Wednesday, January 29, 2025
The Language Of Whales
Katharine Payne, a student of both music and biology during her undergraduate years, combined those interests to discover and document the songs of humpback whales. Since the late 1960s when this research began, these 'songs' have entered into the realm of common knowledge. This familiarity and a rather egocentric tendency that homo sapiens exhibit towards other species seems to have trivialized whale communication.
Whales have their own language. It is as simple as that. Humans are not unique in their ability to communicate. In fact, an argument can be made that human language, at best, is rather clumsy and inefficient. If one considers end results, all of human history and the current state of the planet provide all the facts anyone might need to make such an argument. The good that has been accomplished by our species seems to have been done by small groups of people working locally, people who have overcome the language barrier.
What evidence is there that whale sounds are no more than the equivalent of our grunts and groans? A discovery by Dr Payne made in 1969 is one piece of the puzzle. She found that whale songs change over time. As winter approaches, all the 'singers' in a particular breeding ground will start singing the previous winter's song. By the end of their migration and the time spent at their feeding ground, these whales will be singing a new song, a very different song. And all the 'singers' in the population will have learned the new song. Obviously, something more complex than grunts and groans is going on here.
Katy Payne asserts that the humpbacks do more than just 'talk'; they are using their language to compose and make their own brand of music.
The salient fact about all communication within and between species (except humans) is that of integration. Whales are one with their environment, perfectly adapted to all contingencies of life at sea; and the same might be said of aardvarks and zebras and everything in between. And though some humans speak disparagingly of nature red in tooth and claw, the relationships between species and with the environment generally is symbiotic. Are there malicious beasts in the jungle? Nasty brutes that prey on the weak simply from some perverse enjoyment of inflicting pain and suffering?
Only homo sapiens.
Our language seems, by design, to confuse and confront, to set us apart from one another and from the world around us. Of the three or four languages with which I am familiar, this conundrum is particularly true of English.
Music, however, does seem to be a different behavior all together. Perhaps the whales are on to something. Perhaps what we all need to do is talk a whole lot less and sing a whole lot more.
Saturday, January 4, 2025
AMONG WHALES
Using an economic argument as if it were the soundest basis for judgment is, of course, at the root of the tragedy of our times. One could hardly find a clearer example of what such reasoning leads to than the present state of whales. Simply stated, putting economics first is the myopia of this the most shortsighted of all civilizations; it is the view for which our era will someday be judged more harshly than the most ignorant and prejudiced medieval society. The ultimate expression of our madness is that we revere as wise those who put economic considerations above all else and sneer at those who see the madness of such a system of values, labeling them as unrealistic. Meanwhile, we spend all of our children's inheritance to maintain ourselves in the myth that what we are doing is viable. I would offer that this is the most deeply flawed, most expensive belief ever adopted in the history of our species.
Roger Payne
from Among Whalesoriginally published in 1995, Delta.
Roger Payne (1935 - 2023) began his study of whales in 1967, and was best known for showing that the complex vocalizations humpback whales make are rhythmic repeated patterns and therefore are properly classified as songs. He also showed that before propellor driven ships the loud, low frequency sounds of fin and blue whales were audible across entire oceans (a proposal since confirmed). from: https://rogerpayne.com/
Charles Melville Scammon (1925 - 1911) spent eleven years sailing and whaling the west coast of North America. He discovered the lagoons where the gray whales breed and calve. Though never ashamed of whaling, he took no enjoyment from the killing; he much prefered to study and draw the cetaceans. Ultimately, he gathered his writing and drawings and put them together in a book. The book has become a classic of the genre.
