ABSTRACT
Across the centuries, poets and philosophers, critics and theologians have entertained the uncomfortable thought that speaking is a bestial music. The play of language is beginning to seem less playful than sparrows dipped in raspberry juice. Across the centuries, poets and philosophers, critics and theologians have entertained the uncomfortable thought that speaking is a bestial music. The play of language is beginning to seem less playful than sparrows dipped in raspberry juice. Adam ate from the tree which bore animals. The French poet Valéry once said that “language is the beautiful chains which entangle the distracted God in the flesh”. In traditional philosophical terms, the word pathos is defined as affection. A final spiraling image from Greek antiquity will bring this discussion back to its beginning, to that metaphoric play of wisdom in the word that was likened to “a snake almost succeeding in getting its tail in its mouth”.
