Saturday, December 31, 2011

The world of Generica

A writer or speaker will draw us out of the dull listless world of fuzzy beings, a country I'll call Generica, by combining different generics to create a picture.  Take the lyrics to "Penny Lane". "At Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs. Of every head he's had the pleasure to have known. And all the people that come and go. Stop and say hello."  We begin with a generic picture of a barber. For me, that is a vague and fuzzy picture of a man dressed in white, perhaps with white hair and a pair of scissors.  But then something is added to that picture.  He is showing photographs.  What initially comes to mind may be some vague black and white photographs.   So no longer do we have just a generic barber.  But perhaps a cheerful barber showing people photographs of everyone he has had the pleasure of knowing.  And then added to this picture is a picture of vague and fuzzy people stopping and saying hello as he is out showing photographs. Outside? Inside? In any event, we find ourselves moving from the dull listless country of Generica.  The world of sameness, of fuzzy generic people and things.  And by combining generics, the writer or speaker draws the listener out of this world and into the world of particulars.  In the case of "Penny Lane", we see subsequent vignettes of children laughing in pursuit of a banker who is driving in his car without a raincoat, a fireman with an hourglass, and the barber giving a customer a shave while the banker waits for a trim.  The fireman then comes rushing in.  We are still left with these fuzzy generic pictures; the banker is still a fuzzy banker, as are the fireman and barber.  But these fuzzy  pictures are being combined in a certain way to draw us out out of the country of Generica.

What would a world composed solely of particulars, with no fuzzy essences, no generics, look like?  Would every item one sees be so shockingly different, so particular, as to make the viewer recoil in fear? Or would every object seems so devoid of shape, so devoid of essence as to escape meaning? A barren moon where each rock escapes notice?

No comments:

Post a Comment