What are Words for when no one listens anymore?

 

The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages – Frederick Bodmer (1914)

SUN RA Reading List

 

            The great Sun Ra has yet to let me down.  Previously, I ran across an article listing some of Sun Ra’s favorite books, or at least books that he felt were important to read.  The first two I read were amazing.  The first, Alexander Hislop’s TheTwo Babylons, explored the ways in which organized Christianity (the Catholic church specifically) merely redressed Babylonian “pagan” religion into a new outfit, presenting it as new and couching it in the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth. The second book I read from Sun Ra’s list was P.D. Ouspensky’s A New Model of the Universe: Principles ofthe Psychological Method in its Application to Problems of Science, Religion,and Art.  This book was even denser than the previous, as Mr. Ouspensky explored the ways in which humanity has sought to understand, and disseminate, what many see as eternal wisdoms, using modern science and psychology to dissect the paths to wisdom offered by churches, esoteric mystics, and occult organizations throughout human history.

            In many ways, this current book, The Loom of Language, is equally as broad, for it seeks to not only describe the evolution of written and spoken Language, but it also hopes to educate the reader in how best to learn foreign languages. As a bi-lingual person (Spanish / English) I know the amazing benefits of speaking/reading/writing more than one language.  Mr. Bodmer, writing in the early 1900’s, also saw this benefit.  In this attempt to create a new method of language instruction, he saw international communication as the driving force for learning new languages. Ahead of the horrors of totalitarian Europe in the 30’s and 40’s Bodmer saw the correlation between a populace that does not expose itself to its neighbors or their language, and the slide into jingoism and deluded nationalism. This is what is happening in the USA currently, where anyone speaking Spanish, a language spoken in 90% of all New World countries, is assumed by ignorant people to be a criminal, “illegal alien” or poor and uneducated.  This leads to the worst kinds of overt racism.  It is even worse for the many Americans who hail from nations other than Latin America.

            Too many people see Language as a static creation, when in fact it is an ever-evolving set of ideas.  Mr. Bodmer discusses the difference between a written language and a spoken language and how this affects how language is passed on to succeeding generations.  For example, in the Roman Empire there existed at the least two separate Latin languages.  One was the formal, codified, rigid Latin of the ruling class, religion, and the highly educated.  The other was an informal, spoken Latin, used by the masses in their day-to-day lives.  It was this informal spoken Latin that slowly morphed through time and distance into what are called the Romance Languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian).  Meanwhile, the Church, education, science, utilized the rigid formal Latin and politics for centuries after Rome fell.  In many parts of Europe, until the late 1800’s, university education was conducted in Latin.  Today many Roman Catholic Church services still hold Mass in Latin. (Funny aside, no one really knows how to pronounce anything in Latin, as it has been a dead language for centuries.  Even so, priests continue to vocalize what they feel is Latin-sounding pronunciations of their Mass.)

            Mr. Bodmer not only does an amazing job of describing how languages morph and evolve, he constantly provides examples and word lists to detail how linguists came to know what they know, how they connected languages that seem disparate but come from common sources, and how they are able to explore seemingly dead languages by comparison to living ones.  This is just the beginning, for the bulk of the book deals with learning the actual languages, or at least learning the tools by which a reader can begin to explore new languages.  Long chapters provide detail on the grammar of Anglo-American English.  English as we know it today is very far removed from its Teutonic roots, having absorbed words and phrases from so many languages.  French, Spanish, and Greek are among the many languages that have found their place in the English vocabulary. 

Bodmer details the many prefixes and suffixes found in English describing which ones are from what root tongue.  This mish-mash of language makes English a bit complex, as words that sound the same in the ear may mean completely different things, based on the source language.  For example, the Latin phrase “ante” means “before,” as in the words anteroom, antecedent, etc.  The Greek phrase “anti,” pronounced exactly as the Latin “ante,” means “against/not,” as in the words antipodes, antifascist, antagonist, etc.  While this makes English a tough language for a non-speaker to master, it allows an English speaker to understand foreign words much more quickly.  This may be why English has spread throughout the world as the unofficial language of international business.

