Beyond Ch. 8

If you're like me, you finished the first eight chapters of Language in Thought and Action, then quickly closed the book without even a glance at the title of the next chapter. It is, after all, a dense and time-consuming read. A few days ago, I picked up the book and flipped through some unexplored pages near the end of the book. The chapter I read was "The Empty Eye", which deals mostly with television. I think that I enjoy TV more than the average American, which is saying something. Especially since my exposure to DVR and torrents, I have increasingly immersed myself in a variety of shows. For not the first time, Hayakawa's principles were relevant to my experiences.

One thing that was immediately clear to me was the relationship between the first and second parts of the the book. Several times, I saw how a principle from the first eight chapters related to television. For example, the idea of how much we trust each other's reports was evident when Hayakawa pointed out how much people believe what they see on TV. Later in "The Empty Eye", Hayakawa further developed the idea of how rare it is to see both positive and negative aspects of a character, and how a truly skillful author develops both sides. When I read that originally, I thought of how J.K. Rowling developed Dumbledore's character in the last Harry Potter book. The same idea applies to TV as well. Hayakawa talks about old western shows with an obvious divide between good and evil that could not be crossed. The good were always good, and the evil were always evil. While today's programs may be more sophisticated, many of them nevertheless only show one side of the characters. How many times do you see Jack Bauer having traitorous thoughts or making the wrong decision during a mission? On the other hand, shows like "House" do a better job of demonstrating that no one is perfect. The main character is a brilliant doctor who applies his skills to save lives, but he is often cantankerous and rude. I agree with the author in that good writers explore both the positive and negative aspects of their characters.

There is so much more to be found in the second half of the book. Has anyone else read further and found something interesting?