Etymology - Energy

Joy, rapture, bliss. No not synonyms for energy, merely a reflection of how much I love it when things turn out to be one way and not another.

I'm running into energy as a concept used by performance theorists and others, when looking at how we make/receive meaning when confronted with performance (in its broadest sense, which can include simply focusing our engaged attention on a stationary object). I was wondering why they had taken on such a scientific term.

Of course it isn't a scientific term at all. The earliest recorded meanings in fact relate to "force or vigour of expression", apparently as a result of misunderstanding Aristotle's usage of the Greek term which means energy or work. Its use in physics only comes much later. (OED provides)

Along the way, it has refered to the exercise of power to produce action, working, the vigour or intensity of utterances and other actions, and therefore also been used as a characteristic of an individual.

I am intrigued in the connection with work... because obvious work or effort in performance can be a limiting factor to the performance energy... but without work or effort on some level the performance may be felt to have no energy...

Neologism - Splishy Splashy

Actually ten years old, but only, I think, used in certain circles. I hope, it didn't have currency before the British TV series Black Books, but among my peers it is a reference to wine, borrowed from the vocabulary of the seasons lead character of the series Bernard, played by the estimable Dylan Moran. Urban Dictionary confirms the usage.

It is most noted for the fact that it can be used as question or request, without requiring any other words, or clarifying context.

Splishy Splashy on a rising, questioning intonation is never confused with an inquiry as to whether one would like to stomp in puddles, go swimming or otherwise engage with liquids, but always whether one would like some wine, usually red.
Splishy Splashy in an imperative tone, or indeed a pleading one, will not result in someone putting into your hand a coffee, beer or beverage other than wine (unless of course, they set out to frustrate you).

I am uncertain how far the term has spread into general usage.

Telling Phrases - "They're Fancy"

Uttered by my hostess Laura, in her kitchen in Berkeley, San Francisco, looking at the cakes we had brought to add to the dinner table that evening, before I went to tell stories at her husband's school the next day.

It made me turn round and ask "are you from Michigan?" (Missouri as it turns out).
The giveaway? The midwestern F[e]ncy made her so much like Miss Janssen that even my english ear couldn't miss it.

So unexpected.

Telling Phrases - "dangerous to proceed beyond this point"

About 100 yards back from the bottom of Yosemite Falls.

I adore the wording of this sign. I'm conscious of safety warnings, I'm also particularly conscious of rules in National Parks, knowing they are made (usually, and before the recent litigious climate) for a reason - my dad used to be responsible in large part for running the Lake District National Park in the UK.

If the sign had read "danger - do not proceded beyond this point" I would probably not have scrambled over the ancient rock fall to stand close enough to feel the spray on my face. As it was it took me a good 5 minutes of standing before I found the courage. But I did.

I hope that Yosemite have phrased it that way to leave the option open, rather than through oversight.

Word Etymology - Metamorphosis

Houdini is famous for his escapes, but among magicians he is renowned for a trick that was his signature trick for many years. The trick is surrounded in mystery because it is unknown if Houdini is the original creator of it or if he received the idea and performance rights from one of his older contemporaries. The trick is called "Metamorphosis." Rather than giving a lengthy explanation of the trick I will link you to a youtube video of the metamorphosis being performed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiW1N5GIEVc

The word metamorphosis comes from the Greek word 'metamorphoun' meaning "to transform." The word comes from the combination of 'meta' meaning "change" and 'morphe' meaning "form." Metamorphosis has been associated with magic since the 1500's at least and for good reason. Changing one object into another is one of the key elements of many magic tricks.

What it means to storytelling: In many (if not most stories) there is a transformation that takes place, a metamorphosis that occurs within the main character. This happens through various struggles and trials which help to reform the character in some way. We need to embrace the idea of character metamorphosis in storytelling because it connects to every human being as change is one of the few constants in the world and everyone experiences it within their life. Metamorphosis is also very powerful because many people desire to change but struggle to do so.

