Saturday, February 12, 2011

i think the existence of written language just proved that the world is my sick solipsist nightmare

I've come to the conclusion that i am a solipsist, in fact, let me put it another way. I think i suffer from solipsism. So "why write anything down?" you (whoever YOU could possibly be) might ask. Excellent question.

I've often thought, quite emphatically, that nobody reads anything. Ever! Writing, and therefore reading, form the cornerstone of my solipsist conundrum. All media contributes to my world view, but the written form is unique, as words are barely more than a series of symbols upon which we (or I) have bestowed a formula of meaning to be interpreted.

This code, if it actually exists, is exceptionally complex. So complex that it is difficult to believe that it can be learned or taught to a level of proficiency to allow a manifestation of my solipsist dream (lets call them a "person") can make it in this world dominated by the written word.

The process of interpretation necessitates an active reader who possesses the key to the code. The code itself, of letters, accents, rules of combining and adjusting letters, then combining the result into linguistically intelligible and grammatically informative chains, is often counter intuitive. Furthermore there is no single source of truth that lays down the definitive rules, codes, keys, so self study is impossible. Not that a rule book would help someone who didn't possess the language, as the rule book, by necessity would have to be written in the form of the language being taught.

History has tried to convince me that language has evolved, as has writing. Grunts and hand gestures represented in pictographic symbols that became more and more stylized and complex as the grunts and gestures became more numerous, specific and formulaic. But how does a single person, in only a matter of a few short years absorb hundreds and thousands of years of evolutionary meaning? Cultural Memory? Reincarnation? A Soul?

So, we're either born able to read, and we are simply prompted to remember, i.e. the "a priori" argument, or we (or YOU) don't exist, and language, the world and probably everything exists only for me.

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