After listening to the Jill Bolte Taylor video I came to the conclusion that she is kinda crazy, but she does have a point when the language portion of your brain fails you reach this level of nirvana because your liner portion also fails so you don't think about the yesterdays or the tomorrows you only think about right here right now. With the lost of language you also lose your inner thought or that little voice in your head. or the way Jill Taylor puts it "But perhaps most important, it's that little voice that says to me, I am, I am." When that happen you become a single individual and separate being from all those around you, and when that inner voice is lost you meld with the world, and the energy around you becoming one sentient being.
We are a perfect example of yin and yang, our minds are two minds molded into one working in perfect unity but, when one fails we are left with only half of are self. If we choose our right side we become all, together, one energy flow, if we choose out left side then we become singular, I am here, I am.

Bliss and Language

When language fails, there’s a discrepancy between the mind and its surroundings, a terrible thing. Language is such a vital part of humanity that without it, we’d become less than people, less than animals even. Take Taylor for example, when she lost her language center, she said she couldn’t distinguish between herself and her surroundings, that she became disconnected from herself. When she could no longer recognize herself, she lost her humanity. Which is why the issue of whether or not recognizing a lack of language is necessary, is important. As people, we should always be working towards bettering language, so that we never lose it, and subsequently, our humanity.

Moments of bliss are important because without them, we break. As people, we work through countless bits of stress and hardship, just so we can find those rare moments of bliss, when everything’s shiny and chrome. The concept of suicide, as detestable as it is, is an option for people who can no longer bear to look for the diamonds in life. Robin Williams left little notes all over his house, hints at his decision to end his life. Why would a person so easily inclined to happiness kill themselves, unless they were tired of looking? which is why it’s so important to meditate on bliss, and figure out how it can be given to people, so that everyone can live without depression.

jill botle taylor

How can you say you have experienced life if you haven't opened your mind with all the thoughts that go through your head? Jill Bolte Taylor could have had something bad happened to her with the stroke but instead she experienced something that 99.9% of the world would love to experience, and that was; she saw a different view that she had never seen before. In her words she says she was in "lala land".  It made her realize that the little things in life are so much important after this and it made her into a bigger person after she recovered.  So it made realize if I don't appreciate the small things in life and sometimes i don't. Watching this video made me think a little on how life is about now. Anything can happen to you in any moment. So try to think bigger and live in the moment. In the poem that Robert Hass writes about is very interesting. I understood what he was trying to say that language doesnt have to words that other people have to understand. It could be something that you know or relate to you. So in this poem is he saying how things remind him over certain things. I can relate too that, because certain things i hear make me think of a certain place or person I may came across.

So What?

Author Robert Hass and Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor both address the fact that language fails. Robert Hass' poem leaves a lot of room for interpretation, making many analogies to materialistic items such as blackberries. Hass explains in his poem how everything in life ends and how language is commonly misunderstood. Hass continues to describe how life is so beautiful and most of us would rather be on our phones talking about the same old thing again and again. The world is evolving and in that process language is changing as well. Language is extremely important and it is constantly changing, so people need to learn and stay up to date. 

Jill Taylor takes more of a biological approach by sharing her own personal experience. The scientist, Jill Taylor, explained how the brain is spilt into two, the left side and the right side. The left brain thinks in language. According to Taylor, “The left brain connects your internal world to your external world," it’s the little voice inside your head. Taylor shared, first hand, how her stroke severely damaged the left side of her brain. Without a healthy brain it’s extremely difficult for language to be part of one’s daily routine.
Both these authors take different avenues in sharing there opinions on how language fails. One does it biologically and the other does it through intrepretation which I genuinely liked because I think it reaches more audiences. None the less, language is important because it is how we communicate with others and share & express our thoughts. Without language our individuality would cease to exist.    

      Experiences where language fails or happens to bring bliss into our lives matter so much in our world because they can change our entire view of something or someone. Language brings passion to a situation and without it, the whole situation is different. Jill Bolte Taylor completely lost the language in her own head for several hours, and that experience alone changed her entire view on life. The failure of language gave her a feeling of nirvana and let her feel energy as she has never felt it before. It amazes me that she could have her whole life changed just by language failing to work in her own brain. This experience made her feel bigger as a person and made her really appreciate the little things in life. We all truly need to realize how important our language is to us and use it to its fullest extent. We can make such a huge difference in things by just using our words differently and with passion, as Robert Hass represented in his poem. How can we learn more about language if we don't fully grasp what it is capable of doing? 

