Blog Post #4

Richards begins the piece by describing the self-induced shackles society has created in literary context with the “doctrine of Usage”. Richards believes words in our vocabulary are, just that, words. Words are given meaning by the “neighbour words” in a sentence and are not predetermined by the connotation developed from a definition. It is under the illusion of the “doctrine of Usage” that society believes words have a set in stone meaning, thus caging the creativity process of writing and the language as a whole. When one follows the “doctrine of Usage” is when the concept of “remixing” comes into play. According to Richards, people are taught to use words in a certain context based off of previous writer who seemingly knew what they were doing. As a result, we resist deviating from a words original usage in fear that our personal alternative may be wrong.

Richards proceeds to describe the importance of “meaning”. If the “doctrine of Usuage” is to be shunned, then the definition of a word in a sentence is to be given by the “meaning” the author decides to attach to the word. Meaning is often portrayed through symbolism, which is the combination of references to exemplify a message. Symbolism is closely tied to “remixing” because the symbol is a compilation of other ideas to create a new idea, or “meaning”. Richards goes on to analyze the paradox of literal meaning versus symbolic meaning, and discusses whether they could exist simultaneously in a language.

Richard finalizes the piece with the “theorem of meaning”. According to Richards, society is often concerned with cause and effect, and narrow-mindedly follows this pattern. As a result, the concept of effect and cause is not considered and is instead rejected. The pattern has been repeated for so long that we do not stop to question its origins and soon misinterpret the process of “handing over” as factual. Similarly, remixing is often misinterpreted as originality. In actuality, originality is an empty concept which overshadows the fact that works are only developed from ideas created prior to their existence. These works are altered and combined in order to create something new, leaving society to believe that inspiration is a black and white concept.

Some concerns I had about Richard’s thoughts were the undermining of literal meaning. I do believe language functions efficiently due to literal meaning and connotation we attribute to words. Literal meaning is as necessary as symbolic meaning.