{"id":6064,"date":"2004-04-14T23:12:28","date_gmt":"2004-04-14T23:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2004\/04\/14\/quiet-while-i-d\/"},"modified":"2004-04-14T23:12:28","modified_gmt":"2004-04-14T23:12:28","slug":"quiet-while-i-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2004\/04\/14\/quiet-while-i-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Quiet While I Drill Your Head"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

In the dentist’s chair this morning.  Hayakawa in my lap.  Getting
\nx-rayed, poked, scraped, polished, flossed.  Sprayed, vacuum-sucked. 
\nShined by the brightest light ever put to me.  Hovered over by a masked
\nagent of the dental conspirators.  "Open wide.  Turn your head to
\nyour right."  <\/p>\n

I brush twice each day, floss once.  Tooth Invaders was one of the first
\nvideo games I ever owned; J. and me up late on the C64 with black and white TV,
\nscrubbing bacteria. Tooth brushing is ritual.  But in the dentist’s
\nchair-cranked-back, my mouth takes to bleeding.  Things a coherent, sober
\nperson wouldn’t allow anyone to do: sharp metal prod to bare gums,
\ntouched.  It was awful.  It is always<\/i>, time after time,
\nawful.  Still, I return.<\/p>\n

Why Hayakawa (Language in Thought and Action<\/i>)? Haven’t read it before.
\nQuite a mix in the selected bibliography. Couple of interesting sections (though
\nbrief) on maps, extensional world as territory, and also on the levels of
\nabstraction with a drawing of the ladder.  When the dental assistant
\nfinished grinding my teeth, I picked up the book again, started reading where
\nI’d left off fifteen minutes earlier:<\/p>\n

No matter how beautiful a map may be, it is useless to a traveler unless it
\n accurately shows the relationship of places to each other, the structure of
\n the territory.  If we draw, for example, a big dent in the outline of a
\n lake for artistic reasons, the map is worthless.  If we are just drawing
\n maps for fun, without paying any attention to the structure of the region,
\n there is nothing in the world to prevent us from putting in all the extra
\n curlicues and twists we want in the lakes, rivers, and roads. No harm will be
\n done unless someone tries to plan a trip by such a map<\/i>. [emphasis in
\n original]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

I was thinking back to the C’s in Denver, to a talk I attended on the
\nimportance of conceptualizing standard<\/i> in battlefield terms, thinking
\nabout normalcy as proximate to a commanding power-presence.  I can’t
\nremember whose it was; seems like Peter Elbow was on the panel.  The premise
\ninvolved the idea that the location of the standard shared by the locus of power (never mind
\nbody doubles) and the relative protection, battle strength and safety diminished
\nincrementally proximate to the standard<\/i> waving high, symbolizing a center<\/p>\n

The dentist is ready. *enters the dentist*<\/p>\n

Dentist: What are you reading?
\nPatient: *tilts the book*
\nDentist: Language in Thought and Action<\/i>.  Hmm. Open your cakehole,
\nkid.<\/p>\n

\/I’m not a fast learner, turns out.  I used to bring books to this same
\ndentist.  Once it was Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit<\/i>. 
\nAnother time: Mina P. Shaughnessy: Her Life and Work<\/i>.  And the last
\ntime I carried a book into this dentist’s shop: Graham Swift, Waterland<\/i>. 
\nThen I quit bringing books for a while.  The fifteen minutes of reading
\nwasn’t worth the event<\/i> (getting to the event part).  No need to
\ncarry a book when I could grab a magazine from the waiting room. 
\nSomething easy, something requiring less explanation.  Entertainment
\nWeekly<\/i>, People<\/i>.  I stopped bringing books to the dentist because
\nthe question always came, "What are you reading?" and, "So what’s
\nit about?".  Five seconds to answer before a gloved hand fiddles
\nmercilessly with my teeth.\/<\/p>\n

Dentist: So what’s it about?<\/p>\n

The good reasons for not carrying a book to the dentist’s workspace rushed
\nback today when, before I could answer, I had a mouthful of busy fingers,
\ninstrument-bearing digits.  And they were doing the work that had already
\nbeen done minutes earlier–a more qualified poking, a more detailed telling,
\n"eighteen’s okay, nineteen’s a belted crown, twenty’s a composite,
\ntwenty-one’s okay."  But before that, before my dentist did the part I
\nbargained for, the tooth-by-tooth evaluation, the count and description, she
\ntold me that I didn’t need to read Hayakawa because all language is
\nperception<\/i> (am I still alive?) and words mean differently to everyone,
\nespecially in such a diverse country.  When will I get my voice back?<\/p>\n

Maybe the dentist is right. Or maybe she meant that I didn’t need to read
\nin her office<\/i>.  I never was able to offer much of a five-second review on
\nWinterson, Maher, or Swift, either.  And maybe Hayakawa’s not what I should be
\nreading.  It’s just so nicely safeguarded by my naivete.  I haven’t
\nread anything about this book; I knew nothing about it when I picked it
\nup.  Instruments were working before I could say, "I’m not far into it
\nyet, but it’s a kind of simplified and illustrated on semiotics.  Might be
\nable to find a few teachable bits in it.  And it doesn’t feel like a lot of
\nwork to read right now, which is why I’ve carried it into your
\noffice." <\/p>\n

The highlight of the visit came when the dentist ground away a few contact
\npoints on one irritated cap (crown?) on the lower left.  I haven’t chewed
\npainlessly on the left side in six months; this was the third attempt to correct
\nthe bite.  "Bite down and grind." Fortunate for the dentist and
\nfor me that I understood her instructions, that I didn’t carry them out while
\nher fingers were dangling next to my chompers.  Fortunate, too, that I
\nadmire the dexterity of the dentist to use power instruments in my mouth, to bring
\nsmoky, screeching industry into such delicate human quarters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>In the dentist’s chair this morning.  Hayakawa in my lap.  Getting x-rayed, poked, scraped, polished, flossed.  Sprayed, vacuum-sucked.  Shined by the brightest light ever put to me.  Hovered over by a masked agent of the dental conspirators.  "Open wide.  Turn your head to your right."   I brush twice each day, floss once.  Tooth Invaders was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unspecified"],"yoast_head":"\nQuiet While I Drill Your Head - 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