May 31, 2003 at 4:29 pm

Snapping synapses...

Synapse Yesterday was rather unproductive from an intellectual standpoint. It was the last day of my week off before Summer School begins. I hadn’t gotten too much accomplished during my week off, except for rest — which I guess is a good thing to get on a vacation. But, if you know me, you know that I’ve always got to be doing something. So, after Morning Prayer, I came home and got to work. I put a shelf up in my studio after putting it off for about a month. I cleaned the entire house, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, etc. I even polished the light fixture in our kitchen. But intellectually, I didn’t waste too much time.

Last night, though, while talking with my brother, Luke, on the phone, he mentioned that my Blog has a lot of postmodern verbiage in it. Does it? I mean, I have studied postmodernism, I have read a lot of postmodern literature, and my latest film (see below) was an experiment on many postmodern concepts… My church even touts itself as being a “postmodern church.” (Not to mention the domain name of my website!) But “postmodernism in my writing”? Sure, why not!

Luke is currently studying linguistics in Dallas, Texas. Not too long ago, they studied the concept of “sense.” Not as it pertains to us, as humans, touching, tasting, and smelling things (actually, the second meaning of the word), but as it pertains to words and the different senses of meaning that they convey. Take, for instance, the word “dig“ (as I have used it on the right side of this page). Not only does it mean “to break up, turn, or loosen,” but it also means to “pay attention to, notice, understand, or appreciate.” That is what is meant by different “senses” of a word.

In my latest film, Creative Regression: A Frictional Prolepsis (if that doesn’t sound like postmodernese gibberish, I don’t know what does!), I use the phrase, “I will strain to understand.” You can figure out the different “senses” of that on your own, I hope. But is “sense” the same at double entendre? While similar, I don’t think that “sense” implies anything so risqué. ( There’s a great old Film Noir movie where some policemen are searching a woman’s apartment when one of them says, Girl With Pears “Ma’am, we won’t be finished here until we search your drawers.” And the woman comes back, “But, Officer, you haven’t even asked me out yet.” )

No, sense tends to be much more subtle than a simple double entendre. And it doesn’t even need to occupy the same language ( e.g., the word “ au pair“ is French and sometimes refers to “a young foreign girl” and “a pair“ is English for “two corresponding things,” but when spoken aloud, could mean the fruit “a pear“ ). Another example is in a book that Julianna is reading (Expecting Adam, by Martha Beck), that points out the peculiar sign found in most hospital waiting rooms: “Patient Waiting.” Well, the hospital does trust that the people present are all patients, but even more so, I think that they hope the patients are all patiently waiting.

Which brings me to my snapping synapses. Are they making a snapping, popping sound or are they snapping, breaking in half? After this post, you be the judge.