The evolution of Teutonic and Romance languages is thoroughly explored.  At all turns Mr. Bodmer reiterates the need for an international language, capable of fostering communications between the people of the world.  This was his lofty goal.  It is scary to think that, just a few years later the horrors of totalitarianism, nationalism, and bigotry would turn much of the world into a war zone.  It would probably make Mr. Bodmer sick to know that, decades after surviving the cataclysm, our “leaders” continue to push our nations into authoritarian, jingoistic, nationalistic fervors.  “Us” versus “Them” is a pointless exercise, meant only to divide the people while those in power maintain their death grip on us.  Just like all human beings, all human languages, when traced back, come from the same place.  We are all together in this world, and languages add to that beauty.  It is upon each of us to try to learn more than one language, and by extension, to understand each other better.  I can see why a visionary like Sun Ra would recommend this book.  Anyone seeking to learn new languages would be well-off reading this.  We must continue to fight the good fight against willfully proud ignorance and intellectual blindness.

(This book can be read/downloaded here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/255464/07f8d71c7c840bec709cf5a38e7da300.pdf )

Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa hang out, listen to records, and talk about music.

Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa – Haruki Murakami (2016)

“Like love, there can never be too much ‘good music.’ “ - Haruki Murakami

The Japanese author Haruki Murakami has been one of my favorites ever since I first read A Wild Sheep Chase in my sophomore year of University (oh so very long ago...around 1992-1993).  I owe my love of Murakami to my man Elliott French, who loaned me his copy of that book.  I have also been aware of Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s work, as I spent 7 years playing cello in the school Symphony Orchestra.  Coupled with my father’s enjoyment of classical music at home, this left me with a life-long love of classical symphonic and chamber music.  When I read that Haruki Murakami’s newest book was to focus on conversations between these two giants, and their shared love of music, I grew restless to read it.  Thank Mario for the University of Houston’s M.D. Anderson Library and the bad-ass librarians there who keep the shelves full of fresh new books!

Previously on this Intellectual Journey, I had the chance to read and write about Haruki Murakami’s first non-fiction book, the moving and shocking Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche.  Where that book delved into a tragedy that shook a nation to its core, and the after-effects of it all, this book is a joyous celebration in many respects.  Murakami has been a life-long fan of music, with a deep knowledge of Jazz and Classical music.  Ozawa has been working as a conductor since the 1960’s, where he was Leonard Bernstein’s principal assistant.  He was barely 30 years old, knew very little English, and eventually studied and worked under the tutelage of some of the greatest conductors of the 20^th century.  Both of these men have very strong opinions and ideas about music, but since one is a music creator and the other is a music aficionado, there is no rancor in any of their conversations, only mutual admiration and the joined love of good music.

The interviews recorded here were conducted over the course of several years, and include the time period when Maestro Seiji Ozawa suffered from a debilitating condition which required surgery and left him unable to conduct what was usually a quite frenzied schedule.  Through the course of these meetings, Murakami would pull out music from his vast collection of records and play them for the Maestro.  These included classic performances by Glenn Gould, and various world-renowned Symphony Orchestras.  Some of these were recordings of Maestro Ozawa’s performances, and others were from various contemporaries of his.  The insights that both men bring to the various recordings is just wonderful for a music nerd like me.  It is the next best thing to sitting in a room listening to music with them.  What a cream-dream that would be!

I learned quite a lot about music, about the art of conducting, about the art of teaching young students how to make good music together, and about the relationship between the conductor, the score, and the musicians that make that score come to life.   I also learned a lot about Haruki Murakami himself, and the deep musical knowledge that he has acquired over his lifetime.  Their discussions regarding the differences between a professional writer and a professional conductor make for enlightening reading.  As a writer, Murakami answers to no one, sets his own time-table, works completely alone, and keeps a very rigid schedule.  He awakens around 4 AM, writes for about 5 hours, then proceeds to go eat lunch and get on with the rest of his responsibilities.  Maestro Ozawa likewise gets up around 4 AM, but he states that he gets quite a hunger around 3 hours later, which causes him to interrupt his work.  He then spends the rest of the day in the myriad other duties of a professional conductor.  The quiet morning time is for his most difficult work, that of reading scores and understanding what the composer intended.  Murakami does not travel much due to his work, but Ozawa is all over the world, from guest conductor stints in Vienna, Berlin, Boston, etc., to his several once-a-year Orchestras that gather up players from around the world.  He has to be an organizer, a teacher, a musical genius, and above all, a leader of people.  

