TEXT F How is communication
actually achieved It depends, of course, either on a common language or on
known conventions, or at least on the beginnings of these. If the common
language and the convention exist, the contributor, for example, the creative
artist, the performer, or the reporter, tries to use them as well as he can, But
often, especially with original artists and thinkers, the problem is in one way
that of creating a language, or creating a convention, or at least, of
developing the language and convention to the point where they are capable of
bearing his precise meaning. In literature, in music, in the visual arts, in the
sciences, in social thinking, in philosophy, this kind of development has
occurred again and again. It often takes a long time to get through, and for
many people it will remain difficult. But we need never think that it is
impossible; creative energy is much more powerful than we sometimes suppose.
While a man is engaged in this struggle to say new things in new ways, he is
usually more than ever concentrated on the actual work, and not on its possible
audience. Many artists and scientists share this fundamental unconcern about the
ways in which their work will be received. They may be glad if it is understood
and appreciated, hurt if it is not, but while the work is being done there can
be no argument. The thing has to come out as the man himself sees it.
In this sense it is true that it is the duty of society to create
conditions in which such men can live. For whatever the value of any individual
contribution, the general body of work is of immense value to everyone. But of
course things are not so formal, in reality. There is not society on the one
hand and these individuals on the other. In ordinary living, and in his work,
the contributor shares in the life of his society, which often affects him both
in minor ways and in ways sometimes so deep that he is not even aware of them.
His ability to make his work public depends on the actual communication system:
the language itself, or certain visual or musical or scientific conventions, and
the institutions through which the communication will be passed. The effect of
these on his actual work can be almost infinitely variable. For it is not only a
communication system outside him; it is also, however original he may be, a
communication system which is in fact part of himself. Many contributors make
active use of this kind of internal communication system. It is to themselves,
in a way, that they first show their conceptions, play their music and present
their arguments. Not only as a way of getting these clear, in the process of
almost endless testing that active composition involves. But also, whether
consciously or not, as a way of putting the experience info a communicable form.
If one mind has grasped it, then it may be open to other minds.
In this deep sense, the society is in some ways already present in the act
of composition. This is always very difficult to understand, but often, when we
have the advantage of looking back at a period, we can see, even if we cannot
explain, bow this was so. We can see how much even highly original individuals
had in common, in their actual work, and in what is called their "structure of
feeling", with other individual workers of the time, and with the society of
that time to which they belonged. The historian is also continually struck by
the fact that men of this kind felt isolated at the very time when in reality
they were beginning to get through. This can also be noticed in our own time,
when some of the most deeply influential men feel isolated and even rejected.
The society and the communication are there, but it is difficult to recognize
them, difficult to be sure. (670) It is implied at the end of the passage that highly original individuals feel isolated because ______.
A.they fail to acknowledge and use an acceptable form of communication B.they actually differ from other individuals in the same period C.they have little in common with the society of the time D.they refuse to admit parallels between themselves and the society