In the more literal sense, this idea is contradictory. The phrase "never judge a book by its cover" is basically saying that form does not connect with content. Just because the cover could be beaten up or have a silly picture on it, it doesn't mean that the book is uninteresting or poorly written. Also, in chemistry, the state or form of matter does not affect the molecule composition. When water turns into steam, it's still made of H2O molecules (content), the form of the molecules (more spread out) are just different.
Even thought this idea doesn't apply to everything, it still applies very well to writing (as originally discussed this week in class). To name a few: poetry, narratives, and tense changes all have different forms that modify the content. When I'm writing in the future, I'll take into consideration that how my writing is presented and organized can make what I'm writing a lot stronger.
Cordelia,
ReplyDeleteI had never even mentally related the idea of "form is content" to definite theories based on reason, such as science, but the fact that this idea only applies to writing, art, music, and such, truly attests to the abstract nature of writing and the art of human communication.
The main goal of advertising, as you discussed in your blog, is to capture your emotions and attention for the duration of the commercial; they know that our memory is more persistent when we are under the influence of our feelings. This expresses the idea of "form is cognition", which fits right alongside the topic of your blog. I also see this concept in art and music; the same song played by an orchestra and by a band has very different emotional impacts on the audience. Similarly, the same song played by a middle school orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will surely strike the audience in different ways.
In the end, your blog inspired me to think about how "form is content" attests to the abstract nature of human expression, on a very down-to-earth and realistic level. The first thought that came to my head was want and desire; when we want to ask someone to do what we know they would never agree to, we must use our "form" to manipulate the "content" and how the other person feels emotionally, or their "cognition". This can be seen in various politicians in the past, or better yet certain world leaders and dictators, who acquired followers through manipulating and deceiving their people into wanting what they wanted. With this it becomes evident that greed perhaps, for money or fame or both, has also been a driving force behind manipulating form.