      These experiences should matter so much to us, and all of us shouldn't have to have stroke or be a great writer to realize this. The privilege of being able to communicate and show passion through language is something we all take advantage of and we truly should look around us and see the bigger picture. Without language our world wouldn't function the same & for this reason that is why the issues of language matter.

So what?

Through the interpretation of the poem, we experience moments of bliss through the repetition of words. We erase the generality of the regular definition and create a different conclusion to an exact meaning in our own opinion. To experience this bliss we go into an unconsciousness to where everything is clear and so what? This means that we have the opportunity to create our own lifestyle of definition or word choices. Its crazy to think of us going into a world of no thought but everything becomes beautiful and the thought alone of letting our minds run wild is a sense of freedom of relief. We create individuality and in the Jill Bolte presentation she experienced Nirvana. She expresses her mind so well that she wishes that bliss was something that everybody can experience while we, as humans, are alive. It gives us the time to reflect on our brain from the inside out like she did. Every human should be able to take the time to experience this because creativity is the key to our newest and latest innovations. In anything we do, it is the spark of idea that is let out that creates diversity in our world.

    In order to continue learning from the human body, we need to think about these things. We need to continue to learn from these extraordinary moments, like the seizure Dr. Jill Taylor had. How would she have known about the feeling of "nirvana" if a blood vessel hadn't exploded in her brain? How would she have been able to know the feeling of being bigger than herself, and everyone around her? These issues matter because they can tell us what or bodies are capable of when something goes wrong; what our minds are capable of.
    What Robert Hass said, once you lose passion, you lose the meaning of the words, is something that we should never stop thinking about. If words no longer mean anything because no one is using them as they were intended, to express feeling, or thought, then we have failed the language(s) we were given to communicate. In order to hold onto one of the very best parts about being human, being able to communicate, we must use it and use it right, or what's the point? To continue to thrive as human beings, we must use the knowledge that we were given.
    These things, thought and feeling and passion, are concepts that could be taken away as easily as they were given. Illnesses or accidents or old age or any number of other things could cause us to lose these basic human instincts, and so we must keep using them when we have them because, one day, when it is out of our control, they could be taken away from us.

John McWhorter supports his argument better, however...

To answer John McWhorter's final question in "The Cosmopolitan Tongue," it would be inherently evil if there were only one spoken language, no matter the language. To suggest otherwise would entirely belittle the power of any language. While I do appreciate the fact that Anzaldúa tried to prove a point similar to this using languages closer to her heart, such as Chicano Spanish or Tex-Mex, better examples could have been used, given that several of the languages she chose to speak about are not very prevalent, even in Texas. A better example of the power of a language would be Lithuanian, as random as that may sound. I have two good friends living in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city, and after meeting one of them this past summer, I started asking questions about their country, and their language. It is a very unique language, having little influence from other dominant languages in the region such as Russian or Polish. The language is specific only to Lithuania, a country of about 3 million people in total. With all that being said, what may seem as a very unimportant language to society as a whole is not at all. It has managed to survive and flourish, even after the powerful influences of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, both of which occupied all of Lithuania at some point in history. The existence of this language is important because, even if it’s use is more localized in Lithuania, the language embodies resilience and represents an entire culture. If this doesn't exemplify the power of a language (no matter how big or small), then I don't know what does. With all this being said, I agree much more with one of McWhorter's other points: that the death of any language should not be taken lightly. A universal language would only produce the illusion of multi-cultural connections. It would be poisonous. Another one of McWhorter’s points that relates to this is that the “main loss when a language dies is not cultural but aesthetic,” which I entirely disagree with. A good example of this would be the Portuguese word ‘saudades.’ This word cannot be translated into a single word in English. While google translate says it means “longing,” it is much more than that. Portuguese writer Aubrey Bell described the word to mean “a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present.” A meaningful word such as this is, to me, not purely aesthetic at all. So, in conclusion, while John McWhorter may have done a better job at supporting some of his conclusions when it comes to language, much of his argument is fallacious.

In Gloria Anzaldua's, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" she wrote on a subject that matters deeply to her. She believes that attacking one's form of expression is "a violation of the First Amendment". As she may be right, John McWhorter did a better job proving his claim in his piece, "The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English". Before I even began reading these pieces I read the prompt and I already agreed with Gloria's standpoint; a dying language is tragic, it seems like when a language dies a culture and its people go with it. But McWhorter's article left me surprised. There are over "6000 languages in use today", and that number "will likely dwindle to 600", according to McWhorter. I had no idea how many languages were in use all over the world. I bet a new language dies everyday and I never even had a clue. John McWhorter reiterates that "language death, ironically, [is] a symptom of people coming together." That makes perfect sense to me; if everyone spoke the same language think of how easy it would be to communicate with one another, therefore bringing people closer together. Maybe losing a language isn't so bad after all.

