Some people operate with linear thinking. I’m not one of them. That’s why reading about “rhizomatic” thinking excites me. There can be another way. More than one way. There’s always been more than one way. Perhaps the trouble has been the privileging of one mode of processing the chaotic thoughts in one’s mind.
Having said that, I do find value in more structured approaches. Thinking in a linear form is still useful, and I’ve grown to re-appreciate the joy of doing Add Maths during my school days. There’s a kind of inner satisfaction when you walk through the step by step process to arrive at the solution.
But I’ve always been someone who thinks in pictures I think (no pun intended). I like to see things in one page. Mind maps are great for that. Charts and diagrams help me visualize the sentences and words.
In a way, shapes of different sizes, pictures and symbols clarify my thoughts more than words and phrases. And yet, the more linear approach of communicating through alphabets formed into words, and words into sentences and later into paragraphs are the stable diet of everyday communication.
Of course, right now I’m talking more about what runs in me when I’m thinking in solitude. This strange inner conversation going on.
Paper, color pens and pencils. Post-it notes and tape. All these are embodied tools to capture those “ghostly” ideas and words either in the air or in the brain. Strange how all this works. I’ll leave that to the natural scientist to help unravel that.
Glad I managed to finish the Russian’s early works. It’s quite a meditation on “Act” or “Deed” and what all this means. While in the “Jamban” (toilet in Malay) today, I was wondering how reading philosophy is like slowing down time. We hurry through so many ideas and words we simply take for granted daily. But a good philosopher not only gives you concepts to clarify what we take for granted. He or she actually somehow slows down time when taking us through the process of their thinking. Bakhtin did that for me. And it was a delight to see how he slowed down an excerpt from a poem, and the concrete explanation of the poem illuminated the concepts he was trying to convey to the reader.
I just realized how I tend to ramble through my sentences with too many ‘commas’. So I went make and changed them to ‘full stops’. Back to the theme of slowing down. I guess hurry is the enemy of thinking if we slowing down is key to thinking deeply. I wonder how is it possible for us to meditate on the run?
It’s nice to blog again. I think I’m getting back to some rhythm. 🙂
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Location:Gimleveien,Kristiansand,Norway