Telling Use of Language 3

I saw this tag line in the Wall Street Journal, advertising itself. It said:

What do I need to know Today?

This was of course followed by the Wall Street Journal logo, but I found it very interesting what was communicated here.

This statement while short communicates several things:
1. Information is changing daily.
2. You need to know that information immediately.
3. The Wall Street Journal can keep you informed daily of what has changed since yesterday.

It is a simple reality that information is changing constantly. It is always growing and evolving and seems to never cease. There is simply too much information in the world for any one person to know all of it. Certain information is very important to a large majority of people and as such they desire to know it, but they do not want to know information that does not pertain to their lives. They only want to know what they need to know.

This is an attitude that is made clear by this tag line and is quite prevalent in other areas and systems as well. It shows a deep seated minimalist attitude that Americans have towards information, and an ignorance that says, "If I don't need to know it, I don't want to know it."

Telling Use of Language 2

So I don't know if you have ever heard of it but apparently there is this smoke-free, spit-free type of tobacco on the market called Snus. It has been very popular overseas but has only recently become all the rage in the United States and is now marketed by Camel.

I saw a Camel advertisement for Snus the other day that used the following line:

Life is not in recession... Break Free.

It was interesting because I wasn't entirely certain of what Snus was at that point so I had to google it to find out how it was going to help me break free.

With the massive healthy lifestyle trend that has become all encompassing over the last 40 years a subculture has quietly yet uncomfortably existed just below the surface. This subculture is the smokers culture. In most public places in the United States it is illegal to smoke, even outside in the open air. College campuses, airports, stores, restaurants, etc. are all off limits in most cases.

Snus is targeting the subculture of tobacco users who feel oppressed, as well as everyone else and saying, "hey, the economy maybe down, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy you're life. You may be oppressed by authorities and systems beyond your control but that doesn't mean you can't have fun and be free."

There is a desire for enjoyment, freedom, and control communicated in the ad and it is very catchy because of these motivators. Who doesn't want to enjoy their life, who doesn't want to be free, who doesn't want to control their own life/destiny?

The overall worldview behind this ad seems to be that life should be pleasurable, and that is what it communicates to it's viewers in only a few short words.

Telling Use of Language

I was perusing through GQ magazine the other day and came across the Diesel "Be Stupid" advertising campaign. I got a kick out of some of them, I hope you do too. You can check out Diesel's website to see their entire "Be Stupid" campaign. Here are my two favorites:

Smart critiques, Stupid creates... Be Stupid.

Smart has the brains, Stupid has the balls... Be Stupid.

The "Be Stupid" ad campaign is really interesting and truly (if not ironically) very clever. Diesel is really trying to do more than market clothing, they are attempting to market a lifestyle and a worldview, and one that people are very willing to buy into. Their ad campaign essentially says "you can think if you want to, and its not a bad thing, but you don't have to think... and honestly the less you think the more interesting your life will be. In almost every single picture for the campaign the "stupid" people are the ones seen having fun, being successful, and getting the girl(s).

But we all know that in the real world that's not the way it really works. Stupid people are not successful in most cases (with a few exceptions). But people want to believe that they can be stupid and be successful, because being stupid doesn't require effort. It's easy and anyone can do it. People do not want to work to attain their goals, if they did then the lottery would not be a successful enterprise.

The contrast between the first and last comment in each statement creates a rift, a gap that separates the stupid from the smart and idolizes the stupid. The stupid are seen as the victorious and the liberated while the smart are seen as failures and repressed.

This ad campaign reveals a lazy side of human nature that doesn't want to work, doesn't want to struggle, and doesn't want to think. It shows that people for the most part would much rather "Be Stupid."

Listening

Here are links to 4 storytelling sites. Please listen to at least 3 stories from each. let me know which stories you have listened to. Discuss what they all have in common and how they differ. What are the rules of grammar that you perceive?

