“The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.” – Marshall Mcluhan
I’m watching Toni Collette’s character driving through a barren and magnificent outback, she turns to her Japanese companion and asks, “Do you love your wife?”
“No need to say it. If I say it, it will make it true….”
And I know the concept of words possessing an intrinsic, almost magical quality is by no means a new one. Ursula Le Guin dealt with it, hours have been spent researching it and it is evident in many cultures, such as this one. Roger Stevens has written an achingly honest piece on the fickleness of identity.
So where do you imagine this perception arose from. Where does the wellspring originate? Does the Myth of Babel hold any truths?
Is this why we obsess over diagnosis? What do I have? Name my addiction, my disease, my affliction. I can only fight it once I know it’s name.
Perhaps I should consult a second opinion……..
I guess once you can name your enemy then you can identify it, track it, find out its weakness. You also discover what it isn’t.
Namine something gives you power, because now you know what it is, and knowledge, as we all know, is power. Even when it isn’t really
Yes, naming can be helpful, but only in your scope of knowledge. The truth/core of it may not even be within your grasp or understanding…
IE: A child playing outside sees a toy truck moving down the road and waits patiently for it’s arrival for his chance to play. What he has no way of knowing (as a child) is that it is Hell-on Wheels in an SUV speeding in his direction, not even aware of his presence.
Sounds bleak, but I feel that even when you think you are sure of what you see, it may be a trick of the eye.
One of my favorite reality-check sayings mirrors that: Always remember that the light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train.
“What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”–Shakespeare
I suppose that the first word ever spoken by humans was a name (perhaps “rock”? “mum”?). Naming is the foundation of all language, and how we define our world so that it makes more sense to us.
Hey! Thanks for stopping by my spot in Blogdom, I will have a read of your stuff now.
John Steinbeck discusses it too (in The Log From the Sea of Cortez) so we know it must be true.