You're Talking A Lot, But You're Not Saying Anything

So I was writing about the unreliability of quotes the other day and it turned into something else. As I think about it, what I cited, the kid who plagiarized and fabricated events, was probably more about the practice of believing whatever you believe and creating a narrative that comforts you in that belief. It wasn't so much about the unreliability of quotes, or if it was about that, it was only obliquely.

Maybe what I was thinking about quotes is connected to that. Or maybe there is nothing in either of those ideas and I jumped quickly from one to the other because I couldn't rest steadily on either.

That said, I'm returning to it.

Outside right now, there are birds doing "it" on a hand rail.

What does that mean?

There are birds doing "it" on a rail. That's true. At the moment I write this, there are birds outside the window, doing "it." How convenient that Spring is in the air.

"It" is sex. DId you guess that? If you did, it wasn't because "it" always means sex. If you didn't know that, it wasn't simply because there is no clear antecedent to "it" in that sentence. That's a strange one. There isn't a single idea that "it" always refers to. In fact, that's the fun thing about "it." It can refer to any number of things. The coffee burned me. It was hot. That movie was lame, it didn't make sense. The van ran over her. It killed her. It can mean coffee, a movie, a van, or whatever else you want it to. That doesn't mean words mean nothing- or rather anything. In this case it means that's the purpose of "it." Its purpose is to be a reference to something else- a specific something else that can be any thing.

In "doing 'it,'" something similar occurs, but rather than a regular antecedent or reference to anything that preceded it, its meaning comes from something else. We generally know what it means by where we see "it." In the case of "doing 'it'" though, we know what it means because of who we are. That is, in "The dog has cancer; it will die," there appears to be a meaning of it that does not depend on the reader. But "it" in quotes, as in, "There are birds doing 'it'" means something that depends on writer and reader for meaning. "It" doesn't mean sex, except that it does because we say it does, and who "we" are is a specific community with boundaries.

Does that mean that we understand everything that way just because we can understand some things that way? Well, I would say "mostly yes," but that's not my point. My point is, in this case, the quotes let you know there is something more.

If I say something like, "She's really 'pretty.'" You should know I mean something other than what we generally mean by pretty with that. The quotes show you that when I say she is pretty, you probably shouldn't believe that's exactly what I mean. You should probably guess she is something other than pretty and you need to know more about me, her, the context, our values regarding pretty, and who knows what else, to know what I do mean. A regular meaning of pretty might be the starting point for what I mean, but we can't leave it at that. We can't so much rely on an agreed meaning of pretty when I put it in quotes, even if we could otherwise.

Also when I say something like, Cyndi said, "I wish you were dead" you would need to know that it refers to more than what is said. In fact, alone, the words in quotes aren't very reliable. Despite a huge life insurance policy, Cyndi doesn't really wish I was dead.

So the quotes say there is something else going on, but they also say this is what occurred. She said that she wishes you were dead is different than she said, "I wish you were dead." We need to give this occurrence meaning.

She said, "I wish you were dead." That is something that actually occurred. There is a moment when that happened. But knowing that it happened is not the same as knowing what it means. My President said, "We do not torture." (Ahh ha ha- you knew it would come to this.) That happened too.

But what do these happenings mean? "I wish you were dead" does not mean what it appears to mean, though it is a fact that she said "I wish you were dead." "We do not torture," does not mean what it appears to mean, though it is a fact that My President said "We do not torture." What is the meaning we give these things? Well you could say that my wife and My President are liars. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Their words are false, they say what they don't mean. Or they mean what they say, but what they mean isn't simply in the words that leave their mouths. Maybe both statements would benefit from a rim shot and a laugh track. Maybe those statements depend upon who says them and who we are for meaning. Maybe these are acceptable lies based upon who you think you are. Or maybe they aren't lies at all based upon who you are. Maybe one is a lie and one isn't.

Who am I, what is my identity if I know the first is a lie but it's okay? What do I value, what do I overlook? Who am I if I know the second is a lie but it's okay? What do I value, what do I overlook?

...

I'm paying up on the lunch I owe Bob today so rest assured, the Red Letter
Headline game is still on and people actually get their prizes.

I Heard an Orchestral Version of Baba O'Riley and Liked It
Gingerbread Boy- Miles Davis
Noose- Tripping Daisy
Prick- Tripping Daisy
Cancer For the Cure- The Eels
There Is No Greater Love-Dizzy Gillespie
Freedom of Choice- Devo
A Quick One, While He's Away- The Who (2 x's- I really like this song)
Testify- Rage Against the Machine
Forever Young- Bob Dylan
You Are the Sunshine of My Life- Stevie Wonder
A Commercial- Dead Kennedys