"Lingo" and Community LO3081

Ron2785@eworld.com
Fri, 6 Oct 1995 08:04:51 -0700

Replying to LO3020 --

Jim, I'll try to add some flesh on to the story of my friends who
participated in that Boston-New York bike ride.

1. I mentioned that "I was struck -- and so were by friends -- by the
communally-created language that continued to push them forward." You
ask, "what is it that strikes you."

I guess it was the role that language played. When Lisa first described
the experience to me, she did it in such a way that the language seemed to
come from the community and the community from the language. I heard it
as concurrent phenomena -- maybe another take on the chicken-and-egg
conundrum. I think what also struck me was the relative ease through
which language and community developed. Granted, everyone was under some
pressure. Granted, it was an experience circumscribed in time and space.
Granted, these were high-energy people. Still and all... Hmm. Now, why
not take some of these same "granteds" and place them in a different
environment? Would we see a repetition of what happened on that bike
ride? (By the way, this was no heaven-on-earth; there was the usual
collection of Spandexed jerks doing whatever passes for grandstanding
during long bike rides. Which is also not unheard of, in other forms, in
other environments....)

2. I mentioned that "I began to think about the specific language that is
used to create stories that are in turn embellishing that language and
thereby creating more stories." You ask, "What thoughts? Questions?
Answers? Etc."

Jim, the thoughts were really around stories as a driver, stories as
creating intellectual and emotional momentum that in turn supports
innovative collaboration (stories-in-process as well as future stories?)
and the community in which it lives. Ultimately, I suppose, what drew me
to this narrative (in addition to it having involved my friends) was the
sense of a kind of intuitive creativity (an ugly phrase, but I'll let it
go for now...) that arose out of the situation and that manifested itself
in both the result and the actions (linguistic and otherwise) that
permitted that result.

Hope I've filled in some of what might have been missing.

Ron

--
Ron Mallis
ron2785@eworld.com