ray langenbach : gesture, stutter, state


We are attracted to incantatory speech: from the Latin word for enchanted (incantatore). Incantation produces real effects. It brings into being through utterance. Perhaps the most famous incantation was Yahweh's in Genesis. We are told that when no one else was around to hear, having only recently discovered that his words could become flesh, Yahweh tried out his new skill by proclaiming, "Let there be light." The result we know. The utterance produced the event it signified. Or we can say that it pointed to that which it produced. It brought into being by naming. Yahweh's action at "the beginning" oscillated between bringing phenomena into being by incantation and naming that which had been brought into existence.

Like Yahweh before us, "we bring events into being daily through this process of naming or pre-dicting." The word becomes flesh, daily.
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