Published: August 28, 200 Irish playwright and director Enda Walsh's play “The New Electric Ballroom.” "Words, in Mr. Walsh’s harsh but illuminating vision, are both the making of experience and its destruction. The cursed gift of speech has been used to isolate and humiliate the sisters. (“Branded, marked and scarred by talk,” Breda scowls. “Boxed by words.”) "Speak we must, of course, as both sisters attest in one of the dense, musical monologues that they recite in turn. “By their nature people are talkers,” they gabble as if by rote. “You can’t deny that. You could but you’d be affirming what you’re trying to argue against and what would be the point of that?” And so talk they do, wrapping themselves in the strange comfort of a sad story that will never end." [the whole review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/theater/reviews/28walsh.html?8dpc
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Here the Gift of Speech Becomes a Bitter Curse
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1 comments:
Ah! The connections between my classes. I'm taking a Buddhist (Dalai Lama) course right after Language, so this, I assume, will be a common parallel with me.
The review states: "But can words, the soiling, unworthy but unavoidable things, also be used to build a makeshift bridge to a life-changing connection, a release into a sunlit future?"
How appropriate of language!
Buddhists have the parable of the raft. That teachings are just a raft to get you to the other side (nirvana) where you will be happy.
I'm entirely convinced that Language was a crucial role in the expedited evolution of human beings. Maybe the gap that bridged revolutionary advancement.
I would like to see more "scraps" about language as a bridge (or raft) that helps one cross some gap in life.
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