"When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to."
-Zora Neale Hurston-
6 comments:
I have heard some people describe their thoughts as pictures, saying things like, "I think in pictures." I never got that. I don't. I think in words - or depending on what I'm thinking about - numbers. My thought picture doesn't materialize as an image but rather a string of concepts often symbolized by letters strung together to encode and later decode them.
That probably didn't answer the question, but it's all I got.
Michele sent me,
Mike
Mr. Althouse - I think Hurston's use of the word "picture" here is not so much literal mental images, but more as a metaphor for the way these folks could make their stories come alive - their words were so vivid and their stories so exaggerated it was like you could "see" their thoughts like a painting, or a "crayon enlargement of life."
I find it fascinating, however, how you think in symbols or concepts rather than images... as a bi-lingual, pleople used to always ask me which language I dream in... something I could never answer... language doesn't enter my dreams - I dream in pictures - like a silent film! :)
I love that passage - ordinary words strung together in a way that I just want to chew on them. One of my favorite passages is from "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell:
"And the sun poured in like butterscotch/and stuck to all my senses." The whole song is filled with imagery like that but this is my favorite. Hello from Michele!
Dara - what a great line! Thanks for sharing :)
I'm still thinking about my dreams last night (it's morning here) in which I was back at a very strange high school assembly cum graduation. My mother apparently had been the keynote speaker, but I missed her speech. The headmistress kept telling me how inspiring and wonderful it had been. I haven't dreamed of her for years that I can remember - perhaps she turned up for Mother's Day.
Here from Michele's
i've been thinking about my mom today
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