This is a screenshot of an incomplete draft post:
Or the sounds that the words make in our mind's ear; poetry is the cardinal literary form for this but even in prose:
I worked with the size (8/10, 2/3) trying to enlarge the print but I didn't like it and so sent a text message to myself with the exact text, spelling, and punctuation as in the Geneva. I then opened up another solid black field image, thumbed down on my self-text to copy, went back to the solid black page, clicked on "text," thumbed on "text" on the black image, hit "paste" and the miracle pyramid on the header appeared. I was gape-jawed, enchanted. How perfect is the (near) pyramidal shape for that particular passage? And you can feel that passage physically. The font size is the same in the lines. Yet, the pyramid creates the illusion of foreshortening which is an illusion of depth.
The entire passage is closing in on us from a distance, coming right at us and the bottom line, the most important line, is smacking us right in the face, like a rock thrown at us. Where have all of us seen this print technique previously?
Right? The most famous opening scene in cinematic history perhaps is a pyramidal scrolling of words that is coming from far, far away...right at us.
The Geneva Bible Matthew 7:25 is a miracle of message integration. Three of the five senses are called upon. The rhythmic look and feel of the words, how do our minds process rhythm? It mesmerizes; rhythm is endless, it is inevitable, it is irresistible. The pyramidal shape enhances the rhythm, impresses it further upon our minds, the illusion of foreshortening drills the message into us as if a projectile. Everything serves the message: A life founded on the words of Jesus Christ is impervious, rock solid, irresistible. And after 500 years Behold! the words automatically form themselves into the most stable structure in the universe, a pyramid.
*Originally posted on February 29, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. this post is updated with the inclusion of Winston Churchill's comment on the Japanese language.
Language is primarily a communicative invention. Sometimes it isn't too good at even that primary function. Winston Churchill wrote in The Second World War, "The Hinge of Fate," that "The rigidity of the Japanese planning...is thought to have been largely due to the cumbersome and imprecise nature of their language, which rendered it extremely difficult to improvise by means of signalled communications." But even with the most supple of languages that allow for nuanced, precise communication, the human brain can't be given a toy like language and use it only to relay information. We are not brains in a vat, organic computers, we are emotive beings and we used language to appeal to our senses, to our emotions, in addition to relaying data points.
Great writers do that. Sometimes they make use of the appearance of individual letters and words on the printed page;
Great writers do that. Sometimes they make use of the appearance of individual letters and words on the printed page;
Or the appearance of individual pages;
The idea is to involve as many of the reader's senses as one can. We know from teaching that the more senses that can be incorporated the easier and faster learning is. And we know that making language appeal to the senses transforms communication into art, literature.
I wrote previously of the sublime sound I heard in the Geneva Bible version of Matthew 7:25. After writing that post I created this and used it occasionally as a screensaver on my phone. It was also briefly on the header today.
I worked with the size (8/10, 2/3) trying to enlarge the print but I didn't like it and so sent a text message to myself with the exact text, spelling, and punctuation as in the Geneva. I then opened up another solid black field image, thumbed down on my self-text to copy, went back to the solid black page, clicked on "text," thumbed on "text" on the black image, hit "paste" and the miracle pyramid on the header appeared. I was gape-jawed, enchanted. How perfect is the (near) pyramidal shape for that particular passage? And you can feel that passage physically. The font size is the same in the lines. Yet, the pyramid creates the illusion of foreshortening which is an illusion of depth.
The entire passage is closing in on us from a distance, coming right at us and the bottom line, the most important line, is smacking us right in the face, like a rock thrown at us. Where have all of us seen this print technique previously?
The Geneva Bible Matthew 7:25 is a miracle of message integration. Three of the five senses are called upon. The rhythmic look and feel of the words, how do our minds process rhythm? It mesmerizes; rhythm is endless, it is inevitable, it is irresistible. The pyramidal shape enhances the rhythm, impresses it further upon our minds, the illusion of foreshortening drills the message into us as if a projectile. Everything serves the message: A life founded on the words of Jesus Christ is impervious, rock solid, irresistible. And after 500 years Behold! the words automatically form themselves into the most stable structure in the universe, a pyramid.
*Originally posted on February 29, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. this post is updated with the inclusion of Winston Churchill's comment on the Japanese language.
