My title is a parody of this amazing song. Words are good for absolutely everything, in my book. Communication is the key to healthy relationships, and communication cannot be fully present without words. Of course, nonverbal communication plays a major role as well, but without words we would not have the ability to explain our actions or our looks. Nonverbal communication exists on a basic level, but words are needed to elevate the communication; to make the communication more precise or accurate. Chamberlin writes extensively on the power of words as riddles and charms. I was particularly challenged by his ideas on riddles. He claims that “riddles–often by way of nursery rhymes and trickster tales– give us our first lesson on how to meet [the challenge of both believing and not believing]” (160). Reflecting on the nursery rhymes and tales I was told as a child, I do not know if I agree with this. I did not learn of the characteristics of the trickster until I read The Master and Margarita as well as The Kiss of the Fur Queen in my second year at UBC. But I do believe that written words are tricks of sorts. They conjure an image, idea or feeling because of how they’re used or intended. We are able to enter into a new world that we are able to create simply because we can conjure our own image.
This “world of words” Chamberlin introduces us to had me puzzling for a few days trying to wrap my brain around it. While the world we live in is full of words, he is speaking of a world that is based on words. How a word can be two things at once. How when we see the word cat we see not only the letters on the page, but also the animal. For myself, when I see the word cat, I think of one of my cats. This to me is why we feel closer to the world – we take words that are impersonal and make them personal. We see our beloved cat when the word “cat” is before us. We see our home when they word “home” is before us.
Chamberlin finished his introduction with a complicated idea of home, which rattled me more than anything else in the book. He said, “Can one land ever really be home to more than one people?” (4). I believe that his “world of words” plays into this. While we are physically on land, we imagine the world around us using images. Then we use words to communicate those images and act out those intentions we have in our imagined world. The idea of home in the world of words is a fluid one, and could change drastically for each person’s imagined world. But in the end, we feel closer to each other when we share common ideas around words; when the word “home” conjures the same idea or meaning in a story for two people, they are able to easily relate to one another and thus become closer. Stories, filled with words, are what bring us together between time, distance, obstacles. Through this “world of words”, we can see each other a bit clearer and begin to understand each other a bit better.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2003. Print.
Grahe, Jon E. and Frank J. Bernieri. ” The Importance of Nonverbal Cues in Judging Rapport.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 23.4 (1999): 253-269. Web. 18 Jan 2015.
Thibault Viaene. “Edwin Starr – War (What is it good for?).” Youtube. Youtube, 22 Jan 2007. Web. 18 Jan 2015.
Hi Caitlin, thank you for this thoughtful answer to my question. Unfortunately your first link the amazing story is not working – see if you can fix it please. And, your second link leads me to an article that I have to “rent” – try to find hypertexts that are readily available for your readers, thanks — and enjoy. Hope you get some more comments this week 🙂
Thanks for the help, Erika! 🙂
Caitin,
I think you make some really good points about what words are good for. They are, literally, how the world communicates functionally. Without them, humans would not be where we are today. Not only do they serve to expand and create the world, but they help us to love, nurture and console. I like what you said about words making us feel closer to the world by how we conjure up an image and feeling based on a word spoken or read. This puts into perspective the depth of words and how they can affect our emotions and actions based on how they make us feel. Can you imagine a world without words? Is it possible? I keep trying to think of a circumstance where we might not have them. What if we all started over as babies with no one to raise us or teach us about words, would we naturally grow into them again? I think we would.
Sarah C.
Hi Sarah!
Rousseau actually talks about your idea on reverting to our original state in his book, Discourse on Inequality. I think that if we weren’t able to speak, perhaps if we evolved without tongues, we would still find a way to communicate to one another with a sort of sign language. But then stories would never be able to be written, or oral, technically. Everything would be learned and expressed kinetically – kind of a cool idea! 🙂
Hi Caitin,
Thanks for your blog. I really enjoyed your perspective on this question and appreciated your honesty about some of the directions Chamberlain goes into with respect to this world of words and sense of home.
It’s an obvious statement but I think it’s important not to overlook the importance HOW we communicate words. Words can just be words if we ignore the tone or emotion behind them. They become forgettable this way. I believe how we convey the message motivates us to imagine, to find meaning, to react with passion and emotion.
I definitely agree that we attach our own personal meaning to words that we read. It’s not to say we ignore the context in which they are written but that we learn by association and for me I am constantly making sense of the words I read by drawing examples with my own life that might bring me closer to an understanding of what is being said.
