To Escape the Singularity: A Personal Reflection on “Why Language?”
Location
Janet Ayers Academic Center, Room 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
27-9-2024 1:00 PM
Description
Depending on your perspective, you may find the notion of spending 5 days pondering the concept of language too much or too little, but either way absurd. Part of the purpose of this talk is to attempt to corral some of the topics and themes that have emerged over the course of the symposium, as we used to do on the Monday afterwards. But in truth I will be doing that in an attempt to answer my own question: why, when I struggle so hard to learn any language and generally with so little success, why am I so obsessed by language itself both in the abstract and in its myriad of specific iterations? My odd title is an attempt to begin to answer that question, not just in the way that language is about escaping the well of the aloneness of individuality but also about not being crushed into the infinite sameness of the monoblock, the universe’s initial singularity of all matter and energy suspended in unmoving, unchanging oneness. As that sentence may suggest, some of the examples I will be looking at come from science fiction, one of the best genres for allowing reader and writer alike to ponder the essentiality of language.
Recommended Citation
Monteverde, Maggie, "To Escape the Singularity: A Personal Reflection on “Why Language?”" (2024). Humanities Symposium. 5.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2024/2024/5
To Escape the Singularity: A Personal Reflection on “Why Language?”
Janet Ayers Academic Center, Room 4094
Depending on your perspective, you may find the notion of spending 5 days pondering the concept of language too much or too little, but either way absurd. Part of the purpose of this talk is to attempt to corral some of the topics and themes that have emerged over the course of the symposium, as we used to do on the Monday afterwards. But in truth I will be doing that in an attempt to answer my own question: why, when I struggle so hard to learn any language and generally with so little success, why am I so obsessed by language itself both in the abstract and in its myriad of specific iterations? My odd title is an attempt to begin to answer that question, not just in the way that language is about escaping the well of the aloneness of individuality but also about not being crushed into the infinite sameness of the monoblock, the universe’s initial singularity of all matter and energy suspended in unmoving, unchanging oneness. As that sentence may suggest, some of the examples I will be looking at come from science fiction, one of the best genres for allowing reader and writer alike to ponder the essentiality of language.
Comments
Well-Core Category: Intellectual Wellness