Final question: What is the language of the mind?
The other night I dreamt of licking my best friend’s partner. We were in a building that resembled an assemblage of architecture – a mixture between Oxford’s Christchurch grounds, Glasgow’s University erection and Leeds’ modernist definition. Running around as we used to it just happened and my tongue sort of slipped. I licked her.
We used to count chevrons on the road driving from East Anglia to Bristol. “Chevron” resounded in the car every time one shoved itself under the nose of the bonnet: unison of intonation announcing our situation on the road. Chev-ron. We said it a lot. The journey felt longer but was better for it.
In Bristol the two of them live apart but together in two separate houses around five minutes cycle ride from each other. There are no chevrons on that route. Just short cuts and back alleys to navigate with peddle and bike lights. At her partner’s house we cook vegetables together that have been cut together in a pan together. We do everything together we light the stove with a cook’s blowtorch together because the gas ignition does not work.
I now display my affection for this girl on her Facebook page. I like everything on her wall with a “like” and shout chevron to myself at the back of mind with each indulgent click. Then at the top of her page I announce I have licked everything in her status. A strange difference there is between liking and licking – does one come with the other? Do you like someone because you lick him or her or do you lick someone because you like them?
My French teacher used to say (with little affect other than this, as I have forgotten the French now), make sure you get your accents right, make sure you’re using the correct sort of intonation. An example she used to use was: if you do not use this sort of accent correctly you could end up saying “I lick Cliff Richard” rather than – what I assume she meant us to say – “I like Cliff Richard”.
I ask myself the following questions:
Why did I let my tongue slip?
Do I like my best friends partner?
Did my French teacher have a sexual fantasy about Cliff Richard?
Did she dream of Cliff Richard?
Why did I dream of licking my best friend’s partner?
Did I just get the intonation of the dream wrong?
Do ideas like this have – or indeed any other ideas have “intonation”?
How can a marking on a road become a chant?
What is the point of me writing this?
Answers:
My tongue slipped as it often does, I’m not good a holding my tongue at the best of times
I do like my best friends partner but not in a sexual fashion
My French teacher would have liked to lick Cliff Richard at some point
Everyone dreams of Cliff Richard
I didn’t really lick her I shouted lots at her – this made me hide behind the joke of licking her.
Yes I did get the tone of the dream incorrect I think
I think ideas do have intonation – ideas are visual and words that have meaning are also visual
A chant is a repetition of a word – a marking on a road that repeats itself, if announced every time one is passed does then become a chant
The point of me writing this is to make a point about the levels of intonation and meaning and the connection behind visual language, vocal language and the language of the mind.
