Sunday, November 14, 2010

Words out of context

There is no secret to the power of words. They are the molecules of language, manipulated and built upon one another in countless structures to communicate our ideas, our feelings, our wants, needs, desires with one another.
They are, in a sense, the excuse we have for understanding one another without question, although, because we are all wonderfully human, this is not always true. For example, when someone says "I want cake," the language is intended for this to simply mean the person speaking this sentence does not have a large, iced pastry but desires that large, iced pastry. Yet, because we understand how the English language works, you would understand what I meant if I told you that, in a larger context, the person does not desire a large, iced pastry at all. In fact, since we see the statement out of context, it is in our rights to make our own assertions that the person does not want a large, iced pastry. We can make out own metaphors.
That's all I'll get into with that, but it relates to what I love about words. I love taking them out of context. Don't get me wrong, I also love a great story, and when words come together to from a complete and moving story, there might be no better demonstration of their power. But in this entry, I invite you to look at a sentence or quote out of context.
This isn't that novel of an idea. Nothing strengthens a good ole' fashioned speech like a famous quote. Quotes litter the Internet social media culture, particularly on facebook wallposts and twitter, where people try to convey a certain idea or feeling as best as possible with as few words as possible. What I love about these quotes, however, is that they tend to take on a meaning of their own out of context--or even several meanings.
In Natsume Soseki's novel The Three-Cornered World, the beautiful priestess Nami invited the narrator to open a text at random and read a portion out of context, understanding only that portion as it exists by itself. The characters did this together and, with one another, discovered an intrinsic beauty in the language.
I guess where I'm going with this is that I ask everyone reading this to do the same. Below, I've posted a few of my favorite quotes from books, songs, poems, or movies. I ask that you don't google them but rather appreciate them for what they look like by themselves. And if you want to post a comment, I ask that you do the same and post some of your favorite quotes out of context.

It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.

Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I'm corrupt to the bones.

All morning I watched the sky
from a place where I couldn't see it.

That's good thinking there, Cool Breeze.

Queen, I ain't seen you in a minute.

The blind man said, "We're drawing a cathedral. Me and him are working on it. Press hard," he said to me. "That's right. That's good," he said. "Sure you got it bub. I can tell. You didn't think you could. But you can, can't you? You're cooking with gas now. You know what I'm saying? We're going to really have us something here in a minute. How's that old arm?" he said. "Put some people in there now. What's a cathedral without people?"

Change your shirt, 'cause tonight we got style.

Heloise.
What?
I have to leave now.
No.
Yes.