McWhorter does a better job.

In her essay, "How to take a Wild Tongue," Gloria Anzaldua talks from a very personal place; she wants her audience to relate to her on a personal level. She is Chicano and I am a white guy with no knowledge of Chicanos so, when I read her essay I have a hard time relating to her struggle also, she uses very little hard facts and mainly sticks to telling personal anecdotes of her life as an "unbreakable" mestiza which she writes in and out of Spanish and English. But, on the other hand, when I read McWhorter's essay: "The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English" I could see his view-point due to the fact that had had helpful statistics such as the fact that "according to one estimate... 6,000 languages... will likely dwindle to 600." This fact hits me in my chest and brings me over to his side of thinking. His argument is very logical and straightforward so, I would have to say that he, more effectively, proved his point that less language is a sign of the world coming together.

John McWhorter opened my eyes...

Gloria Anzaldua gave a powerful argument of the violence that is set out when any group tries to suppress another’s language. In her statement, “We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration…” Gloria is saying that others fear the thought of having a language that isn’t perfectly derived from its origin. She does a very good job in getting her point of the beauty of many languages and the culture behind it across through disgust and anger, but I believe that John McWhorter argues his point of the death of a language being a good thing better. At first I could not believe that anyone would argue for the death of the language. I was naïve in thinking that language was too beautiful to die. However, McWhorter reminded me that “the aesthetic delight is mainly savored by the outside observer… there are so many languages in the world no more interesting  than I would find a list of all the makes of Toyota.” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I realized that there are plenty of languages out there that have already died or that are dying that I know nothing about. I guess it wouldn’t really matter how many languages die because I don’t know enough about any of them to appreciate them. By the number of languages dying, it is just bringing us closer to all of us having a universal tongue. What would be better than everyone being able to communicate with one another?

How to tame a wild tongue response by ADRIAN R. VILLARREAL

Gloria Anzaldua claims in "How to tame a wild tongue"  that denying a group from their language is a violation of the first amendment. True, because of the examples that she gives of growing up at school, she was punished to speak the language that she grew up as a child. Now because of the suppression of the Spanish language she goes on to say that there are different dialects. She also provides examples of different types dialects from parts all over the U.S., prime examples “TEX-MEX” or “Chicano “  slang which is  mixed in with English. This culture was formed by creating something that’s more acceptable for the “anglo” community. And who wants to change the why they speak just to fit in or in her case at the time there was no choice. This brought some tension an division between the “anglo” and Hispanic community because of a bad history. Why is it bad speak another language? why can’t people speak freely about they want, don’t we  like have “the freedom of speech”. 

Agreement with John McWhoter

J’adore cette classe. J’adore mes camarades de classe et l'enseignant. Ceci est étonnamment amusant.What did I just say? What was I trying to tell you? Without the ability to translate and reply in this language there is no way to make a conversation. There is no way we could have gotten to know one another and come closer together. We would have actually been pushed farther from each other due to the fact that neither of us knows how to communicate. Language is an implement that allows us to communicate with one another, but how would we be able to communicate if there are 6,000 different languages around the world? John McWhorter states that when language dies, it is a “symptom of people coming together.” If some languages died the world would be brought closer together combining and creating a dominant universal language. A common tongue that would allow everyone to talk to one another without having to find a translator or teach the other their whole language. He states that “Perhaps a future lies before us in which English will be a sort of global tongue while people continue to speak about 600 other languages among themselves.” A language will die but it is not necessarily a bad thing. If a language has to die in order for the world to be able to communicate with a Lingua franca  and be able to grow as a united people then so be it. I would rather have that then have to learn a totally different language like Chinese, a language with “a writing system that demands mastery of 2,000 characters in order to read a tabloid newspaper.” With a universal language humanity would be able to be united. Therefore I believe that John McWhorter makes a very valid point on why the death of a language is rather good, not bad.

In Support of John McWhorter

Language is not some sacred relic that must be preserved. It is a living tool intended to help individuals communicate and collaborate. John McWhorter argues that when a language dies, it is a "symptom of people coming together." However, Anzaldúa sees the death of a language as the death of expression, going as far as to call it a "violation of the First Amendment." While both of these authors provide convincing evidence to support their claim, I believe McWhorter is more successful in proving his opinion. 

