To borrow Kendrick Lamar’s first words from his latest album, I’ve been going through something, be afraid. My therapist suggested recently that I return to my writing projects and, what do you know, I’ve been back on this URL writing about … linguistic theory? Proust? What’s going on here? Well, nothing too out of the … Continue reading Journaling
Author: danconley
And Then What?
So in my last post, I noted the freedom that comes with the knowledge that human language — as explained by linguist Noam Chomsky — did not evolve as a form of communications, but rather as a way of explaining and expressing our thoughts and feelings. This, in turn, becomes a comforting answer to the … Continue reading And Then What?
Words Failing
A friend today gifted me a wonderful thought by way of the linguist Noam Chomsky. It may seem like a very academic proposition on the surface, but to me it was one of the most beautiful and optimistic ideas I have ever considered. As a writer, I have long felt a sense of sadness over … Continue reading Words Failing
The Prisoner
I wrote a little bit about Proust earlier this month and decided this week to re-read the one book in his Lost Time series that I remember least — his novel-within-the-novel THE PRISONER. It’s one of the shortest segments in the project and probably the simplest story of them all because there are only a … Continue reading The Prisoner
Cosmic Claptrap
I came across this story today that seemed illustrative of issues I've been thinking about for awhile. The gist of the piece is that it's entirely possible -- maybe even likely -- that alien civilizations are trying to contact us, but the quantum information they are sending us would be impossible to decipher even if … Continue reading Cosmic Claptrap
Proust on Intuition and “Love”
I’ve read Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” a couple times, in two different translations, and I’m often tempted to take a third pass. It’s easy to get lost in the beauty of his prose, but what draws me back from time to time are his ideas … his thoughts about art, philosophy, and memory … Continue reading Proust on Intuition and “Love”