Window Who?
By on July 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Would you call time visible language?
It’s just a question.
I’ve been talking to this blogger for many reasons. One of them is because of my job. The others are obvious. When I asked her who she most wanted to reach with her blog, she said:
“The answer to this is easy: teenage girls. I’ve said on several occasions that I’m writing the blog for my teenage self, and in so many ways, that’s true. I wish she had understood how amazing and strong and full of potential she was. I wish she’d been more outgoing, pursued her secret dreams, tried out for cheerleading, acted in the school play, and done sports even if she wasn’t the best at it. I wish she’d believed that people thought she was pretty—and that if they didn’t, it was their problem, not hers. I wish she hadn’t been governed so much by fear and self-loathing, had been a little braver and a whole lot more confident. I wish she’d known how beautiful she was. And there are armies and armies of teenage girls out there who feel that same paralyzing insecurity. And those are the girls I’m talking to when I say beauty standards are impossible. Self-loathing is a waste of time. You should do all you can to understand the cultural forces that are trying to control you. You are so, so beautiful. Love yourself.”
Time. Metaphor. Language. Clarity. (Non)Sense.
How much of our reality our language do we write and build and shape for our “self” of “another time”? If time is visual language, if it is a product of our syntax of sight, time is one of the most heartbreaking (yes, that complex emotion, dare I say it again, heartbreaking) collective art pieces of all time. Would you dare!
If the building blocks/pixels/cells of language is words, what then, my dearest reader, is time? Is it a words counter part, it’s other? No. I don’t think so. If it is itself a syntax, influencing syntax, but a creation thereof, could it then be… yes, that is what I am getting at, just words. It is languages teenage self, making her regret even though she (time) is a complete creation of the present (and there is no past), always self. Maybe.
I guess what I’m saying is, I was thinking about how often that idea resurfaces, “What I wish someone would have said to me,” and that person makes a point of being that person that says those words. This desire we have has everything to do with regret and consequently time. But time is full of inconsistencies. “I am saying this to myself.”
Anyways.
The Container Store on the Avenue of the Stars is the worst place in the world. Just TRY and make a decision in there. I dare you. Actually, I do not wish that horror on anyone. It is a mockery. I am sorry for ever thinking it would improve my life or sooth my anxiety.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Window.
Window who?
Window we Ketchup?
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Comments (3)
Also, seriously. When do we catch up?
Posted by Matthew 
| July 3, 2008 @ 12:29 PM
Yes, I would call time a visible language. YOU SAID IT ABSOLUTELY. Thank you for asking.
Time, whatever it may be, only exists and makes itself known to us as narrative. And I think that, like language/words, it needs others (people, objects, fields) to express itself in relation to. Like, time only exists in the space between kind of idea.
Also, as you know, I’ve been thinking a lot about how language alienates us from ourselves, and I think that’s another parallel/link you can draw between language and time… “This desire we have has everything to do with regret and consequently time. But time is full of inconsistencies. ‘I am saying this to myself.’” Both fail us and outrun us.
You’re cool.
Posted by Alisha | July 3, 2008 @ 4:18 PM
First, it reminded me of this (which I did).
I like the idea of imagining what you wanted to hear most as your teenage self to help other people. I don’t like the idea of regretting something you did or didn’t do. It’s impossible or doesn’t matter or something like that.
“You should do all you can to understand the cultural forces that are trying to control you.”
Man, I really like this lady. Maybe we should all do this. Even today. Right?
I HATE THE CONTAINER STORE.
Posted by Matthew
| July 3, 2008 @ 12:16 PM