Ancient
traditions: "The written, printed (and digital)
page, like any linguistic practice, brings into action a
theory of language
and a historicity of discourse...Each page is a scene: that
of its practice of discourse, the practice of rationality,
of a theory
of language. Whether the page be dense or sparse, the scene
is ancient." H. Meschonnic, Critique du rythme.
Paris, France, 1982. p.303.
frozen: "The
petrification of acquired knowledge--the freezing of spiritual things--allowing
itself to be placed like an inert content in the mind and so be handed
on, frozen, from one generation to another, is not real transmission..." E.
Lévinas, L'Au-delà de verset. Paris, France, 1982. p.99.
remembering: "for
the Greeks the matter that required remembering was figured
as a 'silva' or woods, and Aristotle characterizes the use of topics
as hunting for arguments where they are to be found, just as one
looks for animals in the woods. Wasn't it Aristotle who said, in
answer to the question 'does a thing have being?', 'does a bear shit
in the woods?'" G. Ulmer. Invent-L@Lists.ufl.edu. 27
March 2001.
keen
nose: The sense of smell is a minor function
of the temporal lobe. Signals from the nose enter the brain through
the olfactory bulb, which is a part of the limbic system. Some
of this information may be passed on to the temporal lobe for higher
integration and processing. Temporal-parietal areas are also involved
in storing auditory forms of words. The posterior temporal lobe
is critical in storing the meaning of words, as well as hearing.
Wernicke's area, which is located in the temporal lobe, helps in
the comprehension of language. It borders on the auditory projection
area, and makes the temporal lobe crucial in the integration of
aural information.
"Smelling and
sniffing are associated with animal behavior. If olfaction were his
most important sense, man's linguistic incapacity to describe olfactory
sensations would turn him into a creature tied to his environment.
Because they are ephemeral, olfactory sensations can never provide
a persistent stimulus of thought. Thus the development of the sense
of smell seems to be inversely related to the development of intelligence." A.
Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social
Imagination. Cambridge, MA., 1986. p.6. Humans, then,
may have sacrificed their olfactory abilities for language-oriented
intelligence, both oral and written. However, it could be that Sasquatch
has sacrificed neither.
waiting: "the
ceremonial life was addressed largely to the ends of a covenant with
the animals, of reconciliation, veneration, and assurance that in
return for the beasts' unremitting offering of themselves as willing
victims, their life-blood should be given back in a sacred way to
the earth, mother of all, for rebirth." J. Campbell, The
Way of the Animal Powers. New York, 1983.
Jabès had: "A
book about 'God and the world.' About everything. A book sui generis:
an untold story forms the pre-text for rabbinical commentaries, poems,
aphorisms, word-play with philosophical implications, and reflective,
densely metaphorical prose. Shifting voices and constant breaks of
mode let silence have its share and allow for a fuller meditative
field than possible in linear narrative or analysis.
"A book about the word. Between scream and silence. The word through which
we become human. Other. The word which is our mirror and our wound." R.
Waldrop, Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès. Middletown,
CT., 2002. p.2.
is
rarely damaged: www.neuroskills.com/tbi/boccipit.html.."One
of the strangest is blindsight. A person with blindsight claims
that they have no vision at all, but can, when asked, point to
or identify objects at a distance unconsciously. Other lesions
have been known to cause an inability to identify faces. This inability
is called prospagnosia. Lesions can also cause writing impairments
(agraphia) and an inability to recognize words (alexia). Disorders
of the occipital lobe have been known to cause illusions and visual
hallucinations. The illusions can cause objects to appear larger
or smaller than they really are, or they can make an object appear
to be a different color than it really is. As in almost all areas
of the brain, once damaged, the occipital lobe is difficult to
repair.” (Ibid.)