Another filler post. This is Stephen J. Fry and Hugh Laurie doing a comedy sketch on language.
I’m reluctant to weigh this down with commentary on my part, but despite supposedly being a comedy sketch, this video elegantly and lovingly lampoons its subject. Language is our mansion and our prison. The dearest counterpoint to the immediate and unfiltered experience of this moment, a la zazen. Compare Fry’s “unique child” to the quote from William S. Burroughs in my first post.
Zazen is the allowing of being and the observation of that being, whatever it is. It can be likened to sight. Language is the creation or construction of thought forms, and by them an experience of reality. It is an action, even when it has a clarifying effect.
If Stephen’s assertion were true that humans only use a small portion of the total language, only very repetitively, then what kind of reality could we create if our minds were freed to create with the whole diversity of language?
Tags: Hugh Laurie, Language, Stephen J. Fry, William S. Burroughs
August 26, 2009 at 11:48 pm |
This is *exactly* what I needed this afternoon. I love British comedy, and I adore Hugh Laurie as House. So when I needed a “House fix” the other day, it was YouTube to the rescue, with with a Laurie sketch from a similar era –
Thank goodness for being able to find these clips. And thank *you* for bringing this one to me today. I’m sure you’ve pleased many linguists with this “filler.”
Stace
August 31, 2009 at 4:43 am |
Oh yes, “A bit of Fry and Laurie” is one of my favorites.
It is a bit of travesty to call that filler. I just really like posting original material.