Ha. Words to live by, but not a problem I tend to have... I tend to speak and write more clearly than I can assemble the thought behind the words! Which sounds like a good thing, in some ways, but it boils down to: I often have no confidence that what I've said is what I meant to say. :)
It sounds as thought that is exactly the problem of which Bohr speaks, JES!
I suppose the main danger he was concerned about was over-simplification. In the sciences especially, there must be a danger that trying to distil complex - almost inexpressible - concepts into words will necessarily dilute or distort them.
Also, comprehensibility may not always be an unqualified good. We like complexity and muddle and enigma. You don't always want other people to understand you - certainly not more fully than you understand yourself.
A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.
Days Ai Weiwei was detained
80
With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.
Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.
Days Wu Yuren was in prison
307
"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.
Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]
2 comments:
Ha. Words to live by, but not a problem I tend to have... I tend to speak and write more clearly than I can assemble the thought behind the words! Which sounds like a good thing, in some ways, but it boils down to: I often have no confidence that what I've said is what I meant to say. :)
It sounds as thought that is exactly the problem of which Bohr speaks, JES!
I suppose the main danger he was concerned about was over-simplification. In the sciences especially, there must be a danger that trying to distil complex - almost inexpressible - concepts into words will necessarily dilute or distort them.
Also, comprehensibility may not always be an unqualified good. We like complexity and muddle and enigma. You don't always want other people to understand you - certainly not more fully than you understand yourself.
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