While talking about Michael
Cunningham in class, the teacher mentioned a topic that called my attention:
Language and Reality.
So the first question that came to
my mind was, “What’s reality?” According to the Oxford dictionary, reality is “the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they
may appear or might be imagined.” However, this didn’t give me any answer
whatsoever, though after a few seconds the teacher said that reality is not
reality, but what makes reality is when you believe that something is real. It
may sound a little bit confusing, yet it solved my doubts.
Then, two
questions came up immediately to my mind: Do we all see the same realities? Or,
do we each construct our own reality based on our previous experiences?
I think that
reality is different for each individual, and it is created by our own
background knowledge and experiences we have lived. Nevertheless, I strongly
believe that there are patterns that have been arbitrarily accepted by
everybody in order to create a shared reality. What I mean is that even though
each individual has their own reality on their minds, there are things we all
share and consider real; for instance colors, what a chair is, etc.
A couple of days
ago, I saw this picture on the internet that made me realized that reality is
in fact related to language. We can see that Abracadabra, a magicians’
worldwide-used world to “make magic,” means I
create what I speak. So the “reality” that magicians show us when making a
woman disappears and telling us that she’s actually gone is reality for us.
The concept of
language was mentioned during the class and how it creates or modifies our
reality. I can say that words have changed throughout
the years due to the fact that reality is made by language and it controls us
somehow. That is why feminist movements in the60s and70s tried to change the usage
of certain words like male nurse for nurse, spokesman for spokesperson, man
hours for working hours, and so on. They tried to stop sexism, and they wisely
realized that language does actually modify the way people are viewed and
perceived.
It is also important to highlight
that these two concepts (reality and language) are strongly related due to the
fact that reality could be said to be a rumor brought to us through the language.
Another concept discussed in class was centrality: to
focus on ideas that have a fix concept, like history, men, women, and love. Artist
should avoid concepts related to centrality and should focus and make the
reader see reality through the point of view of difference. That is why
avoiding centrality will give the opportunity to artists of creating original
works. Moreover, the reality of books should have a meaning in people’s real
life. This is the case of Mr. Cunningham, he also believe that avoiding
centrality would lead him to original works.
ResponderBorrarAs a reply to your comment on reality (“what makes reality is when you believe that something is real”), I can say: "Don't believe everthing you think" (I was going to upload a picture with those words, but the blog doesn't allow me to do it). Since the human mind is so powerful, we should be careful with the different perceptions of reality that our minds hold. On this account, imagine what might think about a person suffering from anorexia. It is no surprise that s/he could think that s/he looks fat even though s/he can be very skinny. The fact that human beings internalize thoughts, values, ideologies, etc., is very disturbing because they blind us from reality, just like anorexia in the previous example. I think that the perceptions of reality of our minds don’t reflect an absolute accurate reality. In this way, it is up to each person to make sense of the world, even though it may seem a very absurd one like in Waiting for Godot. The problem here is believing in something blindly because this distorts reality, and makes difficult to know where reality ends and where our distorted interpretations begin.
I liked reading your entry, Oscar. In my personal opinion, this is a very interesting topic. In connection with the idea you are portraying, we are supposed to create our own reality by using language because through it we are able to convey meaning and make sense. Interestingly, Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot— now that they have been mentioned by our classmate, I’m going to refer to them—are two beings connected one another through this communication that they are having in their dialogues.
ResponderBorrarIf we are the ones in charge of making sense of life, so that means for me that we stand on nothing. This must be the reason why the scenario of the play is empty—I watched the play on youtube—because we stand on nothing and we are creating our own reality while we are communicating with other beings and when we are simply making sense of the our actions and thoughts.
From this point, another connection that I am able to establish is related to the concept portrayed by Woolf, it’s that life is uncertainty, we are in constant doubt of everything. What do you think, guys? Do you agree with me?
Oscar, after having read your entry I dare to say that you have a very important point when you explain what reality is. Regarding your question “Do we all see the same realities?,” certainly we all have different views on what reality is and the way we see it. Moreover, what really modifies this reality is the fact that the land is different for everybody, and how we -separately- interpret it will depend on the knowledge of the world that we already have with us. So, in Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa sees the world according to what she thinks. For instance, the party scene was full of her individual thoughts whenever a new guest entered the house. There we could see that she had a different reality for each person –according to the way she interpreted their different realities. And in The Hours, this is reflected in the fact that there are three different realities at once: Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa, and Mrs. Brown; each of them with her own priorities, dreams, and perspectives on life.
ResponderBorrarPersonally, each person constructs his/her own reality according to this background knowledge, and it depends on the capacities that this person has what would allow him/her to interpret and accept the ripples that life offers every day.