Anzaldúa recalls the adversity she faced as a Chicano. Speaking a mix of English and Spanish, she feels her language defines her culture. Anzaldúa claims she is being persecuted by having to choose "to speak English or Spanish when [she] would rather speak Spanglish," but seems to have missed the point of speaking a language altogether. If you can't be understood, and cannot convey your ideas to another, then what is the point of speaking at all? Anzaldúa's main fault is in thinking that an attack on her language is an attack on her culture, but the two situations are not mutually exclusive. 

As stated by John McWhorter, "When a culture dies, naturally the language dies with it. The reverse, however, is not necessarily true." The rise of a dominant language is one of convenience, not cultural imperialism. The loss of her native language can never take away the memories of the Chicano folk musicians or the Thursday nights at the drive-in theater, it only changes the tongue in which those events are remembered. McWhorter argues that the benefit of a universal tongue to expedite the spread of knowledge far outweighs any sentimental reasons to maintain a dying language. He supports this by looking back at the root of language, and how variations formed as a "result of geographical separation." It is only logical that as humanity comes together as a united people that these languages will also come together. A universal people require a universal language. The domination of the English language may feel like a war against culture as Gloria Anzaldúa believes but in fact it is the exact opposite, bringing cultures together as a bridge to spread ideas.

Discussion Question #3

Discussion Question #3

        My initial thought was I would be lost if I lost the voice in my head because after reading the question I thought to myself, " Why in the hell would I want to lose the voice in my head that dictates my logical thinking and the way I interpret concepts?" I was puzzled and intrigued by the question but I didn't have an answer so I decided to look up Jill Taylor and what she thought about it. So I found her Ted Talk and watched it. She goes in to explain how she lost her voice in her head and why she lost it. She had a hemorrhage the size of a golf ball in the left side of her brain. This left her left side of the brain (the side that does all the thinking and making concepts out of actions) completely mute. So while her left brain is mute she was able to let her right side of the brain take over. This lead her to the complete nourishment of all the energy around her. She explains it as Euphoria and Nirvana. She was LOST deep in the beauty of the world and as she talks you can feel her love and emotion just through the way she speaks. After listening to this enlightened woman talk about her experience I have altered my thought process. I would choose to live in the Nirvana world she invites me into at the end of her speech. 

The world with out the voice in my head would be empty and dull. There would be no excitment in the way i saw things i would just be a plain simple man. I would have no depth in my thoughts and and no emotion behind my actions I probably wouldnt even want to talk or be able to communicate my ideas to the people i have to deal with everyday. With out that ability to communicate I would lose my mind and probably become an introvert.

Question 3 Response

Jill Bolte Taylor described the mental silence she experienced after her stroke as a peaceful kind of experience. According to Taylor, without the constant chatter she felt more connected to the world around her. Without language, the mind has no ability to classify or sort through the experiences of the day, creating a sense of "in the moment" bliss. Life can be difficult at times, and it isn't a surprise that shutting off the incessant internal monologue would sound appealing to some. In fact, there are alternative ways to experience this that are fairly popular in society. For example, the use of certain drugs or alcohol can help to dull these daily burdens. Meditation could be another option to achieve this goal. Without that voice to transcribe my thoughts I believer I would be a much happier person. As they say, ignorance is bliss. But a life without deeper thought wouldn't be much of a life at all. More like a dream, drifting between emotions and feelings in a jumbled soup of constant "now." Giving up the ability to reason, essentially humanity itself, for a perpetual stupor of happiness would be a foolish trade. All of the noise and stress of life might be unbearable at times, and a short break might be well deserved, but if that voice in my head where to go quiet forever, I might as well be dead already.

Jill Bolte Taylor seemed rather content when the voice in her head became silent. Taylor described the situation as a relaxing moment. All the stress went away along with the voices, Taylor said. Although Taylor's situation was occuring due to a stroke, when the thought process of her brain shut down,  Taylor felt more "lighter" and happier than she did before. Taylor even felt dissapointed once the world she lived in was once again filled with language. Personally, I would feel joyful if the voices or language in my head went away. The constant flow of thoughts produced by the brain is what causes stress and emotional issues. Having that constant flow of voices make individuals have second thoughts,  cause individuals to overthink, and cause confusion within an individual's head. From the moment we wake up, thoughts are already buzzing in our head. Thoughts like, "It's too early to be up" or "this bed is so comfortable. " Complete silence within the head gives people such as Taylor a clear view of things as well as prevents the brain from working too hard. I don't know about you guys, but I would rather live on a secluded countryside than in a densely populated city.

