[xmca] Re: The Fox and the Crow

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Clever poem by K&K (wink). How does it relate to Austin's idea of
illocutionary force?
mike

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:03 PM, kellogg <kellogg59@hanmail.net> wrote:

>   I've been chewing over Greg's rather brilliant comment that Austin's
> idea about illocutionary force is basically magical. I would say it is less
> a folk view of speech than a child's view, Greg; speech is background noise
> for gettin' stuff done.
>
>
>
> Geertz says--you know, in the opening essay in 'The Interpretation of
> Culture' where he talks about 'thick description' and that Maghrebi sheep
> trader with the improbable name of Cohen--that our objective descriptions
> of 'gettin' stuff done' very often cannot discern the wink in the blink.
>
>
>
> Lately I've been translating those Krylov fables that Vygotsky talks about
> so much in "Psychology of Art" into English. It turns out they are really
> very winky and not very blinky. Here, for example, is what I've got for the
> Fox and the Crow:
>
> **
>
> *Folks say foxy talk is bad*
>
> *Happy words can make us sad.*
>
> *Do we really hate them so? *
>
> * *
>
> *Words are kindly. Words are smart.*
>
> *But the gut speaks through the heart.*
>
> *Hearts will sing...and heads will know.  *
>
> * *
>
> *Look! A crow sees chunks of cheese.*
>
> *So she takes them to the trees.*
>
> *And she sits there with her treat.*
>
> * *
>
> *See! A fox can smell the cheese.*
>
> *Now he’s coming through the trees.*
>
> *There’s the crow, about to eat.*
>
> * *
>
> *Foxy sees. And Foxy speaks.*
>
> *“Such black feathers! Such white cheeks!*
>
> *What a lovely pair of wings!”*
>
> * *
>
> *“What red lips and what a beak!*
>
> *If I wait here, she will speak. *
>
> *I can’t wait until she sings!”*
>
> * *
>
> Now this crow is not so dumb
>
> But she’s lonely. And he’s come
>
> All this way to sit and hear.
>
>
>
> So she smiles. And she caws.
>
> Cheese falls into Foxy’s jaws--
>
> Cheese and Foxy disappear.
>
>
>
> Now, I admit, I've taken a few liberties with Krylov--his raven is not
> quite the half believing, half knowing female that my crow is. But a nod is
> as good as a wink (to a blind horse).
>
>
>
> David Kellogg
>
> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>
>
>
> <kellogg59@hanmail.net>
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