, Bakhtin provides an alternative to the idea that language somehow stands outside of the world and re-presents it (or wholly constitutes it, or plays a game regardless of it), as if language is a system that can be analyzed and uderstood apart from historical instances of embodied utterance. It's not to say that matter equals language and vice-versa. There are obviously radical differences. It is to say that language and matter are perpetually enmeshed and refracting. Language alters "culture" which alters matter. Material contingency (vocal inflection, bodily gesticulation, historical context, a recently intense bowel movement, the light in my eyes) alter uttered instances of language which collectively alter consensually agreed upon nuances of linguistic meaning. Language as performed, embodied, historically contingent event/force.
Deleuze/Guattari talk about the regime of language as one among many regimes (regime of geology, regime of the human face, regime of movement through space, etc.). Language received an inordinately important amount of attention at the end of the last century, mostly by sedentary humans who write a lot of language. But language is one of many refracting forces at play. Words get the last word (amongst humans who value words), while the world modulates forward with[in] and without words. Or so my words assert. Best, Curt > >>> >>>> Bakhtin might disagree -- matter flows into language and >>>> language >>>> flows into matter (whatever matter and language may be). >>>> > >Just want to say I don't agree with the assertion above, if it does (or >doesn't) represent B's position. If you look at Soviet diamat philosophy, >information formed a permanent problematic within (dialectical) material- >ism; the way out turned on medieval ideas of reflection. The 'whatever' >above unpacks similarly, since there are ontic issues at work. Language >also doesn't possess the genidentity that matter does, which might be the >heart of it. Finally, cosmology tends to unpack matter itself, as well as >information, albeit differently (vis-a-vis the holographic universe). > >- Alan >_______________________________________________ >NetBehaviour mailing list >NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
