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Post by rubyking on Sept 2, 2013 23:38:55 GMT
It is quite clear that throughout the novel, Grendel has issues communicating with humans, "Talking, talking, spinning a spell, pale skin of words that closes me like a coffin. Not in a language that anyone any longer understands" (15). It's not that he has trouble speaking; in fact quite the opposite, his manner of speech far superior in beauty and poetry compared to human speech. But is Gardner really pointing out the simple idea that Grendel uses regular speech? Grendel then goes on to say of his mother, "She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it" (17). He has an incredible sense of perception and feeling what others are communicating without speech.
What is Gardner pointing out about our use of language? Have humans just become too lazy to use anything other than words as a way to communicate?
This whole situation only reminds me of something John Keating said in Dead Poets Society, “So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do."
Perhaps Gardner is pointing out that Grendel has never lost this grand and heroic manner of speech--but that the human race has..
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Post by danyhong55 on Sept 4, 2013 0:04:28 GMT
Gardner is not exactly saying that humans have lost a grand and heroic speech, in fact just the opposite. Humans have gotten too attached to a heroic epic type language. That's why the Shaper is so revered by the community. When he sings Lo, we have heard the honor of the Speardanes,/nation-kings, in days now gone,/how those battle-lords brought themselves glory" (41) everyone in the meadhall is captivated by his words. Even Grendel sits outside and listens in on the song indoors.
I think you're right when you say that Humans have grown more towards words instead of other ways of communication, relying on ballads and epics to convey the battles fought and won. But it isn't because we have gotten lazy, it's because words have a certain beauty to them when put together correctly. While Grendel's mom may have lost her speech, Grendel remains fascinated by words and how they let other know what others are thinking, or in his case be confounded and mistaken for yells of war.
One interesting thing to note is that Beowulf is largely soft-spoken. Upon being approached by guardsmen of the coast he only points in the direction he wishes to travel and replies with only, "We'll see" (163) after Hrothgar thanks him for his arrival. In contrast, the stories told about him are grand and heroic. Humans embellish the truth with words not because they are too lazy to communicate in another way, but because they can turn a mundane event into Homer's epic.
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Post by hannahboe on Sept 4, 2013 5:22:43 GMT
This is a very interesting point, which I think carries quite a bit of relevance today. I agree with Dany in that Grendel and the Shaper are on a similar level which is different (higher, too) than other humans. I don't know that I would attribute the separation to human's laziness - maybe it has more to do with their progression. They advance, change physically and mentally, become so engrossed in what is new and big and important that they lose some of the art and culture (and intricate or epic language) which was once inherent in their society. Parallel to the difference in language between humans and Grendel is that progression. Where lords and thanes have expanded and developed their land, absorbed the culture of those they conquer, Grendel and those like him have remained in their cave. Grendel seems to be the only one who has retained any language, for reasons which are not clear to me, but the language he knows is superior in terms of its beauty, as Ruby mentioned.
I say that this idea of humans warping language whether out of laziness or progression or something else entirely is relevant today because it reminds me quite a bit of an experience I had this summer. I spent two months working with a bunch of people from Portland and to say that I experience a bit of culture shock would be an understatement. What stood out to me most was the way they talked. NEWS FLASH: Slang really is a totally different language. It took me a good two weeks to be able to listen to them without having to ask what certain terms meant and I still puzzle over exactly how all of this terminology which I previously had no knowledge of came about. It is interesting to consider that people who live 20 minutes away from us communicate so differently and I think that it is really all about culture. Where my mom says people who use slang are "Raping the language," they would say it IS the language. It is all about culture: location, progression, habits, actions, etc. I would suggest that this same cultural separation is the cause of the difference between Grendel's language and that of the "ordinary" humans he interacts with.
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