Sans Soleil again...

[bcholmes]

Re-reading the transcript of Sans Soleil again, I pondered this quotation:

I took the measure of the unbearable vanity of the West, that has never ceased to privilege being over non-being, what is spoken to what is left unsaid.

It was especially interesting to juxtapose that quotation beside some recent discussions about direct versus indirect communication. Especially beside the complaint that indirect communicators expect people to be mind readers.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of my favorite Alan Watts quote: "Of course light shines in darkness. What else would it shine in?"

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I think sometimes that "direct" communication is an illusion of sorts. It seems to me that the point of direct communication is the point of having a cheap curtain in front of the man operating the levers. It is to say, "There is no indirect communication here. I am laying it all out in the open. If you were to write my words down and show them to another, they would be able to understand the entirety of the communication. If you were to write my words down in another language which retains meaning but destroys nuance, it would not affect this tract." If that were true, it would be all about being over non-being. However, more often than not, that message is a smokescreen to cover the vast amount of "indirect" communication, and to disavow responsibility for it. The speaker often uses body language, tone, and situational cues to drive home their message indirectly, and uses the cloak of direct communication to allow them to say that if any offense is taken or if any problem ensues that does not directly address itself to the polemic, it is the problem of the perceiver and their "reading into" the communication things which are not there.