Oddly enough, the form of expression seems not to matter. I have calmed myself down with impassioned, discursive, near-incoherent rants to myself as I pace the privacy of my room as much and as often as I have written or typed, frantically trying to make my fingers match the frantic pace of my internal discourse. I'm doing it now, in fact. The urge to express, regardless of audience or reception or even meaningful subject matter or content, simply consumes me and I don't care if anyone is listening to me because I am listening to me, it doesn't matter if anyone else is hearing my words because I am hearing my words and in listening to myself I get a better idea of what I am thinking and sometimes even why I am thinking it.
However. If I want to produce something meant for others' consumption, it often takes the form of speech more easily than writing. It is a simple fact that I (and most other people) can speak more quickly and more easily than writing or typing, and that words flow more easily when spoken than when written down. It is also true that it is easier to stay on track and make clear transitions to another subject when writing; when speaking, it can be difficult to organize your thoughts in the frenzy of expressing them so quickly. What my ideal form of communication would be, then, is a combination of speech and writing--a form that allows communication to be fast, facile, and flowing while at the same time ordering it and organizing it to be accessible to an audience.
Let me explain. There exists this software from Nuance called Dragon NaturallySpeaking that allows a computer to record your voice speaking and translate those words into text--say, a document on a word processor. After having recorded the organic expression of your original fountain of words, that document can then be edited for clarity and flow of ideas that make it more accessible and more organized. Speech recognition software (not just Dragon, for I am sure there are many other such programs out there) used in this manner provides a fascinating combination of the pure creativity of speaking and the self-aware discourse of writing in a way that, to me, makes it almost the ideal form of language expression.
...which is why I'm getting it for Christmas.
In the meantime, however, I am limited to the traditional forms of pen and paper or a computer keyboard to express my ideas to myself and others; speaking, whether it is a monologue to a darkened room or a comment made to a crowd of thousands (the latter hasn't happened to me yet), is too much of a transient medium to truly hold an idea down. There stands a kind of paradox between speaking and recording; in order for something to be expressed, it often first spoken, but in order for it to be truly remembered, it must be written down. The limitations of each of these mediums complement each other in a way that allows them to be combined, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. There still exist gaps between expression and understanding that language, which is limited in and of itself, will never fully transcend. But if we can express something to ourselves, then we can understand our own thoughts and in turn extend that expression and comprehension to others, let them see for just a moment through our eyes.
At the moment, though, all I can think of is how much sooner I would have arrived at a stopping point had I been speaking this. Maybe I need a voice recorder until my Dragon arrives... Though transcription is such a hassle. And that creates an entirely different discourse that I might expand upon another day.
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