Sunday, November 29, 2009

one more dialect


"Thought, which science has expelled from its place at the top of the spiral of evolution, reappears at the bottom of it: the physical structure of atoms and their particles is a mathematical structure, a relation. What is equally extraordinary is that this structure can be reduced to a system of signs - and is therefore a language. The power of speech is a particular manifestation of natural communication; human language is one more dialect in the linguistic system of the universe. We might add: the cosmos is a language of languages."

- Octavio Paz, 'The Verbal Pact and Correspondence', from Alternating Current.

4 comments:

  1. Cool, and some point one hopes all that language has a point. To actually communicate a thought. Now, about this word populism. Let's sort out what that means.

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  2. I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^

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  3. Foarte interesant subiectul postat de tine. M-am uitat pe blogul tau si imi place ce am vazut.Cu siguranta am sa il mai vizitez.
    O zi buna!

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  4. Romanian-English translation: "Very interesting topic posted by you. I checked your blog and I love what I saw. Surely I will visit him in May.
    Good day!"

    Thanks all for having a read. Just to situate the quote historically, at the time he wrote this, Paz had read Levi-Strauss et al, and "There is nothing outside the text" (Derrida) was waiting in the wings, about to have its day.

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