All posts by Gary C. Woodward

Refining Communication as Feeling and Thinking

Models, Rhetorical Mastery, , , , , , ,

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Feeling must be given its due, not as the absence of thought or  logic, but as an ingredient fully melted into the mix of communication.

We can communicate feelings in the tonalities of speech. Any actor needs to be able to pull off this feat. There’s a feeling of defiance in Clark Gable’s famous line, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” or in Judy Garland’s tentative wonder that “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” But the ideal machine for feeling is music, with its cues imbedded in the ways that keys, chords, fifths, and so many other variations of the 12-note chromatic scale are used.  Yip Harburg’s words to Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow for the Wizard of Oz marry its central idea of yearning to a rising pitch sequence ending in a high C. He could have easily written affettuoso (“with feeling”) to set the tone for the music. Harburg famously noted that “Words make you think thoughts, music makes you feel a feeling . . .” Music is the tonal and non-stipulative dimension of communication. It pushes the process of connecting into a larger sphere. It follows, as Harburg noted, that “a song makes you feel a thought:” a natural marriage of what is too often represented as polar opposites.

You can easily assess your response to music as feeling triggered by sound in this unusual example of Over the Rainbow—usually sung in a hopeful key of Ab Major—transposed here into a minor key. It conveys more of a feeling of melancholy than hope: not what we would expect to hear from a child with more visceral emotions. The unusual departure to a minor key version of the song  below by sillyjet invites us feel differently about what it means.

Why does this matter? Music is more than a metaphor here. Quite simply, like spoken language, music is another form of aurality  that reminds us that communication as a medium of exchange is not a one dimensional process. Like a phrase or a chord, any word from a source sets in motion a dynamic progression of listening and reacting that is more open-ended than the idea of communication as ‘exchange’ would suggest. In essence, our reception of another’s message triggers projections from within that surface in the form of feelings.

The use of language or its musical equivalents always have tendency.  Through our unique perceptions we are the co-creators of another’s message. So, feeling must be given its due, not as the absence of the logical, but as a sum of all of its parts melted into the mix.

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The Mercy of a Short Election Season

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No wonder the drudgery of political posturing has provoked a sense of dread in the nation.

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The U.K. and most parliamentary democracies are able to keep elections periods to relatively reasonable lengths. Most recently, the required dissolution of Parliament before a new election took place at the end of May, this year. The general election to elect a new parliament and Prime Minister followed on July 4, allowing a campaign just a few weeks long. That’s it. In that amount of time U.S. candidates would still be pondering the color of shirts that look good on television.

To be sure, the new government headed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not very popular. But the Tories had worn out their welcome long ago. And the country was in the mood to bury them in  a landslide.  That they called for a new election is still a surprise.

As many have noted, running for the presidency and some congressional offices has turned American elections into “permanent campaigns” full of lies, distortions, ad hominem attacks and doubts about their basic fairness.  And we can add in assassination attempts.  It’s no way to run a democracy, creating a train of palaver that rarely seems to ever get out of the way. No wonder the drudgery of political posturing has provoked a sense of dread in the nation.

Imagine if you were charged with attending a film festival of an endless cycle of long and over-the-top Hollywood sagas: perhaps Gone With the Wind, Apocalypse now, and Godfather II: enough mayhem, preening, bluster, and excess to last a lifetime. And then imagine a Groundhog Day moment where the cycle repeats at the start of every new morning. This is now a feature of a typical news cycle: an endless nightmare of invective from politicians convinced they need to speak in oversimplifications to reach a distracted public.

The press is only too happy to set up shop and cover this free marathon for as long as the candidates can draw a breath. Add in a Supreme Court that thinks money is speech, and we are seemingly doomed to witness the agony of a democracy that is failing.

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“If we want to find the nadir of human folly, we should at least consider modern American campaigns, which, coincidently, offer the worst moments in the culture in service to one of its best traditions.”

The “system”–voters, the Constitution and political professionals– have inadvertently perfected an electoral system that has devolved to yield far more heat than light. Like the bleary-eyed viewer of those overheated Hollywood sagas, we stagger under the weight of glibness, lies, and—every now and then—a rare moment of insight that gets overlooked in a sea of dross. If we want to find the nadir of human folly, we should at least consider modern American campaigns, which, coincidently, offer the worst moments in the culture in service to one of its best traditions.  Elections based on the mood of voters and legislators rather than a set calendar has its advantages.

To be sure, Britain’s electoral efficiency has not cleansed itself of all political ineptness. Brexit especially has punished their manufacturing, the arts, and European solidarity. What remains  are shrunken aspirations of an island-nation cut off from the expansive EU. But they clearly have a less ossified mechanism for cleansing their political system.