Story Corps
The Moth
2nd Story
This American Life

*Warning: some of the stories are tagged as "explicit." Be aware that they push beyond the limits of what is usually acceptable in our more familiar storytelling venues such as The National Storytelling Festival and related festivals (i.e. Mariposa, Timpanogos, etc.).

Neologism - PostSecret

I don't know if any of you are familiar with PostSecret which is a project that was started a few years ago by a man named Frank Warren. It is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. ETSU actually hosted a PostSecret event tonight in the Culp Center. If you have never heard of PostSecret i highly recommend you check it out.

PostSecret is a word created from the merging of the word postcard or post (postal) and the word secret. The word PostSecret actually refers to the physical postcard that is sent in as well as the secret that it communicates. It has both meanings simultaneously.

What it means to storytelling: Each and every PostSecret tells a story. These stories are often very short, some only just a few words long, but they communicate volumes of meaning. PostSecret connects people in a deep and meaningful way, and I believe it is because we all have a story and we all want to be heard, understood, felt, thought of, and loved. Story can help us to do that and the PostSecret project has done such a wonderful job of allowing every person to tell their secret story.

Please take the time to check out the PostSecret website and blog and if you like it there are 5 books of PostSecrets that have been published. I would also encourage you to participate, write in a secret, free yourself of it. See the links below:

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

http://www.postsecretcommunity.com/

Spells

One other creative activity I was going to do in class:

Please create and write a magic spell to end Winter and bring on Spring. Really. Send your spells to me via email or post them to the blog. Once we have them, we'll review and discuss. This is a language experiment and we'll see where it leads us.

Catching up

Here is another directional metaphor that we need to consider. Having "fallen behind" we need to "catch up."

I am anxious to move into semantics and pragmatics in Chapter 6 of "Concise..." and then on to the scoiolinguistics of Chapter 7. Most relevent to the conversational analysis is the section on conversational maxims (Chapter6):
Maxim of Quantity
Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Relevence
Maxim of Manner
These are fairly easy to understand and should show up in your recorded conversations. Take a look and lets discuss.

Neologism - Technopain

And this one will be a neologism soon enough if it isn't already. Roz is a geek. She is also a peer group leader, and I expect to see the term echoed through quite a wide tribe of friends and accquaintances even if she coins it originally here. It refers to the particular kind of spiritual angst that a geek experiences when seperated from the technology they rely on. A term which is related to the reference to such gadgets as palm pilots as "my brain".

Neologism - Bogarted

Well as usual, almost a Neologism.

It was in the mouth of the young grad student character on the crime drama Bones, so I assumed it was intended to connote his fluency with modern youth speak. But Bones is probably on reruns, and anyway TV non youth specific TV is frequently behind the times with language. Urban Dictionary traces the usage to at least as early as 2003.

Meaning - either to steal in a shady fashion - as in the case of the TV show -said to a colleague who snuck in to an opportunity to chat to a cute delivery girl. Or to hold onto something you shouldn't keep for so long - most notably a marijuana joint. Root - nothing to do with Humphrey apparently -possibilities - either a town in Georgia or a music executive in the 70's.

Telling Phrases - "I think I might like to propose a theory of textual husbandry"

One of my classmates in Interdisciplinary research. The phrase reveals P's tentative approach to joining in discussions - I think... I might like...
It also, at least to me, from within the general conversation, shows how we are in an edge realm of meaning. The place where theory has built up so many of layers of metaphor to signify anything at all (we're in cultural theory zone, where any "research object" can be read as a "text" whether it has words or not, and where that "text" is an epihenomen which has no concrete existence, and, and). The audacity of the metaphor "textual husbandry" - we have to breed the meaning is delightful, and particularly so as it reveals P's roots in Appalachian farming culture - although to someone less familiar with her background, the reason for her choice of metaphor to shape her theory might have been unclear.

