[Xmca-l] Re: Notes on Blindness

[mike cole]

Henry,Larry et al -- ​I understand the use of the term "at the boundary of
the verbal and the nonverbal." I for sure agree that ​intonation is
essential to language. The word boundary, I believe, may undercut the
equally important idea that intonation *infuses* language. *It* is not on
the border. I love watching signers, knowing no sign, because of the
intonation and dancing movements that accompany the oral speech.

It is significant that Tanya Akhutina is using these ideas because she is
one of the leading
practitioners of Luria's ideas. In *Man With a Shattered World* and
elsewhere, Luria talks of "kinetic melodies" and uses such melodies as part
of this program of remediation of Zasetski's shattered brain. Oliver Sachs
has just written a book on music I have not seen yet. It must have a good
deal to say here.
mike

mike

On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Henry,
> This quote, especially the aspect:
>
>  Intonation is always at the boundary of the verbal and the nonverbal, the
> spoken and the unspoken. Intonation is oriented in two directions: toward
> the listener... and toward the object of the utterance as if to a third
> living participant.
>
> This brings in the cornerstone of the 'object" AS IF a third living
> participant.  Intonation, attunement, and resonance exploring the rhythm AT
> the boundary or the margin of this triangulated  "space"  of where
> possibility exists. This extralinguistic context with its felt structure
> which is not yet articulated.
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 2:57 PM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Mike and all,
> > I found this quote from Voloshinov (1926) in T.V. AKHUTINA
> > The Theory of Verbal Communication in the Works of M.M. Bakhtin and L.S.
> > Vygotsky (2003, p. 102):
> > "Intonation establishes the close connection between the word and the
> > extralinguistic context. Living intonation is virtually able to release
> the
> > word from its verbal limits. . . . Intonation is always at the boundary
> of
> > the verbal and the nonverbal, the spoken and the unspoken. Intonation is
> > oriented in two directions: toward the listener... and toward the object
> of
> > the utterance as if to a third living participant."
> >
> > I wonder what Bakhtin had to say about non-verbal gesture which
> > accompanies speech, which could not be seen by a blind person. Does one
> > sense become heightened when another is compromised? Does language
> provide
> > redundancy to help the listener?
> >
> > Henry
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Jan 23, 2015, at 2:02 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > All seems relevant to the imagination thread to me!
> > > mike
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Greg Thompson <
> > greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Larry,
> > >> (if you'll allow me this reduction of your post)
> > >>
> > >> Brilliant expansion!
> > >>
> > >> -greg
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 12:47 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Greg,
> > >>> Memory as requiring the process of reduction of the manifold of
> > >> experience
> > >>> does seem to an interesting question which may offer a possibility
> for
> > >>> further expansion. I mean this metaphorically as a reciprocal "dance"
> > of
> > >>> reduction and expansion.
> > >>>
> > >>> The "reciprocal" awareness that possibly not only memories but also
> our
> > >>> theories and our conceptions may be relying too much on the processes
> > of
> > >>> memory [after the fact] and therefore loosing sight of the
> > multi-modality
> > >>> of experience as it unfolds.
> > >>> Greg as you point "out" - to be seen is to be made (cf. Bakhtin's
> > notion
> > >>> of "consummation").
> > >>> Your insight where you say that filling the whole of the audible
> > >>> environment is an experience of beauty, which has something to do
> with
> > >> the
> > >>> complexity of the image  in  motion, alive, moving, unfixed, with
> > shades
> > >>> and textures constantly
> > >>> changing.
> > >>> Instead of being isolated, cut off, preoccupied, internally, you are
> > >>> presented with a world. You are related to a world. You are addressed
> > by
> > >> a
> > >>> world.
> > >>> Robert Nichols in exploring the meaning of freedom and recognition
> > says,
> > >>> "To stand in a 'free' relation to the world, to oneself and one's
> > ethical
> > >>> commitments, is to know that one's standpoint does not exhaust the
> > total
> > >>> range of meaningful, viable, and worthwhile possibilities."  For
> Robert
> > >>> beauty as 'being-in-the-world' depends on the "extent" to which we