 While both men live in quite different worlds, their relationship only got stronger as the interviews took place.  One of the coolest things in the book is a short afterword by Seiji Ozawa where he discusses how him and Haruki met, how he grew to appreciate the talks with Haruki more and more, and how much he actually learned and remembered through the conversations.  Books like this give a great insight into the minds of genius.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music, and any fan of Haruki Murakami.  I learned a great deal.  

(On his website, Haruki Murakami lists a selection of music that he and Seiji Ozawa listened to during the course of this book’s writing, and provides links to listen to these recordings.  AWESOME.  Here is the link: http://www.harukimurakami.com/resource_category/playlist/absolutely-on-music )

(This book can be purchased here:  ABSOLUTELY ON MUSIC  )

Soft Matter, Hard Science, and How to Teach It

Fragile Objects: Soft Matter, Hard Science, & The Thrill of Discovery – Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Jacques Badoz (1996)

            It is rare that a book starts off due to a great idea and then the author is able to match it with the actual content found within.  That is what I have found in this great and highly informative book by the French scientist and educator, Pierre Gille de Dennes.  Because of his involvement in education he was asked to speak to the advanced science classes at many French secondary schools regarding science itself, the pursuit of a career in science, and the methods by which science is best elucidated and taught to students.  Before writing this book, Mr. Gilles de Gennes visited and spoke at over 150 different French schools, both on the continent and in various French-system schools throughout the world.  He sought to teach the students about his field, the study of soft matter and its properties, but wound up learning just as much from the questions posed to him by the many students he met along the way.

            This book is constructed in this manner, where the author discusses a specific science story that illustrates a point he is making about the properties of a soft matter such as rubber, then he details certain audience responses and/or questions that came up often during his trips.  He first describes what he studies, which are long, chain molecules called polymers.  Polymers are naturally all around us, from the keratin in our fingernails and hair, to the collagen in our ligaments and skin, to the snot created by our mucus glands.  The author focuses on one type per chapter. In the first chapter, he tells the students how the native people of South America would use a certain tree’s latex to coat their feet and ankles.  After an hour or so, this liquid latex turned into a solid material, natural rubber.  The native people did not know why this occurred, or why, after about a day, their rubber coatings would begin to fall apart and become unusable.  He then explains to the students that the latex combined with the free oxygen in our atmosphere.  These oxygen atoms would bond with the latex at various points and change the properties of the latex from a liquid to those of a solid.  The reason that the rubber “boots” would disintegrate is that nothing stopped the oxygen from continuing its reactions, so eventually so many oxygen atoms bond with the latex that the bonds between the latex are broken, causing the disintegration of the natural rubber.  It was not until Mr. Goodyear experimented with adding trace amounts of sulfur to cooking latex that an actually durable rubber was created.  We call this vulcanized rubber, because of the added sulfur, and it is still in use in every single vehicle tire around, not to mention a host of other uses. 

While this is a neat story in and of itself, the author seeks to also prod the students into pursuing their ideas by describing how it took another hundred plus years after Mr. Goodyear vulcanized rubber, to actually begin to understand the physical and chemical reasons for the valuable reaction.  Why did not one seek to follow up on it?  Who knows, but it is the spirit of curiosity that is most alive in those that seek to become scientists.

Other chapters deal with soft matter such as soap bubbles, liquid crystals, wetting and de-wetting, India ink, and many other of the everyday items around us that are touched by the science of “soft matter.”  For instance, one of the interesting things is that a minute quantity of a substance can greatly change the properties of something else.  Ink, for instance.  Most ink is just minute particles of carbon floating in water.  The issue with keeping ink for any length of time is that the particles will all coalesce and sink to the bottom of the container, essentially separating the two components of the ink.  Back in human history, someone figured out that a tiny amount of gum Arabic (sap from a Mediterranean tree) added to the ink kept it from separating and would last over a year.  This is what we call India ink.  The addition of Gum Arabic helped coat each of the individual carbon particles with a one atom thick layer of gum, keeping the particles from collecting and settling down to the bottom.  Now, it took hundreds of years for someone to figure out WHY it worked (in terms of physics), but it is amazing that it was actually discovered!

