Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Manhunter analysis - part 28: More on speech in the movie

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In part 3 of the analysis we discussed things in the movie having to do with speech, and then later in part 19 we connected this to the biblical city of Babylon, and that part of the book of Genesis which describes how God intentionally confounded the language of its inhabitants, so that they would have trouble understanding each other's speech. As was mentioned, Saint Augustine tells us that this is how the diversity of languages was introduced into the world.

As mentioned earlier, there is a metaphorical 'diversity of language' between Will Graham and Jack Crawford, in that there are differences in the ways they pronounce certain persons' names, for example, that of Lloyd Bowman: Graham pronounces it with the 'ow' sounding like a long 'o', whereas Crawford pronounces the 'ow' more like that in 'cow'.

We now turn to Augustine's City of God, chapter 7 of Book 19, which discusses the effect of diversity of language on interaction between individuals:

After the state or city comes the world, the third circle of human society - the first being the house, and the second being the city. And the world, as it is larger, so it is fuller of dangers, as the greater sea is the more dangerous. And here, in the first place, man is separated from man by the difference of languages. For if two men, each ignorant of the other's language, meet, and are not compelled to pass, but, on the contrary, to remain in company, dumb animals, though of different species, would more easily hold intercourse than they, human beings though they may be. For their common nature is no help to friendliness when they are prevented by diversity of language from conveying their sentiments to one another; so that a man would more readily hold intercourse with his dog than with a foreigner. ...

City of God (Dods)


      





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