A world without words

 A world without words is very hard to come by. Jill Bolte Taylor says that language doesn't not just have to be talking out loud. Without that voice that gets you out of trouble half of that time, how can you get through at least a day. Not everyone is the same with there little voice thats in there head. Your voice can have a totally different opinion that mine. Thats why its so important to have that little voice. Now lets image if we didn't have that voice, we would be hopeless and probably wont know what to do. If you think about it our mind, thoughts, and feeling all are in our little voice inside us. Like I tried to put my self in Jill's shoes and pretend that I didn't have a little voice in mean biut i cant image how that feels whats so ever.

jill bolte taylor. Response #3

"Language is an ongoing information processing it's that constant reminder." as Jill Bolte Taylor phrases, language can be described as our internal thoughts, an every day occurrence that seems to never go away.  Without this language, or our internal voice, how would we go about our day. I feel as if I did not have this voice I wouldn't be able to go about my day. This voice is my reminder, my tool, my escape. No one can read my mind or know what I am thinking, this is my way of thinking. If I did not have my internal voice I would as if I could not escape from the real world. As Jill says, "I am an individual, I am a single, I am a solid, I'm separate from you. This is my name." she is describing her own thoughts which make her different. We all have different thought process that make us unique. Nobody else can tell us what we can or can not think and that is the one thing that nobody can take away and will forever be our own. Our own mind and thoughts are what we are centered around and I cannot imagine a world without the little voice in my head.

Jill Bolte Taylor response

Zach Rice 

I often fantasize about the concept of true silence. The thought of having no “brain chatter,” as Taylor put it, is truly entrancing. If I were to experience the type of silence Taylor speaks of, I would be joyfully amazed.

It seems that our current world is one full of all types of chatter, both internal and external. Stress spreads like a plague amongst people. This is a product of too much chatter in one’s mind. In the state pure silence Taylor describes, however, she is experiencing the most intense presence in all moments. He was experiencing no reflection, no distracting thoughts, and no previous experiences to compare the current one to, and only raw absorption. Her only job at the time was ‘being.’ All of these aspects further my belief that in said state, I would flourish. I say that because there is no thought or language to represent the inability to do so. In this state there is no existent right or wrong, there aren’t things that one would be better off spending his or her time on. In this silence the world can become more navigable.

Removal of all of the random, chaotic, and distracting chatter allows focusing on the only two things that we really truly have – what we see and what we feel. Everything becomes strictly “sensual intake,” as Krulwich puts it. In this purely sensual intake the previously stated ease in navigation is displayed. Jill Bolte Taylor said, “lying in that bed without words she felt connected to things, to everything, in a way that she never had before.” This is an example of something that is likely to only be achievable through an experience of this pure silence. When the words that describe the difference between something vanish, the differences themselves virtually vanish as well and this connection is achievable.

3.) A World Without Words

Ivan Perez

I was Intrigued after reading this article, and I have to say I totally would have the opposite feeling Jill Taylor felt about her losing all her brain chatter. Instead of being at peace, I would be in disharmony with myself. Imagine the voice that transcribes the thoughts you have was silent, how would you feel? I would have gone completely insane, just complete silence experiencing the world without thought and language. No internal thoughts or conversations, thus it would impossible to read this piece with the little voice one always uses to read in their head. It's like having "no mind" you're just acting on impulse because you have no thoughts and that's how animals act, so if we ever encounter this state would be be considered animals? Instead of being at peace, I say I would feel completely lost within myself like a time warp, a vast space of emptiness within my head, I would feel desperate to escape that feeling and would want all my thoughts, language, and most importantly I would want my mind back. If I had only one word to describe how I felt it would be lost.

A World Without Thought? Sign Me Up.

        Music is the only thing I can relate to a lack of thought. When listening to good music, contemplation slows down and I simply enjoy the experience. I get distracted with the here and now, brooding ideas evaporate as my mind tries to focus on one thing. Lacking thought must be similar, but on a vastly larger scale. Instead of just experiencing music through audio, a person without thought experiences music through everything. The world would be a vast field of emotions that didn't need to be comprehended, simply experienced. Living without the names, concepts, and ideas that have been passed on since the first thought would make a person rely solely on their senses. Without thought, there's no end to the focus dedicated to what the senses perceive, and because of that total dedication to the senses, the mind is at peace. To answer the question of "how do you think it would feel?", I would say, euphoric. Being able to simply enjoy life without the constant jabber from the image of my 'self' would be incredible. Give me music over thought any day.