            The author also describes his personal scientific quest, as he proceeded to leave behind scientific disciplines in favor of new fields ripe for exploration.  Sometimes it is the only option for a scientist.  Certain fields stagnate, whether due to lack of funding or due to a bottleneck in technological ability.  The author went from studying surfactants (molecules with two separate ends each with different chemical properties) which are used throughout human industry, the most familiar ones being the varieties of soaps we have access to, to studying adhesives and their properties.  Each time he made a change he had to spend years learning the foundational ideas of the new field.  This is something that he made a very good point of sharing with his students.  It is very difficult to pick a new field of research and be successful in it.  It takes teamwork, patience, and the true love and desire to learn something new.  Many people, even top scientists, do not have such fortitude.

I would recommend this book to any secondary school educators out there, for it is a great study and critique of the methods used in the author’s home of France to teach children.  He describes the French over-reliance on teaching theory as opposed to practical applied science and engineering.  He describes the triumphs and challenges faced by American school systems and the methods used to foster academic excellence in the USA.  It is all very interesting and will give me much to think about for a long time to come.

(This book is available for purchase here: FRAGILE OBJECTS )

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge – Abraham Flexner (1939)

            One of the most disheartening developments in education in my lifetime has been the emphasis placed on teaching students only the knowledge and subjects that have practical, or “useful,” content.  Every year more and more people want their kids to study only the fields in which a great salary is guaranteed.  Learning for learning’s sake is frowned upon by helicopter parents who push their kids to fit a predetermined mold.  This is a huge disservice to the students.  One of the greatest advantages of a University education used to be that you learned how to educate yourself for the rest of your life.  This was what a well-rounded education was to provide.  Critical thinking skills, deep curiosity about the world, a variety of experience and wisdom from a wide field of human intellectual endeavors, and the ability to be a well-rounded adult were all worthy goals in and of themselves, without regard to future employ-ability or salary.  It is quite eye-opening to read Abraham Flexner’s essay from a 1939 issue of Harpers Magazine.  He was confronted by the same problem 80 years ago. 

            I have never read a better argument for letting students, artists, researchers, and scientists explore anything and everything that may cross their minds, regardless of whether it applies to their respective titles or fields of study.  Mr. Flexner explores the many fields deemed “useless” and finds that in each and every case, these useless ideas or curiosities either contribute greatly to the well-being of humanity as a whole (as in the case of the arts, music, and literature) or they end up adding another piece of knowledge to the vast amount collectively gathered by humanity, to be filed away until some other curious person finds it and uses that knowledge to create a new mechanism, or technology, or even just a new use for something already existing.  There is no way to determine what field of study will lead to something “useful,” which is the whole reason that nothing a human is curious about is actually “useless.”

            Mr. Flexner provides examples from various fields, each a seemingly unimportant exploration by a human mind that turns out to shine a light on a previously unknown corner of knowledge.  He cites the then very current issues arising from totalitarian fascist states in Germany and Italy curtailing “frivolous sciences” and “useless” explorations.  This led to many of the most genius humans on the planet to make their way to the United States, where they could join places like the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.  This institute was solely dedicated to the search for knowledge and had such a minimal infrastructure that any one person could cooperate and learn from any other, allowing geniuses in science and the humanities to explore wherever their curiosity led them.  Learning itself is what was cultivated.

            I have always been intellectually curious about nearly everything in the world around me.  There are many people who think that specialization is the true mark of genius or dedication, or intellectual rigor.  These people, while they may achieve much, are missing out on the whole picture.  I personally am an artist.  I paint and draw and I love to study art.  I am also a hardcore music fanatic.  These two fields are not mutually exclusive to most people.  I am also a deep, deep lover of all things scientific, especially the field and history of Physics.  In this case, countless people cannot fathom that a human can be artistically inclined and scientifically inclined and enjoy both equally.  I feel that, beyond the pure joy of learning itself, my scientific knowledge informs my art, and my art knowledge informs my scientific curiosities.  I am also a hardcore sports fanatic, especially my beloved American Football and all my Houston, Texas sports teams.  I have been ridiculed by sports people who do not think I am a “true fan” because art is not for jocks, and I have been ridiculed by the arts crowds for showing up to a gallery wearing a Texans jersey.  These close-minded fools will never understand, and they will never learn, until they decide to explore what intrigues them without the fear of ridicule by the people in your chosen peer group.  If only this great essay by Mr. Abraham Flexner was required reading in the schools.  Share it with someone that has been stifled in their curiosity.   It may change a life.

(This essay can be downloaded in PDF format from Harpers Magazine here: https://library.ias.edu/files/UsefulnessHarpers.pdf )