> > >> actually
> > >>> "embody" the world through receptivity, fragility, indeterminacy, and
> > >>> interconnectivity. [similar sentiments to the notion of "surrender"
> or
> > >>> "acceptance" as an ethical commitment]
> > >>> Robert Nichols perceives an ethical commitment that emerges within an
> > >>> awareness of how one cares for the world and how one has an
> > "attachment"
> > >> to
> > >>> existence.
> > >>>
> > >>> Greg, is it possible that memory, and theory "about" how one
> re-members
> > >> and
> > >>> re-cognizes and re-presents and re-duces and then articulates the
> world
> > >> as
> > >>> the "truth"  contributes to being isolated, cut off, preoccupied.
> The
> > >>> world foreclosed.
> > >>>
> > >>> Requiring that "we" once again  turn [or re-turn] to being within the
> > >> world
> > >>> as situated presence. The musical resonance of "attunement" within
> the
> > >>> world prior to re-collecting and re-ducing the world through memory
> > which
> > >>> highlights the salient features.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 8:20 PM, Greg Thompson <
> > >> greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> Annalisa,
> > >>>> Yes, you said it very well, much better than I did in my prior post
> > >> which
> > >>>> was a bit intellectually garbled (and I missed the article that went
> > >>> along
> > >>>> with it, so thanks for pointing that out!).
> > >>>>
> > >>>> But I do think that there is an interesting point to be made about
> the
> > >>>> importance of the reduction of the manifold of experience that is
> > >>> essential
> > >>>> to memory.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I once assembled a paper that argued that forgetting should be seen
> as
> > >> a
> > >>>> tool of ethnography since when one reduces one's experience to what
> is
> > >>>> remembered, one has gotten to something that was somehow important.
> > >>>> Reviewers thought it was just an excuse for doing lazy ethnographic
> > >>>> research. Perhaps it was...
> > >>>>
> > >>>> What ever happened to that paper?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I can't remember...
> > >>>> -greg
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu
> >
> > >>>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> Greg!
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Yes the piece is really great and well produced!
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> If you read the article that accompanies the video on the Times
> page,
> > >>> the
> > >>>>> writers indicate that over time as he adjusted to blindness, he
> came
> > >> to
> > >>>>> revel in the other senses to the point that when he was helping
> with
> > >>> the
> > >>>>> movie, he'd forgotten that he'd gone through that painful time, and
> > >>>>> apparently wasn't happy to revisit the memories. I think that is
> the
> > >>>> point
> > >>>>> of the last scene with the rain (inside), to show that he began to
> > >>> "see"
> > >>>>> differently, with sound. Maybe? At least, that is how I interpreted
> > >> it.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> I also thought, as you, it was remarkable that he remembered
> > >>> photographs,
> > >>>>> maybe these map in memory differently? Like you say because of
> > >>> reduction
> > >>>> of
> > >>>>> modality?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> What also seems significant is that if we don't use those organs of
> > >>>>> perceptions we lose memories of those perceptions. Which may mean
> > >> that
> > >>>>> memory is something that must be reconstructed with the organ
> > >> somehow,
> > >>>> even
> > >>>>> if we aren't using the organ to perceive externally while retrieval
> > >> of
> > >>>> the
> > >>>>> memory? I'm not sure I explained that very well…
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Kind regards,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Annalisa
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> --
> > >>>> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > >>>> Assistant Professor
> > >>>> Department of Anthropology
> > >>>> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > >>>> Brigham Young University
> > >>>> Provo, UT 84602
> > >>>> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > >> Assistant Professor
> > >> Department of Anthropology
> > >> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > >> Brigham Young University
> > >> Provo, UT 84602
> > >> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as an
> > object
> > > that creates history. Ernst Boesch.
> >
> >
>



-- 
It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as an object
that creates history. Ernst Boesch.