I have an opinion; I am told repeatedly that I seem like someone who has opinions, and that is true. The problem is that when my opinion takes flight from my mouth, it suddenly completely loses its point and I seem to talk in circles. Or so I feel, at least, like what I say don't have a point and core and is far too easy to pick apart. I'm just wondering; is it like this for everyone? Because some people seem to know exactly what they're talking about; they move around in complicated expressions as if it was their own back yard, and they drive a politic standpoint or moralic right as though heaven and hell hung on it. I'm not talking about their drive or conviction or reason, I mean: how do they find the right words, how come they have opinions that fit together with the language so well? I feel like I'm trying to plant a flower using a lawnmower, or whatever weird parallell you want to use for trying to do something with tools that aren't meant for it. I know how to use a lawnmower and I know where I want the flower, but the two doesn't work very well together. Writing, where I have some more time to think, I do better, but it still feels awkward and clumsy. Hardly because the language is insufficient, I doubt that. I'm cutting diamonds with a hammer, and there's nothing wrong with the hammer, that's the best analogy I can think of right now.
This is ultimately why I write fiction; because using fiction I can present an example where eventually as the story develops it can channel the feelings, impressions and opinions I otherwise can't get through to people.
Okay, so I admit, I had philosophy today. I wasn't talked down, we had a rather good discussion, but it felt like the more I tried to explain what I meant, the less it made sense, not because of my audience but because of myself. I don't know if I'm the only one thinking like that. Because it may just be that I think it's bad because I can't go back and look at it. Usually when I write I think what I've written is bad until I read it through. Well, anyway. My question still stands:
Does everyone feel like that?
The ripples of time in stone
2 months ago
6 comments:
I know how you feel alright, I think one of the reasons is that people hold back what they are actually trying to say, and then they try to present it in a whole other way. While if it where presented in the way initially ment it would sound perfectly fine.
But you can also not overlook the fact that what you say sometimes sound better to yourself, while it also sometimes sound even better to others then it does to yourself.
Now, I wonder if that made any sense
I rarely have the problem of finding the words, except when I am trying to define a concept I am unfamiliar with or using a different language than I am used to (english instead of swedish in social and philosophical discussions and swedish instead of english in school). I think the fundamental difference is that you (maybe?) think in more abstract terms than any language permits. If a concept is well defined in terms of other established concepts that has words for them that are very exact in meaning it is easy to describe this "larger" concept. if the concept has a lot of components that are hard to define, which happens if there are no words for them or when the words have very different meanings and nuances attatched to them, it is hard to communicate these concepts to other persons.
I'm not sure if we have the same problem really.
I trip on my own ideas when I try to explain them to others.
And sometimes I simply can't decide which language I want to use. Very often English aren't acceptable and then I get lost and it takes time for me to find a good translation. At that point people just stop listening...
I can relate to not finding the right words and loosing track of the point wile explaining, but the reason why I can't and why you can't are probably very different. You move around in the language pool a lot easier than me.
Okay, how many times have I on these blogs tried to explain a point that everybody misunderstands? And then the next day I find the "right" explanation that everyone seem to understand in a later comment made by someone else. So annoying! It happens so often that I have stopped writing "That's what I meant". The point is I don't see what makes the later one more understandable. There is obviously something, but I can't see it, probably because I already take the point for granted.
F-ck I probably did it again...
No, this time I think you got it all ^^ And sorry, I think it may also be because some of us are word-freaks and perfectionists!
You're bloody smart. I know this. Putting things into understandable words in real time takes practice. I got a fair bit of it by forcing myself to be very pedagogical when writing, a method with many advantages as you are more likely to discover when you actually have gotten stuck in circular logic or conclusions with lots of loose ends.
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