Telling Phrases - Dr Seuss's Birthday Tuesday March 2 Wear Stripes

Another Billboard. School this time, not church.
3 lines of text. Imperative mood - but interestingly, I read it as an invitation, not an instruction - and so did the pupils of the school - some had Dr Seuss hats, some wore stripes, and some did not participate. And yet nothing about the sign other the context indicated that it was an optional suggestion only. Even more surprising that the general interpretation of optional would match the intended one (I checked with a teacher - they wanted to encourage, not insist) given that the same billboard often carries messages such as "closing early for snow".
It also set me off on a number of trains of thought. I felt that the injunction to "wear stripes" stifled a potentially wider creativity of responding to a Dr Seuss theme, and wondered at the logic behind it - perhaps to save parents significant costume expense - perhaps to prevent the kind of mayhem/party atmosphere that can invade a school during full themed costume days.

It inspired me to respond a la Seuss

My name is Mike and Stripes I do not like.
Stars and spots and dots are cool to wear to school
but Stripes I do not like.

My name is Mike and birds and frogs I like
Ducks and cows and hens are perfect for my shirts
but Stripes I do not like.

My name is Mike and Stripes I do not like

I ran out of inventiveness quite rapidly therre - but you get the idea!

Code Switchiing frm Tannen

I remember African American students who did a lot of code switching, especially when they went to high schools, colleges and private schools where the population was larger and less like the neighborhood elementary and middle schools. At that time there was standard english and the neighborhood slang. Then we moved to "ebonics" used primarily by African Americans. Now, race is not necessarily the determiner of whether you use the current language. In the malls and on Utube, you see teens and young adults wearing the same clothes, talking the same language...perhaps technology has made it easier for everyone to see and hear how and what everyone is saying.

Word Etymology - Perceive

A man I once worked for told me "perception is reality." I never liked this saying. It just didn't make sense to me because perceptions can be incorrect. Perception can be crafted and shaped by certain performers such as magicians and storytellers and throughout history have been quite frequently.

The word perceive comes from the Latin word 'percipere' which literally means "to obtain, gather" and "to take entirely." The word is made up of 'per' meaning "thoroughly" and 'capere' meaning "to grasp, take." The word conveys the idea of observation and collection. But not all things can be measured, such as beauty, and nothing can be measured correctly if the measuring system is inaccurate.

What it means for storytellers: Perception is not reality. We as storytellers often craft reality and use tools such as exaggeration to make a point or be humorous. Often exaggerated statements are not accurate and not realistic, but it does not mean they are not entertaining. As storytellers we need to be aware of the misconception that "perception is reality" and make sure our audiences are aware of when our stories take a turn into the surreal. This is not to say that we cannot use "make believe" but rather that we should not attempt to take advantage of our audiences or intentionally mislead them when our performance is done.

Telling Phrases - "I'm a Clipper"

It could be the first of many Miss Jannsenisms, but I've promised not too, at least not too often. I was peering at Cathy's handful of coupons in the supermarket, she shrugged and said "I'm a Clipper". It suggested both that it could be something to be ashamed of, and that she wasn't ashamed at all.
It also signified to me, someone highly comfortable with language. An instantaneous addition of the -er suffix to the verb to clip to make a term for a certain type of shopper - yes, its a feature of all language that it is productive - but only some people dash off new words with quite such aplomb. (This meaning of Clipper doesn't even show up on Urban Dictionary, so I figure it must be unique)
I think it stuck in my mind particularly because whilst it made sense to me, in the UK, we don't clip coupons, we cut them out...

Telling Phrases - What's the letter for the sound [iə]

Well to my ear, the most telling thing about this phrase was that as far as I was concerned the little cartoon butterfly actually wanted the letter that makes the sound [I]. The word in question was Dig.
The whole set up was very interesting though. A TV show called Word Pictures. As the butterfly writes the letters with her magic wand, a floating spade digs a hole deeper and deeper, until when all 3 letters are illuminated, the hole is finished.
So many correspondences. Words as image makers, words as magical power, links to a piece of performance theory I've just been reading which emphasises shared imagery as the most important element both of performance and of experience; more links to the program that students I was telling to were using to help weaker readers, based on the belief that a lot of them struggle to visualise words.