[Wittrs] The language game of html, again
- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:08:52 -0700
On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 2:39 PM, Kirby Urner <kurner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ... here it is again. Take a look at this. I saw someone post this to a
> website:
>
> "If you're going to make fun of economics, at least do it intelligently. (And
> yes, I know where I'm posting <sigh>.)"
>
> Note how interesting the use of the computer markup is for an internal sort of
> expression: "<sigh>." Why not use the parenthesis (sigh)? It's probably not
> because they were already in use -- it's not an order of operations thing.
> Brackets or something would have better facilitated that. Rather, it is
> something that seeing markup code does to the brain. We're so used to seeing
> text, and, behind it, there is some sort of processing language. And so the
> person than introduces a play in the language game that uses the new notation
> to
> signify a process happening "underneath" the surface level markings.
Even beyond this, I've seen others as well as myself punctuate remarks
by saying things like <rant> </rant> to markup my text.
An influence on me in particular was Gene Fowler, a genius-poet, author
of 'Waking the Poet' who was adamant that this HTML stuff be treated
like punctuation and kept conscious, part of the focus and purview of
any writer, just like commas and periods.
He walked his talk by writing his own XML editor in Delphi/ Pascal.
The guy was self-taught, had a resume that included prison time for
armed robbery. Colorful. Berkeley based. Haven't heard in a long while.
http://www.juice-press.com/poetry/links/fowler2bio.html
Used to correspond at high volume.
>
> I just think it is both brilliant and revealing of everything Wittgensteinian.
> If Wittgenstein were alive today and would see the inauguration of these sorts
> of moves in language culture, he would surely take note of them. As he did,
> e.g., the idea of what the thought bubble "said" in comic books as opposed to
> the "direct bubble" (or whatever that is called).
The evolution of graphical language games based around icons on a
"virtual desktop", with motions like sliding and clicking "a mouse" -- a
part of language now, but not then.
And that clicking an icon should actually boot up running code, "written"
by coders then compiled for running "in" or "on" things called "chips"...
... his 'meaning from usage patterns' idea would have had such a
new wealth of examples to draw upon. The ethnography has changed
so much and so rapidly.
What goes on on a TV screen, is that language? "Of course" is my
answer. The composition is framed, the camera angle chosen, the
editing giving a kind of grammar. Many well-known formulas.
Semiotics. Once you take streaming video to be "language"
(as is theater), then how could "the world" not be "language itself"?
Ah, but that's just to remove the language / not language duality
and of what use is that? None. So nonsense it is.
> I want to suggest quite clearly that there is more of philosophic significance
> revealed in this sort of thing than in a thousand years of disputation about
> "free will." Why do today's philosophers talk about nothing?
>
Inertia? A need to inherit gravitas?
On a related note, I often think how language has exploded with new
proper names since the invention of mass media marketing. Words
designed to sound like medicine / science, like "tylenol" and
"aspartame". These have to be minted. Or I think of invented
names for cars (which used to be like "Falcon" and "Dart") such
as Camry, Corolla, Acura. Our vocabularies have been flooded
with such neologisms in a rather short time. They aggressively
vie for our attention, like Pepsi, like Coke.
What is the meaning of "Betty Crocker"?
Kirby
> Regards and thanks.
>
>
> Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.
> Assistant Professor
> Wright State University
> Personal Website: http://seanwilson.org
> SSRN papers: http://ssrn.com/author=596860
> Wittgenstein Discussion: http://seanwilson.org/wiki/doku.php?id=wittrs
>
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