Blog Post 8: Wolf, Proust and the Squid

After reading the book Proust and the Squid by Wolf, I found several interesting parts of the book which I want to talk about. Wolf said “We are what we read” (Wolf, p.5). This is a very important statement. What he was trying to say here is every written piece is based on its unique language and logic, this is why when people try to use their own logic to interpret a reading based on different logic, they have difficulty understanding it. People need to develop a different brain structure (by learning different culture and social values) in order to really understand a different logic. I am a Chinese girl thus I understand this idea clearly. What I realize is that while I was talking to an American student, I need to make sure the logic beneath my English words exactly the same as his or hers, so that the student can understand what I was talking about. Similarly, while my American friend tried to speak Chinese to me, they tried to convey Chinese logic so that I can understand them. Sometimes, people make mistakes and convey their own logic by using a different language. For instance, they talk English based on Chinese logic; or they use Chinese words to describe an English mind structure. Neither ways won’t make sense to a native Chinese (or a native English) person. These mistakes are so called Chinglish (Chinese based English) and Englese (English based Chinese) or erroneous arrangements between other language and logics.

In this book, the author talked about how different brain works to read. I think one thing that was well put was when he said “human beings have access to thousands of different realities they might never encounter or understand otherwise” (Wolf, p.6). I really like the way he said it. Again it implies that different people have different functional brains thus they understand the same text differently, just like the Chinese-English brain I discussed in the previous paragraph. I think this statement is very true because I’m not American and I know that Chinese people’s view of the world is very different from an American’s world view, so does Japanese, Arabs, Koreans, Russians Italians, Latinos and anyone who have their own native language and logic. And sometimes logic wouldn’t be the only reason behind the fact that there are different realities. Everyone in this world experience things differently; personal experiences also make up different insight while meet with different culture and brain system. It makes me happy to know there isn’t just one reality out there because I don’t believe everybody, especially not those across country, all lived a same life and have same experiences; everybody is working on their own life based on where they stand and who they are at the moment, and we should learn to respect and appreciate people’s unique thinking and different ways of living.

I also feel strong connection with the author’s saying that while we realize the uniqueness of our mind, we will be “no longer limited by the confines of our own thinking” (Wolf, p.8). I understand this statement deeply, because since I have learned both Chinese and English, how my mind works is not only limited by my Chinese way of thinking, but also English. This really benefits me a lot from both my life and career, because it enables me to see the world from a different way, and look at the picture from a boarder scale, so that I can understand those who are different from me better.

Lastly, I thought it was interesting while the author said “we must be vigilant not to lose the profound generactivity of the reading brain, as we add new dimensions to the intellectual repertoire” (Wolf, p.23). In other words, we shall not underestimate our ability to understand a different-logic-based text. I really agree with this statement. It reminds me of how I read about different language, even though sometimes I find it hard to understand Western ways of thinking, I find it interesting and challenging to learn about English and its unique structure. I think people shouldn’t think that just because they aren’t born with certain mind structure they shouldn’t go explore other languages or go beyond other language based text, because human mind is deep and complicated which can imitate any mind structure they ever confront.