Choice of Name: The original name chosen was metaphorical. However, an awareness of the prevalence of metaphor in mythic and universal language made this less satisfactory. Evocative was the next notion, but this is again to general. In the end, I preferred to emphasise the holistic nature.
Essence
This is the language of experiential truth and reveals a common awareness expressed as deep beliefs. It is characteristic of serious art. Words, phrases, sounds, images, shapes and more are chosen to evoke the sense and spirit of a specific human situation or social nexus. The thought processes are allusive and contextual. While often indirect, the event or account must be within social norms so that others can engage with it and the desired awareness and inner response can be evoked.
Features
Communication can therefore :
awaken—awareness of life's complexities and uncertainties
illuminate—unexpected patterns and so produce deep understanding
reveal—phenomena suppressed by official and unofficial censors
expose—secrets and hypocrisies in everyday life
excite—passions that may lead to significant change
The media for communication go beyond speaking and writing to artistic endeavours of all sorts: painting, installations, sculpture, mosaics, cartoons, films,
Hamlet's famous soliloquy in Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1
To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.–Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d.
This famous painting was created in response to the bombing of a Basque village in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It shows the tragedies of war and the suffering inflicted, especially on innocent civilians. A simple analysis is provided on wikipedia.
Quality novels that capture life—e.g. major works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens—commonly get turned into plays, films, and TV series. Film versions of Dostoyevsky's novels are unfortunately scarce outside Russia.
In 1961, Muriel Spark wrote a short highly successful novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It is ranked amongst the best English language novels of the last century. As a result of its emotional power, it was adapted for stage in 1966, and then into a highly regarded film with Maggie Smith in the title role. It was further developed as a television series in the UK.
Criticisms: Fair and Unfair
The method requires a considerable talent in the creator and a degree of sophistication for the recipient. As a result, the communication can be viewed as over-complicated or even opaque. Emotion may be viewed as missing or excessive.
There is a need to create a story focus around a few specific persons with whom the reader can identify. So, if the account purports to be about an actual event, then those involved or engaged in scholarship may view it as distorted, one-sided, over-simplified.
Still this is the realm of great literature and great art: an absolute triumph of human consciousness.
Originally posted: 5-Jan-2013. Last amended: 10-Feb-2023.
All material here is in a draft form. There will be errors and omissions. Nothing should be copied or distributed without express permission. Thank you.
Music: Mahler's Sympony No. 2 "Resurrection"