Pontes Lecture Notes

The bottom line: Language is an oral thing.
Human's only had writing for 10,000 years
Writing and Reading are extensions of language, and therefore secondary to oral language
Writing is an extension of memory.
Illiterate people have an advantage to memory

Act of Communication
speaker - intention- message - receiver

Almost always there are gestures to reinforce what people say

pragmatics - meaning involved beyond the meaning

semantics - meaning of the specific words

grammar is the way of describing the functions of words to one another but it doesn't necessarily convey their meaning

~50-60% of the speech act is non-verbal

cultural gesture:
the "A-OK" hand gesture is not the same in S. America.

Arab proverb "if you can not smell a man's breathe, you can not trust him."

Word choice and intonation are different for men and women

Women can switch between hemispheres of the brain more than men.

people becomes victims of their tools

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #5

a.) Bauby's situation is worse than Jean-Paul K. situation because Bauby is forced to live and deal with the soul crushing guilt of having a friend of his captured by Hezbollah, and the constant wonder that if he had not given up his seat, would anything have gone differently?

b.) Bauby got to know the people that take care of him and he half way becomes friends with them, and gives them nicknames, like "David Bowie". He begins to understand how people from the outside might not understand how he feels and perceives things.

c.) Bauby admires Oliver for his story-telling skills and ability to be lost in the story in which he weaves and his ability to capture those who listen to him in the story. Now that he is paralyzed, Bauby can not tell stories anymore and this part of him is lost forever.

d.) People often wait for the crescendo because people have a way of being self-delusional in terms of when their lives will get better and worse. People think the good times will last forever and the bad times drag on to infinity. People are rarely realistic when it comes to their lives. This chapter is placed at the end of the book because it is leading up to what Bauby and the reader know is coming. Bauby's death.

e.)Bauby is savoring the last week of summer because it is the last week of vacation and after that it will be fall and everyone will be busy working. It will be his first fall at Berck, and he begins to see that he is beginning to make his way out and he knows, deep down inside, that he doesn't have an incredibly long time to live. He knows he's mortal.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #4

a.) People need to categorize things because the brain takes in so much information that without organization, no thought process would be able to take place. The brain needs to put things it categories to be able to recall information fast enough to make it useable by the organism. 

b.) I can honestly say that I do not hoard anything, or if I do, it is so ingrained into my mind that I would not even consider it hoarding, but more a necessity of life.

c.) People give others they don't know nicknames. Bauby was making a reference to the fact that he knew Fangio's habits and a bit about him, but he doesn't actually know Fangio as a person.

d.) Regrets are important is early life because they serve as deterrents to what is most likely bad behavior (e.g. the burn on ones hand after touching a store) That burn will serve as a reminder not to touch the stove.

e.) Bauby's hearing is altered by his condition which causes certain sounds to be amplified. If he concentrates and pays attention he is able to hear the flapping of butterfly wings.

f.) Bauby hates Sunday because everyone leaves on Sunday and most of his care attendants are not working and there is no one there to change the TV for him.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #3

a.) To an extent, human beings define themselves based on their interactions with those around them. When Bauby is rendered paralyzed, anyway to define himself has been removed. He has, in essence, lost who he was, and anyway to become someone else.

b.) The photo is ironic because it says " Berck-sur-Mer" in reference to a family vacation Bauby had taken as a child, and Berck is where the facility he is now is located.

c.) Seeing as Bauby has gone though severe cerebral trauma, his dreams can be expected to be nothing but a random firing of neurons. It does show that his condition is slightly improving because he is able to remember the faces of his friends, even when he is unconscious.

d.) Bauby's butterfly is unable to leave the room in My Lucky Day because of the beeping of the feeding machine. He is constantly being drawn back to his present condition.

e.) Looking back on it, I never appreciated my grandfather when he was around. Now that he had a double stroke, he is merely a shadow of his former self. His speech is slurred at best and most likely will one day forget who I am. I wish I could go back in time and spend more time with him and learn as much as I could from him. But, I suppose it is human nature to not appreciate things when they happen seeing as memory and feelings are relative.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #2

a.) Bauby's desire to surround himself with the type of clothing he was accustomed to in his former life, reflects his notion  that he knows he will not vastly improve his condition, so if he is going to be in a completely incapacitated state, why not reflect his former life?

b.) Considering that the book was written in french, one must assume that there must have been slight errors in translation that may not be coherent with the idea Bauby may have intended. The mood of the book would not change regardless of the language, as long as it was the same language that Bauby spoke.

c.) Bauby find his condition "funny" only in a nervous sense, because he finally realizes the full scope of his condition.

d.) If I was presented with the opportunity to spend an afternoon anywhere, I would most likely choose to remain in my room. Granted it might not be the most exciting of choices, but I have very important things in there. Most cherished of all is my bed. This only being because I rather enjoy sleep, even though I rarely get any because of my insomnia. Because of it, I cherish the sleep I do get and this has made my bed very important to me.

e.) People rarely attempt to make connections to others that are different because people fear that which they don't understand, and it is understandably difficult to understand those who are different.

f.) Should the ability of eating be removed, I would whole-heartedly miss koldunai. Koldunai are small wheat based ravioli filled with pork. They are of a Lithuanian origin. They are most commonly served with bacon and sour cream. While they look not even remotely appetizing at all, they are the most delicious thing I've ever had the pleasure of eating. An accurate description of it would require words which I am sure have not been created yet.

Diving Bell & The Butterfly #1

a.) 'Locked-in' syndrome is the condition when the body is completely paralyzed, but the mind is unhindered. Most patients suffering from 'locked-in' syndrome retain a small amount of movement in either the eye, finger, or other small extremity. It is considered a prison because the patient has no way to communicate with anyone around him. The butterfly in "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly" is Bauby's imagination. Bauby can do more or less anything he wants in his imagination unhindered by his present condition.

b.)Bauby wakes up from a week long coma, only to realize that he is now incapable of any form of communication. He is unable to move anything but his eye, and Bauby comes to the slow realization that he will never do anything he one enjoyed again.

c.)Bauby's progress should be measured just as any patients progress would be. Though physical and speech therapy, Bauby may regain simple functions, such as the ability to swallow and having his feeding tube removed. Bauby is able to escape the depression that his condition induces by dreaming and more or less living in his imagination.