Chamberlains statement “Can one land ever really be home to more than one people is a very interesting question. I agree that this world of words plays into how we imagine home. Unfortunately, when we have multiple cultures each with their own stories of how our homes should look like then we run into conflict. Chamberlain addresses this theme of Them vs. Us throughout his book but no more poignantly than when he states “The sad fact is that the history of settlement around the world is a history of displacing other people from their lands, of discounting their livelihoods and destroying their languages. Put differently, the history of many of the world’s conflicts is a history of dismissing a different belief or different behaviour as unbelief or misbehaviour, and of discrediting those who believe or behave differently as infidels or savages (Chamberlain 78).
Thanks again for your interesting insights and for letting me ramble on. Good luck with the rest of the course.
Regards,
Stuart
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for your cool thoughts – I totally agree that connotation, intonation and emotions are all important when speaking. Funny though, that in this course we have no way of knowing those things (except with emoticons) because of the blog platform. Kind of cool, in my opinion.
Hope you’re also enjoying the course 🙂
Caitlin
Hi Caitlin, I thought I’d leave a comment since we were writing about the same topic and I agree with much of what you have said!
Communication in the world that we live in today has progressed tremendously, we use phones, TV’s email, texts, video chats etc. to communicate across the globe in seconds. However, our communication is still based from verbal and written words. Sarah brought up the question of a world without words, and with all of our technological advances, I think that this is not impossible, society IS progressing without words! The spoken word is an important form of communication, however, it can be very limiting. Nonverbal communication actually tells a much more accurate story of what an individual is trying to convey. Non verbal communication takes on many forms, for example; sign language, facial expressions, communication with body parts, or even Morse code. Maybe sometime in the future, the need for verbal communication will disappear and we will be able to understand each other using only our bodies and our minds. If this occurs, what will happen to this ‘world of words’ that Chamberlain spoke of? If words help to stimulate our imaginations and tie us to the ‘real world’ by making us assimilate words and familiar images, will non-verbal communication forms have the same affect on us? As a silly example, If I say “dog” you picture a familiar dog in your mind, but if I get on all fours and act like a dog will the same image be conjured up in your mind? Sorry for the rambling, just something I’ve been wondering after reading Chamberlain!
Hi Leana,
Cool idea about the conjuring of images. The first thought that came into my mind is the game charades. When you play charades, you act out a person, animal, action, etc. If someone were to go down on all fours and stick their tongue out and wagged their butt around, I would definitely say dog, simply because that what I see a dog doing in my mind’s eye. The person, the action and the intended understanding all collide in that moment; this is no longer simply a person, or simply a dog, or simply an action. Like most things, this is complex and multi-layered. I may not see a specific dog over-laid on the person, but their actions remind me of a dog – they recall my interactions of a dog.
Does that kinda make sense? That was a really cool thought exercise, though! Thanks for the questions!
Caitlin
Hi Leana some interesting thoughts here, thank you – words on paper: literature and history and myths, are a form of non-verbal communication – right?
Hi Caitlin!
Great blog post. I certainly agree with your point that words are a means for people to relate to one another. The attachment of common associations with specific words often strengthens bonds between people and makes it easier for an individual to convey their message. The idea of home, like you mentioned, and the idea of anything really, is a fluid one. Words are made stronger by their entanglements with emotion, not just images. Some may be linked with neutrality while others may ignite a fire. The power of words lies largely in the associations we make to these words. An interesting way of looking at this, I think, is that it is not necessarily what is being said but rather what is being heard! I think of “words” as tags that refer to specific things: objects, places, what have you. What may be tagged to a word varies in our imagined worlds and while some words may be easier to associate with familiar images that are relatively uniform among most (e.g. cat), some words (home) are more difficult to associate with familiar images. Although the world of words can often make it easier to understand and relate to others on a personal level, having drastically different associations with certain “words” in our imagined spaces (like with the concept of “home”) can lead to conflict and an inability to relate- therein lies the problem with the world of words… It is both a vehicle of closeness and distance!
Hi Shamina,
I totally agree that words can either bring us close to draw us into ourselves. I remember moving to France at 19 and not knowing French very well, so feeling really isolated. Once I started to really learn the language, I felt more comfortable around the people there because I could communicate with them. Words are more powerful than we realize sometimes. Cool, but also a bit dangerous!
Caitlin