Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Postmodern Cold

A postmodernist is one who enters the lecture hall to discourse on the flexibility of meaning; he chooses as his example the word cold and notes how completely contextual the concept is. “Cold has a different meaning whether you are inside or outside, whether it is January or July, whether you are male or female, old or young. The word has a different meaning in Fort Collins and Fort Myers, and is entirely dependent in meaning on the wind and precipitation. Our expectations change the meaning of cold, as do night and day, and the weather over the past week. We assign numbers to cold, to give ourselves an illusion of precision and meaning, but in fact the word cold is so ambiguous as to be ultimately meaningless.”

He then leaves the building and bundles against the weather. Because it’s really cold.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The world is made up of religio-humanists and those few of us who despise them.

Anonymous said...

Cold as a f(NE)= Snow

I've found people say its cold, but they don't say its really cold unless there is snow around.

Oh, and English majors need a reason to be English majors...

Jeff said...

Well let's all thank God forglobal warming. Soon there will be no cold to ponficate over!

Anonymous said...

Which is why I am a number person instead of a word person.

BTW,some people in Texas complain about cold weather that in New England would be considered a pleasant fall day- practically shirtsleeve weather. On the other hand, in Texas many consider the end of summer when the daily high drops below 95. ( I do, at least.) It all depends on what you are used to.