Caterina.net: Novalis, <i>Monologue</i>

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{ Friday, December 5, 2003 }

Novalis, Monologue

There's actually something weird about speaking and writing; true conversation is just a word game. It's an absurd mistake, really, that people think they talk about things. Nobody realizes the greatest peculiarity about language is that it is only concerned with itself. That's why it's such a wonderful fruitful secret, -- that when somebody talks just to be talking what's said is actually the most noble and original of truths. By the same token, those who would speak with exactitude find themselves propelled by the humor of language to utter absurdities and follies. And so it is that many serious people come to hate language. They notice its waywardness, but don't recognize that contemptible chatter is the most earnest aspect of language. If only people would understand that language and mathematical formulae are alike, in that they constitute their own autonomous worlds, sport with themselves, express nothing but themselves, and for that reason are so wonderfully expressive -- for that reason they mirror the odd play of relations between things. Only in their freedom are they members of nature, and only in their freely expansive movement does the world-soul express itself, making them the delicate measure and template of things. And so it is with language-- whoever senses its tempo, its measure, its musical spirit, whoever inwwardly hears the delicate effects of its inner nature, and moves hand or tongue accordingly, will be a prophet; on the other hand, whoever writes such truths but lacks the feeling and ear for language will be tricked by language and mocked by men, as Cassandra was by the Trojans. Should I imagine I've clearly set down the office and essence of poetry here, I know at the same time that nobody can understand it, that all this talk is chatter, and this isn't how poetry happens. But what if I were driven to speak? and this drive to speak spoke the sign of the inspiration of language, the efficacy of language within me? and my will only wanted what I had to do? Could this, then, without my knowledge or belief, be poetry? and a secret of language be made knowable? and so I would be called a writer, for what is a writer but someone spirited by language? --

At Stewart's request, a link to a brief intro to Novalis.

LINK | 11:54 AM | TB

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{ COMMENTS }

How very Wittgensteinian.

Jesper | December 6, 2003 5:20 AM

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"If only people would understand that language and mathematical formulae are alike, in that they constitute their own autonomous worlds, sport with themselves, express nothing but themselves..."

If that's so, has this passage really been able to "express" any truth about language? And if not, why did I bother reading it?

Marcus | December 6, 2003 12:08 PM

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re: Stonehenge:
Yes, the grass is green. But the chainlink fence surrounding the place has been mysteriously edited out.

kate | December 6, 2003 12:43 PM

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You might like Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, which is about Novalis's life.

aa | December 6, 2003 3:14 PM

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"That's why it's such a wonderful fruitful secret, -- that when somebody talks just to be talking what's said is actually the most noble and original of truths."

"Duckspeak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Duckspeak is a Newspeak term meaning literally to quack like a duck. Applied to an opponent, it indicates their argument is making no sense. Applied to oneself or friends, it means that they can talk nonsense for the good of all. Like so many Newspeak terms, it has two radically different meanings."

Lamar | December 6, 2003 4:24 PM

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http://www.waggish.org/archives/001666.html

http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1290

| December 6, 2003 8:50 PM

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"when somebody talks just to be talking what's said is actually the most noble and original of truths"

so public masturbation is a noble and original truth? what an ass this Novalis.

Brian | December 7, 2003 1:05 PM

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The tempo of the mucsical spirit is chaos. As a student of language, I am sure that you know that.

I have looked at the patterns between nature and life and have been offered only sharp angles. Most people like definitive answers, and there are none. "Yes" and "No" are not appropriate. The geometry of right and wrong does not exist in the world of language. Right angles do not exist in nature, intentionally, there is only the quantum nature of chaos.

I think that this defines "chatter". And elevates it. Poetry is whatever sequence of words that speaks to us above that.

You speak of Cassandra (BTW: I have a cat named "Heubas" after Cassandra's mum; she's a sweetheart; evil, but still a sweetheart), but I will go you a few centuries earlier: Mary Magdelene. There is truth and transformation.

Andrew | December 7, 2003 2:57 PM

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Caterina,
I am not sure I can agree with your well written piece on language. Chatter to me is comptemptible, at least when it is virtual chatter. I watch my brother taking to his friends on im, he rarely does anything else now, and its all abbrievations wasup?, lol, Nottin hre, lol. There is no eternal truth contained in any of his conversations.
My last year of high school is winding down, and I am becoming more and more upset with the lack of serious conversation. By the way Katerina: Do you read any Joyce, or Shelly?

Larry Riordan | December 12, 2003 7:42 AM

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Larry Riordan | December 12, 2003 7:42 AM

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"'when somebody talks just to be talking what's said is actually the most noble and original of truths'"

so public masturbation is a noble and original truth? what an ass this Novalis."

Novalis's reference is not to mindless chatter, but is rather an expression of the author's view that "undirected discourse has a spontaneous tendency to acquire form and meaning, almost despite the intentions of the one who speaks and writes". (Roger Cardinal)

What an ass, this Brian.

Xenophagous | May 16, 2004 6:06 PM

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I was looking for this text and came across your post through Google. Obviously some time ago... ;)

Just curious, did you happen across this Novalis translation while reading Roberto Calasso's Literature and the Gods?

the_professor | November 2, 2004 11:17 AM

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