It’s so easy for us to misunderstand one another. We interpret others as either speaking “in tongues” or speaking elliptically as they leave some of their thoughts in their heads. “What did you say?” we ask. Or, “What do you mean?”
No worry, there’s now been a conference on understanding misunderstanding. The January 2018 gathering occurred at the University of Stuttgart. Organizers of this interdisciplinary workshop called “Misunderstanding” laid out the basis for the conference in this press release: “Misunderstandings are part of everyday life.”
Not going too fast for you, am I? Well, if I am, then let me w r i t e s l o w l y.
Just in case you and I don’t get the picture, the conference announcement continues: “Misunderstandings trigger arguments, are the source of conversation and not uncommonly only strategically simulated.” You’re following, right?
At this time, you’re thinking “I wish I could have been there.” Sorry, that train left the station. But we can glean a little understanding from the press release. “In everyday communication misunderstandings can be described according to communication theory. Yet, what about misunderstanding aesthetic forms that are not in communication contexts but that can be captured in the framework of reception aesthetic?”
Ah! So, this is about what happened to you the first time you were asked to explicate T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land without reference to Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance. English teachers. Humpf! Or, maybe it's about your first look at cubist art or Schrödinger's equation. All those struggles you suffered through until someone finally explained in precise, clear language with unmistakable meaning or until you simply abandoned the attempt to understand "in the framework of reception aesthetic."
And there you've been worrying about how to pay for bread, milk, and eggs.
Oh! Well. As Eliot concludes his famous poem, "Datta, Dayadhvamn, Damyata/ Shantih. Shantih. Shantih." You understand, don't you?
* https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/en/university/news/press-release/How-we-understand-understanding-from-misunderstandings/
No worry, there’s now been a conference on understanding misunderstanding. The January 2018 gathering occurred at the University of Stuttgart. Organizers of this interdisciplinary workshop called “Misunderstanding” laid out the basis for the conference in this press release: “Misunderstandings are part of everyday life.”
Not going too fast for you, am I? Well, if I am, then let me w r i t e s l o w l y.
Just in case you and I don’t get the picture, the conference announcement continues: “Misunderstandings trigger arguments, are the source of conversation and not uncommonly only strategically simulated.” You’re following, right?
At this time, you’re thinking “I wish I could have been there.” Sorry, that train left the station. But we can glean a little understanding from the press release. “In everyday communication misunderstandings can be described according to communication theory. Yet, what about misunderstanding aesthetic forms that are not in communication contexts but that can be captured in the framework of reception aesthetic?”
Ah! So, this is about what happened to you the first time you were asked to explicate T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land without reference to Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance. English teachers. Humpf! Or, maybe it's about your first look at cubist art or Schrödinger's equation. All those struggles you suffered through until someone finally explained in precise, clear language with unmistakable meaning or until you simply abandoned the attempt to understand "in the framework of reception aesthetic."
And there you've been worrying about how to pay for bread, milk, and eggs.
Oh! Well. As Eliot concludes his famous poem, "Datta, Dayadhvamn, Damyata/ Shantih. Shantih. Shantih." You understand, don't you?
* https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/en/university/news/press-release/How-we-understand-understanding-from-misunderstandings/
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