Do You Think In Words?
"Another pleasure of Venice was a fascinating conversation over dinner one night as to whether one thinks in words or not. I said, certainly not; one thinks in images and the language found for them is nothing more than a translation. I was hotly supported by a professor who is a Croce-ite. Apparently this is a topic which splits intellectual Italy to the core: and it's a question I can't leave alone - wherever I've been since, it's started again, and there has been a dog-fight. Do you think in words?"
from a letter by Elizabeth Bowen to Charles Ritchie (27 March 1953)
*Footnote in book containing this letter (Love's Civil War - Simon & Schuster 2009): "Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), Italian idealist philosopher and politician. The area of Croce's theory which exercised EB was probably the idea that art is rooted in imagination and intuition, preceding thought, which is 'realized' in writing."
ME: When I walk by the sea thinking about my next story or my next blog entry, I tend to formulate in my head only the words in which I'm going to express my ideas. I later put these on the potter's wheel and mould gradually - and I think words and images come simultaneously, with neither the front runner. In fact the images are ready-mashed within the words and need blending. Writers are Master Chefs, perhaps.
des
PS: Nobody want a Review Copy of the "flawless anthology" CONE ZERO for reviewing??
A friend of mine has just come up with this answer:
<<For me there is no absolute answer to this, as I think in different ways at different times. I can distinguish the following (all of which I've done):
1. Thinking in meaningful words, but never words divorced from their sound. For me, words are never divorced from their sound. I always sub-vocalise when I read silently. This is probably my most characteristic way of thinking.
2. Thinking is visual images. When I do this, I may have difficulty in describing what I see in my mind's eye.
3. Thinking in inarticulate sound -- music, animal noises, gibberish.
4. Thinking in meaningless words (or, rather, sequences words without clear reference) -- I think this may be a defence mechanism against unwelcome thoughts rising towards the surface.
5. Thinking in sound and visual imagery combined.
6. Thinking in wordless ideas. I recall doing this a lot as a child, and being frustrated to find that I lacked the vocabulary to express the ideas. Harder to say how often I do it now -- my vocabulary is much better. >>
