Words are more

One: words are never just words. They are more than their meaning in their material beings. They embody some kind of rhythm and this is more worthy of attention than the meaning they supposedly transmit.

The experience of talking with the people of different cultures made me realize a very important fact about how I communicate and in general, what I like in communicating with others. Actually, it is no more communicating (if what we think of communicating is transmitting messages across) than it is, well, having fun. This fun consists of chance, experiment, coincidence and repetition as I see it. How?

First of all, you never start your sentence knowing what you are going to say next. It is not planned. To start talking, it is enough to just point out something around. This may be a thing, a person, a view, but most of the time it is a situation that covers a number of these elements and others. A complex situation that stands out just by pointing at it. This could be the beginning and the end of conversation. This is the chance factor. Some pointed situations just cannot bear to hold a whole conversation on them. Of course what I am describing here is a conversation between ideal, in other words understanding partners. Well, I happen to have a friend with whom I communicate in this way, so I am lucky. But the structure is more or less the same for a whole cultural assemblage and this assemblage is very different from that of European ones as far as I have seen.

So there is a situation and it's been pointed out. There is no message intended in this pointing out. It is just like a gesture which says "look!" And this, having no message at all, will be a recurring theme in the whole process of communication. You are there, not as "you" but as a part of the situation. If the situation is complex enough, it generates other different branches of itself that you can comfortably be placed in, without knowing. This is important. There is absolutely no knowledge, nothing is consciously grasped. Actually if someone brings conscious activities in the conversation (a German friend of mine used to do this constantly), the whole process dies. It stops to carry you on. "And...it's gone."

You have the situation, then situation holds you in. You don't have any mood killers around and you start regenerating the situation from within. Now, this is the experimential part and it should also be coincidential so that it holds the communication together. One experiment breaks down while the other proves itself solid. The solid one is solid as much as it has elasticity. It having elasticity means that it has a lot of virtual lines that could be taken up. You go ahead from these virtual lines, both of you simultaneously. This is where co-incidence occur.

After the success of all this previous process, repetition of what is experimented in the situation and what coincidentally occured comes to play. And it is the best part. This gives you joy as well as an eagerness to continue on experimenting. Every repetition is new and there is always more than words in what is repeated. The rhythm of life.

What I realized is that other cultures (most of European cultures) do not communicate as we do. They really have something to say beforehand and they want their message to get across. I even felt bad for a while thinking that I never knew what communication is to that day. But then I met Italians and their "eternal dadaism" felt so good, so freakishly full of life, I promised myself never to suspect if I am doing this right or wrong again. Afterall, there is nothing to suspect if you feel good right?

I won't ever have any message to give except "let's play!"

Living in an international commune - Part ! (not a typo, it is an exclamation mark)

Inbetween languages there is again language itself. As if it refers to itself and by doing so making itself understandable. Very simplistic way of understanding this would be repetition which is different in every movement of repeating. Experiencing this fact knowing what it is, is just wonderful.

On the other hand, sharing things, in other words living in a commune is tricky. I can say that having an international quality ease things for a commune a little bit. Everybody is curious about the other so they let each other be in order to observe the other and having a sense of the other's ways of doing things. That's why this could be called a "community of individuals" if we are willing to let go the strict sense of being an individual. Because here there is a very vague shape of being individual. It is the culture you represent, the place where you came from what counts as the reason of curiosity in the first place. But I am not willing to surrender the beauty of being let free just because the reason of it affirms representation.

And it is not always the case either. I'd rather think that personal differences are recognized in a very short while. You can always see two Italians who don't like each other and rather hanging out with other nationalities. It would be logically correct to say that they are giving each other space to be free by being away of each other. But they still say hi when they see each other also. This wouldn't be happening in Italy, because they would not be obligated to live in the same environment. International student complex in which they will be living at least 5 months forces them to live in peace recognizing their differences.

Nevertheless it is a community which forces itself on individuals with its architecture. But this architecture is one of proliferation. It enables recognizing differences. Curiosity of the other becomes an expression of the architecture, through the architecture. Curiosity expresses itself much more easily.

Or all of this may be too much loaded with optimisim...

(I think it is not over yet)