In article <ubidnUUpY8e0gf7anZ2dnUVZ_sOrnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
"Tony" <tony@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Dan Cline" <paul_leto@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:a12d5bad-b22b-4efa-90c5-244cb37f0a61@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > On Dec 13, 4:10 pm, "Tony" <t...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> > It didn't bother me, though sometimes there was an awefull lot of
it.
> >>
> >> Do you think that it was an excellent way to depict thinking in a
science
> >> fiction novel?
> >
> > There is a theory that states "without language there would be no
> > thought".
>
> Hi Dan. I wonder if you mean the Sapir-Worf hypothesis.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis
This one pretty well hits the mark--oops, don't mean to be answering for
the OP--and also there is the simpler idea of needing symbolic logic to
have places to hang one's memories and organize one's experiences into
patterns (sort of Piagetian thinking, and others.)
>
> > I don't subscribe entirely to this idea, but I do a lot of
> > my thinking in sentences. I also remember watching a do***entary on
> > feral children who were never socialized and could not speak. They had
> > black shadows in areas of the brain that normal people have active.
> > Basically they were brain dead because of a lack of language.
>
> How might Frank Herbert depict the thoughts of such children? I wonder.
. .
If he's as bright as he apperars to be, it wou;d have to be a combin
ation of pictures and bodily sensations/movements. Ever watch an animal
problem solve? They act the situation out. That's got to be a similar
phenomenon to a humans prelingual thinking.
> >
> > I love that Frank Herbert used italics to show the thoughts,
> > especially when the character did not act on what they were thinking,
> > or said something different than what they thought.
> >
> You mention a very interesting point here. I suppose that nonverbal
> thinking could be depicted in a novel by a narrative description of a
> character's behavior, e.g., their eye movements, facial expressions and
body
> language.
Anyway, I also like FH's use of passages in italics to indicate the
private thoughts of characters. It's much less ***bersome for the
reader that using the third person. Come to think of it, though, there
are excellent writers who don't reveal their characters internal dialog
at all--Agatha Christie comes to mind.
--
Emerald
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