First off:
Recommend to me:
1. A movie.
2. A book.
3. A musical artist, song, or album.
4. An LJ user not on my friends list.
Copy and paste with your answers in my comments. Then copy and paste the questions in your own journal.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to see “Jacques Brel…” on Saturday night.
In the play (revue? show?) is a song called “Marieke” which is a meditation on loss of a loved one in war. Heartbreaking.
Most of the songs are translated from French; this one song includes lines in Dutch and German and French. No need to translate.
This got me thinking — it has always felt to me that certain languages seem more effective at delivering certain emotional states than others. For instance, French to me has always seemed amenable to expressing a sort of bittersweet longing that we don’t capture well in English.
This is not at all to say that other languages are incapable of a variety of nuances — far from it; and I certainly don’t want this to sound as if I’m stereotyping the speakers of a given language, because that’s not what I think I’m getting at.
I think this is a sort of version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language affects thought — that the words used in a given language can affect what the speaker of that language thinks. It’s the old “12 Inuit words for snow” legend: that because the words are there, the characteristics are more visible.
But I don’t trust myself here…I’m curious:
1. Am I merely projecting American attitudes?
2. Am I totally full of shit?
3. If I’m not: what does English do well at?
Dark Matter 
January 27th, 2004 at 10:00 pm
Re: Things recommended
January 27th, 2004 at 9:12 pm
Re: go to my blog and recommend some for me!
OH! Ok, I’ve seen both of those movies and loved em. Thanks!
January 27th, 2004 at 9:04 pm
Re: go to my blog and recommend some for me!
Hanif Kureishi is one of my favorite authors of all time. I can’t recommend him highly enough. He writes fiction (The Buddha of Suburbia, Intimacy, plus a lot of short stories) and screenplays (My Beautiful Launderette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid). He’s a British Pakistani author.
January 27th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
Re: go to my blog and recommend some for me!
1. You know, I keep meaning to see it, and never have. Good poke to do so. Thanks.
2. More info? I don’t know that one.
3. Have it, love it, love it again!
4. Phil I’ve got. I’ll check out the other.
January 27th, 2004 at 8:40 pm
Re: Things recommended
1. Hm. I didn’t see that one. Will check it out.
2. This is the second Pinker recommendation. Thanks.
3. I like the Sixth. Can you recommend a particular recording?
4. Um, dude…the name?
January 27th, 2004 at 4:47 pm
go to my blog and recommend some for me!
seriously! I need new books to read.
1)movie – Donnie Darko. Maybe you’ve already seen it, I know it’s kind of a cult classic. I recommend it on DVD, cause the scenes they cut cause of time are really good. also the website, but not before the movie.
2)book – Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi
3)music – Ani Difranco’s Living in Clip. I forgot how good it was.
4)LJ user – kaphine, pinata (but you probably already know him).
January 27th, 2004 at 4:27 pm
Re: i think the language in which we learn to think defintely
It’s interesting…I’m thinking of all those words in other languages which have no equivalents in English, like “schadenfraude” in German or “duende” in Spanish. Why did those words gain such recognition in those languages? It’s not as if we don’t feel those emotions or recognize those concepts; we do, but we borrow the words from other languages to describe them.
January 26th, 2004 at 10:14 pm
Things recommended
1. A movie — The Whole Nine Yards — starring that guy from Friends and Bruce Willis. A black comedy involving hitmen, ten million dollars, and the practical art and science of dentistry., a friend of mine in the world of roleplaying games and sci-fi novels. An excellent writer, and a superior commentator on the business of imagining dark worlds; the author of the Gamma World RPG.
2. A book — Words and Rules, by Steven Pinker. A book about how language really works. Also any of his other books, about the basic structure of the brain and how it creates the idea called mind.
3. A musical artist, song, or album — The sixth symphony of Ludwig von Beethoven. A little kitschy, always calls to mind the Fantasia version. But fun, and beautiful.
4. An LJ user not on my friends list —
January 26th, 2004 at 7:29 pm
i think the language in which we learn to think defintely
influences what and how we think, so put my vote squarely with sapir and whorf.
i think english–especially american english–is pretty good at conceiving and expressing irreverence.