Scammon, Charles (1968) [1874]. The Marine Mammals of the North-western Coast of North America: Together with an Account of the American Whale-fishery. Dover.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Joseph Brodsky
Joseph Brodsky (1940 - 1996), Russian essayist and poet, was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972. Born in St. Petersburg, Brodsky quit school at age 15. His father, a navy photographer, had lost his position due to the anti-Semitic policies of the Soviets; and the family became mired in persecution and poverty. Largely self-educated, Brodsky had already begun to write poetry. He eked out a living by working as a manual laborer and merchant seaman. He taught himself English by translating the poetry of Robert Frost and John Donne. Writing under his own name, losif Aleksandrovitch, as well as his Anglicized name, his reputation as an underground poet grew quickly. Brodsky's poetry never found a publisher in Russia. His work was copied by hand, and covertly passed from one admirer to another. Inevitably he came to the attention of Soviet authorities. In 1964, after trial in a Soviet court, he was sentenced to hard labor at an Arctic work camp. The Soviets cited his "anti-Soviet work," "social parasitism," and "decadent poetry" as reasons for their persecution. In 1972, with the help of W H. Auden, he emigrated to the United States. In 1981 he received one of the first MacArthur Foundation awards. His essay collection, Less than One, received the National Book Award for criticism in 1986. In 1987, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Quoting William James
Quoting other people is not without its pitfalls. I intended to use this quote from William James:
Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.
A small problem arose when I could not find the source of the quote. After delving in the nooks and crannies that google offered, I discovered the reason why. James never wrote those words. Many people claim he did; but he did not. The quote is that of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1829 - 1894) from his book The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.
James was a polymath, best known for his work in psychology, and the author of the book The Principles Of Psychology, 1393 pages of insight into how the human mind works. Like Shakespeare, James should be read. One might skip Holmes without too much damage to his erudition, but James wants some consideration.
Both James and Holmes attended and subsequently taught at Harvard. If they were to learn of this little error of attribution, neither would be the least bit concerned. Both, it seems to me, might even have felt flattered.
Living organism abound on this planet and homo sapiens make up a rather small percentage of those organisms (0.01%, but don't quote me on that). So here's my two cents worth (in for a penny, in for a pound):
Whenever a man and a dog meet there are only three creatures present. There is the man as he sees himself, the man as he really is (which is how the dog sees him), and the dog, who is as he really is.
Holmes was not quite the intellect that James was; but he was a lecturer both brilliant and witty. He gets the last word:
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground-floor. But if a man hasn't got plenty of good common sense, the more science he has, the worse for his patient.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
ASSUME A VIRTUE
from HAMLET Act III, Scene 4
Aristotle had something similar: “The virtues… we acquire by first having actually practised them, just as we do the arts.” from Ethics, Bk 2, Ch 1
And, of course, there is the ubiquitous street slang: fake it till you make it. Might have been Paul Simon who came up with that line. In his song 'Fakin' It' (1968) there is the lyric that reads: “And I know I’m fakin’ it, I’m not really makin’ it.“
LION'S ROAR
Sunday, November 10, 2024
It goes without saying that air is more important for the physical life of human beings than money or diamonds. However, actually there are many people who put more value on money or diamonds than on air. Although we cannot be alive for a moment without air, we often lose sight of this truth. Even if we lose sight of it, we will not die from suffocation right away. But, if we continue to pollute the air for the sake of maintaining our luxurious lives as we do today, the time comes when we will suffocate. Therefore it is a problem for us to lose sight of the importance of air.
Uchiyama Kosho (1912 - 1998)
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi was one of the great Zen masters of the twentieth century. He centered his life on zazen, and, at his temple Antaiji, on the outskirts of Kyoto, he taught a life of the highest culture to everyone who wanted to practice with him, monk and lay, Japanese and foreigner.
from article at Lion's Roar website
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Therefore the Great Man in his actions will not harm others, but he makes no show of benevolence or charity. He will not move for the sake of profit, but he does not despise the porter at the gate. He will not wrangle for goods or wealth, but he makes no show of refusing or relinquishing them. He will not enlist the help of others, but he makes no show of being self-supporting, and he does not despise the greedy and the base. His actions differ from those of the mob, but he makes no show of uniqueness or eccentricity. He is content to stay behind with the crowd, but he does not despise those who run forward to flatter and fawn. All the titles and stipends of the age are not enough to stir him to exertion; all its penalties and censures are not enough to make him feel shame. He knows that no line can be drawn between right and wrong, no border can be fixed between great and small ...
17 Autumn Floods p100
translation by Burton Watson
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