I'm glad I made up that five senses meme...

[capri0mni]

One, it cheered me while I was thinking it up. And, two, it's cheering to read what other people have written. I'm either nodding in agreement with stuff, or thinking: Ooh! I wanna try that!

You know those mornings, when you're lying in bed, having just woken up, and you're free to think of stuff (don't slap me!)? Well, it was one of those mornings, long, long ago, that I thought of writing a book organized around the five senses, and all the symbolic, metaphorical meanings we ascribe to each. And in thinking of our sensory figures of speach, I realized that the five senses could be put on a scale, from the most abstract and intellectual to the most intimate and emotional, and if I'd thought the meme out more carefully, I would have put the senses in this order:

Sight is the most abstract; the human eye can see a single candle flame from a mile away. And in our figures of speach, we use sight to imply reason and logic (or lack of it): "I see what you're saying," "You see where I'm going with this?," "blind faith/rage," etc.

Hearing is slightly less abstract; we have to be much closer to the source to hear something than to see it, and as the nerves in our ears are close to our centers for balance, hearing is slightly more 'internal' than sight. And in our figures of speach, we use hearing to refer to our emotional responses: "I hear ya, Mon!" "the inner voice" "that strikes a chord with me," "he turned a deaf ear to her pleas."

Touch crosses the barrier between the abstract and the concrete; and we have to get in phyical contact with what we're sensing. In our figures of speach, this sense is also used to convey emotional response: "That was very touching," "He's soft-(or hard)-hearted," "her words are cutting."

Taste and Smell (the same thing, really, as you discover if your nose is all stuffed up) are the least abstract, and the senses that really bring us close to our world, as we have to take what we're sensing inside our bodies in order to smell or taste something. And in our figures of speach, we use these senses as metaphors for visceral, instinctive reactions: "Victory is so close, I can almost taste it!" or "I smell a rat!"

So that's why I wanted to use the five senses for my gratitude meme -- I wanted to engage all levels of my mind, from my intellect to my instincts....

Okay... so... maybe I don't have enough for a book, here. Maybe I have just enough for an lj entry. ;-)

Comments

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

Interesting thing. Having lived in two very different countries and cultures (India and England) there are subtle differences in phraseology between the two. The only example I can think of right now is that in England, we say "I think he doesn't like me" wheras in India (or possibly only in Goa, which, with its bizarre melding or Portuguese, English and Indian cultures, can be quite different from other places in India) they say "I feel he doesn't like me". I'd be interested in your interpretation of that subtle difference ...

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

well, my snap interpretation, on the spur of the moment, is that the English phrase is much more abstract and intellectual, whereas the Goan (?) phrase is more intuitive...

Sort of like the difference (to use the Skiffy language of geekspeak) between Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy...

What are the figures of speech regarding the senses in Goa -- seeing vs. smelling vs. touch, etc?

(maybe there is enough for a book here, if each page is dedicated to a different language around the world...)