Thursday, August 15, 2013

"The most important things are the hardest to say". The trouble with language

The language barrier has been tough in South America, truth be told I'm enjoying the challenge also. Ultimately though "words are inert"



Waking Life (2001)
KIM KRIZAN: Creation seems to come out of imperfection. It seems to come out of a striving and a frustration. This is where, I think, language came from. I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation and have some sort of connection with one another...
I found an excerpt of this quote in a bookstore in Germany at the start of my EuroTrip in 2011. It's always stuck with me. Didn't realise how awesome it was in full.
“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear.”
- Stephen King, 'Different Seasons'
It captures the feeling I have when I can't quite impart the experiences I've had traveling and partly why I don't bother so much with photos.

Sourced from amigo: 'Nada en Realidad' Tumblr
It's why I take stock in living in the moment and valuing the fact experience is felt in the bones.

- When words fail: Language and Connection in South America
- 'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism

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