Sonya Kandah
ENG 328
Leaves Can Be Words
Even though language seems to be an innate process of
the human species, the actual words more or less were invented to associate
vocal expressions with images to verbalize what is seen. In essence,
the words and phrases that make up our language are only as natural as we
let them be. I think the only way to have a natural language in terms of
words, is to find the letters of our language already placed in the earth.
Yet, even with that, the letters are not really “natural,” they were created
by humans to fulfill a social need and probably a stronger need for survival.
I can see many letters in the clouds, or find rocks with shapes that resemble
letters. But, are those letters or words really natural? “Nevertheless,
by contrast with the natural oral speech, writing is completely artificial.
There is no way to write “naturally.” (ONG 22) ONG brings about a good
point in his Writing Is a Technology that Restructures Thought essay.
ONG is saying that our writing is a creation we use to give us a vivid conscientious
thought of the world around us. I believe that the evolution
of the spoken language into a written language helps “see” the world better.
I can only find what I “see” as the closest language to the natural world.
So, for the purpose of this project, I “see” it fit to use pieces of nature
that I pulled from Mother Nature and then metamorphosed to what I wanted.
I chose to take what the earth has given us and then use my own knowledge
on how to conform it to what I want. In all, it turned out to be pretty
green.
When trying to think of the natural elements of language
or words, I thought of the natural world around us. I know that the
natural part is lost when you see industrial parks and gas guzzling vehicles,
but in this case I put my biases aside and concentrated on what I wanted
to do. When given the assignment, I immediately thought of finding
letters that resemble shapes in sedimentary fossils. But, the time
frame I had was not sufficient to do a thorough evaluation. As I went
back to the idea of nature and the natural world, I thought of the growth
that comes from the earth. The growth of trees, flowers, of the shrubs
and of the weeds that we so graciously dispose of. I thought of nature
and how it must contain all elements of life including letters and what I
will use to shape the language I want to create. Then, the idea of picking
leaves off trees and forming them into letters by ripping them became very
clear.
Ripping the actual leaves was pretty unnatural in the
first place. If we went around and ripped off all the leaves there
would not be any left, so this was the first conscious feeling I noticed.
So, I gathered all these leaves that I unrightfully stole from trees that
did not belong to me, and then sat in my car to make my language come alive.
When I decided on my materials, I chose leaves that were strong and can hold
their shape within their outside shell. This way the process of ripping them
was easier and more manageable to work with. I picked big leaves so if I
made a mistake, I could have more leaf space to try again. I took each
leaf and just began to tear away with a natural part of my body, my fingernails.
I say natural because this is the biological body that was given to me and
my nails are not artificial or glued on. My tool was a natural part
of my body that enabled me to form the letters of the language I chose to
create out from nature.
I did not have a specific word, a specific phrase, or
a specific sentence to write. I began ripping the leaves and what ever
started resembled a coherent word I kept. It was tricky at first, trying
to follow the lines my fingernails made, and also the lines of the leaf.
I had many attempts that failed or produced jumbles unlike any words I know.
I went through about twenty leaves, throwing the remains back into the earth.
In retrospect, I killed all of those leaves because I took them from the
tree and used them for my purpose and then threw them away like waste paper.
To many, this is a silly concept, but when you are thinking about creating
something “natural,” being conscious of not wasting is a big part of the
picture.
Half way through my cycle of tearing and ripping leaves,
I noticed some words starting to take shape. I then decided where I was going
with my sentence. The letters began to be easier to make and the words
were looking pretty legible. An hour and half later, my sentence began to
take shape and the meaning of the language I formed was quiet silly.
I placed each leaf down and looked at my sentence in a left to right fashion,
and called it quits. “An old cat loves to eat my foods.” That is my
creation of language. I finished and now off to the drawing room.
This assignment pointed out that each individual could
perceive the definition of what is "natural" differently. The definition
of what constitutes being, “natural,” seemed to be very unclear. The part
of taking nature away from its habitat to form words can be presumed as the
first step in developing writing technology. At this point I could
not help but think of the early man and how words were developed. Did one
of our early ancestors rip up some leaves and noticed the unique formation
of words. Was this how writing was invented. The earliest man made drawings
found in the caves of Southern France showed drawings of animals but with
no associated words. Did writing originate from leaf ripping, or did an early
human use a blackened burnt piece of wood to create the origin of our written
language?
Either way, none of these methods can be considered natural to our origin.
The trees, the shrubs, and the weeds may be natural from the ground, yet
what technology was used to shape or help them grow? I know that many pesticides
are used on trees to keep the bugs away or to help in growth. Some
are chemically enhanced so the lush green leaves are more beautiful. And,
where were the trees when I came upon them? Where they in their natural habitat
or did someone place them there? These are the questions I thought
of that lead me to question the natural creation I attempted to make.
When I look at the tools I used to create this language,
where does technology fit into my own hands? When I think of the craftsmanship
that our own hands can make, I feel like that is the most natural way to
create the earth around us. The technological tools I used to write my language
are more or less the least technologically influenced tools. The technological
advances and sciences can help us read better and see better and sometimes
comprehend faster, but the tool that is used to decipher these this information
is biological, namely the brain. I ended up with a semi natural material
that I used with a biological based tool to produce my language. The
relationship between technology and my written language is the ability to
have the tools readily available at my disposable. The trees that I
used were grown in a man made area with some type of planting device or growth
treatment. The tool I used to create my language was a biological tool
of my own. In that case, I used some type of technology to create my
language. Even sitting in my car while ripping the leaves involved
using technology to my advantage. Technology, whether we chose to accept
it or not, runs the world around us. We are so driven by technology
that we will try any thing that may make our life easier. John Guttenberg
tried some new technology that reshaped the world and helped science to leap
in big strides from the dark ages to the age pf print and faster communication.
The same goes for creating modern language, and writing. We use computers
because it is easier and it is faster than the hand written language or Guttenberg's
press. I have learned that truly, everything we do relates back to
a relationship with technology in some way. Whether you chose to embrace
it or not, depends how you want to live your life. Fighting to always
be one step ahead, or fighting to not fall behind.
Sources Cited
ONG, Walter J., S.J. “Writing Is a Technology that Restructures Thought.”