Pause: Snow
Yes, Virginia, some things remain that video can't explain. For example, how do you say "idea" in the language of video?
Eskimo languages, we are told, include over 400 words for different types of snow. They've got, say, a noun for the snow that turns slushy after a rainfall, another for the kind that spins in the air like powder, and still another, I suppose, for the snow they shovel away from the igloo entrance. By examining the glossary of a language you find the deepest concerns of its speakers. Eskimos obviously think snow important. Italian has 400 words for different types of pasta, which surprises no one.
Video too speaks as a language. It communicates with great nuance things that you can see, things that move and things that you can hear. Like Eskimos with their snow and Italians with their pasta, videomakers master communication of the visible, the moving and--shall we say--the noisy. Just as the Eskimo languages speak acutely of the world of snow, the language of video speaks best of a world of images, speed and noise. This explains the popularity and utility of television in a world speeding with a great din toward belief in app…
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