Confessions of a Fryer ch9 rough germinal draft
Tales of abduction, Ufo’s, Paranormal, and other Unexplained Phenomena
“Hey, Howard, Didja ever wonder why everyone listens to music?”
“It’s the universal language.”
“Like I said, didja ever wonder? I mean, what is language, an art or a science?”
“Linguistics is a science, of course. But music is art.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it is something you create.”
“So the study of creation is art?”
“No, LISTENING is.”
“NO, it is not. Listening is not considered an art, but, yes, I agree, listening is an art. There is most definitely an ART to listening, by that I mean utilizing your understanding of what your brain is doing while listening and then navigating a conversation so as not to offend, and to be able to use metaphor, and all that… the way you do it that is uniquely you, the way you express yourself, the end product of your skill is the art. But most people, the end result of their listening is stick figures, not Degas.”
“Dude, my sculptures are stick figures compared with Degas’.”
“You have such low self esteem, I fucking hate that. Self deprecation…blaaaaah!”
“You honestly don’t think my shit is as good Degas’ shit?”
“I ain’t never seen Degas’ shit, but I’ll bet THEY have.”
“Why don’t you ask them the next time you see them.”
“Ha fucking ha.”
“Ah, you know I’m jes messin’ with ya, Dude.”
“Yeah, yeah, but anyway, when someone says they have an open mind they have to practice an art, but it is discipline. ‘Listening is an art’ is just something people say, or ‘this or that is an art,’ but it’s really a skill, or science to interpret or translate. You would never say a language interpreter is an artist, he is practicing a skill, which is science. When I was in art school they used to say that you had to have skill to be an artist. That is the science. Without the science there is no art. So all art is science because without the skill you don’t know how to create, or don’t have the ability. And to interpret, well, interpretation is a skill, it is linguistics. In fact, THEY insist all art is the study of linguistics because all art is perceived, internalized, categorized, it creates emotion, mood, effects body chemistry, raises and lower blood pressure, calms and excites. In China, as part of Holistic medicine, a doctor may prescribe an activity for his patient, painting, doing exercises, wearing certain colors, avoiding doing things at a certain time of day…”
“Feng shui.”
“I guess, I don’t know much about that stuff, the things we do without thinking we consider art, like listening, but how many people listen well? How often are you misunderstood?”
“All the fucking time, dude, all the fucking time.”
“Exactly. The brain listens to the first few words and makes an assumption usually, misses the middle of the dialogue from the other person as he processes and assumes the category, the definitions, formulates reason, etc… while the other continues to talk, and then picks up again what the other person is saying and reevaluates again while listening, and then that data of what the other is saying is dumped into the model that his brain has formulated by listening to the first part of the other person’s dialogue, and then kinda waits for the other to stop talking.
For instance, how many people really think that listening concerns the inference device? How many people study the reactions of others to what they are saying? I mean, they do it, but they are largely unaware that they are doing it, and so there is untold reams of misidentification because the listener is immediately interpreting what he is hearing into the language of his own mind’s experience, and therefore, makes what he is hearing part of the extension of his own mind. This doesn’t just happen when you are reading, you do it all the time. People always say, ‘oh, I understand what you are saying,’ but what they really mean is “I have interpreted your words with my internal dialogue which is a translation of my own experiences, my own calculations, my own definitions.”
“Dude, I gotta get going…hey, Adam, they aren’t still taking you, are they?”
“I don’t know. My head has been so cloudy lately it almost seems like my dreams are…I don’t know, something is happening in my dreams, and I can’t really figure it out.”
“Be careful…I don’t know why I am saying that.”
“Yes you do. On some level you know. Later, buddy.”
