The Purpose of Communication
Why do we communicate? To give orders? To win? Or to give joy?
For his book Die Bienen und das Unsichtbare (The Bees and the Invisible), the Austrian writer Clemens J. Setz was awarded the 2021 Georg Büchner Prize, the most important literary prize for German language literature.
In the book, which is about the constructed languages, Clemens J. Setz quotes a story by Franz Kafka, called Eine Kreuzung (A Crossbread). It is a one page long short story about a boy who has inherited an animal from his father—half goat, half cat. In the story he tells about the animal and Clemens J. Setz focuses on one paragraph.
Here is the German original.
Manchmal springt es auf den Sessel neben mir, stemmt sich mit den Vorderbeinen an meine Schulter und hält seine Schnauze an mein Ohr. Es ist, als sagte es mir etwas, und tatsächlich beugt es sich dann vor und blickt mir ins Gesicht, um den Eindruck zu beobachten, den die Mitteilung auf mich gemacht hat. Und um gefällig zu sein, tue ich, als hätte ich etwas verstanden, und nicke. — Dann springt es hinunter auf den Boden und tänzelt umher.
Here the same passage in English, translated by the Scottish novelists and translators Willa and Edwin Muir, who specialised in translating Kafka.
Sometimes it jumps up on the armchair beside me, plants its front legs on my shoulder, and put its muzzle to my ear. It is as if it were saying something to me, and as a matter of fact it turns its head afterwards and gazes in my face to see the impression its communication has made. And to oblige it I behave as if I had understood, and nod. Then it jumps to the floor and dances about with joy.
When I read this passage I remembered my daughter. Now when she is older she does it less, but when she was younger, she used to come to me to ask something or say something, and when the answer was friendly and positive, she used to smile and go away w/ happy dancing movements.
Clemens J. Setz concludes, that this should be the purpose of every communication, to end w/ a little dance, having given joy and empowerment.
