"Green Glasses, the Figured Bass, and the Brakeshoe"
Berthoff, Ann E. "Green Glasses, the Figured Bass, and the Brakeshoe." The Mysterious Barricades: Language and Its Limits. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1999. 159-165. Print.
SummaryFrom reading notes on the text as a whole prior to reading Chapter 14, Bertoff's book seems to view criticism as a philosophical event concerned with how words work. She spends much of the chapter referring to the work of Kleist, which is a major theme of the section this chapter falls under. Specifically, in this section she focuses on Kleist’s theory of thought as movement and speech as the break. Additionally, the base works to provide harmony while the wheel and brakeshoe get discourse going.
ResponseWhen she led our class discussion on this text, Jazmine referred to the idea that the reason we have speech is to let our thoughts move freely, ambiguously, and to test the limitations of language.
Further, Berthoff tells us that the brake has the power to slow, stop, and limit. It controls by limiting and allowing potential. Connections/QuestionsBerthoff begins Chapter 14 with a quote by Cassirer.
The concept of the bass linked to harmony expressed in music reminds me of Langer. Langer says, "The symbolic power of music lies in the fact that it creates a pattern of tensions and resolutions" (372) and links music to emotional life. The idea of the purpose of speech as to allow thoughts to move freely and ambiguously reminds me a great deal of Heidegger's argument against enframing. |
Key Quotes
"Speech ... is at such times not a shackle ... but a brakeshoe, not a constraint which impedes but a limiting form which enables: a mysterious barricade. A brake is required to control speed: a certain energy and rapid forwardness, then, is necessary if the heuristic power of discourse is to be exploited" (159).
“A brake is required to control speed: a certain energy and rapid forwardness, then, is necessary if the heuristic power of discourse is to be exploited” (159).
“Of course, all speech (and all thought) presupposes a social context, but that is not to say that Kleist is making a plea for the central importance of the concept of 'audience.' His point is, rather, a matter not of rhetoric but of logic: the analysis appropriate to the relationship of language and thought must begin not with one or the other but (as Vygotsky has it) with 'the unit of meaning,' with what language and thought create in their peculiar interdependence” (160).
“The wheel and the brakeshoe working together probably signified to Kleist not mediation but immediacy” (161).
Berthoff sees a connection between “linguistic necessity and the generative power of constraints” (161).
“A brake is required to control speed: a certain energy and rapid forwardness, then, is necessary if the heuristic power of discourse is to be exploited” (159).
“Of course, all speech (and all thought) presupposes a social context, but that is not to say that Kleist is making a plea for the central importance of the concept of 'audience.' His point is, rather, a matter not of rhetoric but of logic: the analysis appropriate to the relationship of language and thought must begin not with one or the other but (as Vygotsky has it) with 'the unit of meaning,' with what language and thought create in their peculiar interdependence” (160).
“The wheel and the brakeshoe working together probably signified to Kleist not mediation but immediacy” (161).
Berthoff sees a connection between “linguistic necessity and the generative power of constraints” (161).