I often write about the power of perception (mind-set) to mold reality. In this beautifully crafted book, Maroski exposes the power of language to drive perception. We are poised on the precipice of destroying life as we know it. Maroski makes it clear that walking back from that precipice requires re-languaging our relationship to each other and our world, no more ‘them versus us,’ no more defining humans as ‘apart from’ rather than ‘a part of’ nature. Language is magic and we need magic at this point in human revolution.
John Perkins, New York Times Bestselling Author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The world is immersed in many crises spanning local to global scales. These crises provide unique opportunities for re-visioning our world(s). Critical to any re-visioning process is our relationship to/with language. In this book, Maroski provides us with a unique roadmap to aid us in radically transforming how we speak of and about our world(s). This book is essential reading for anyone working towards the creation of a flourishing future for all beings.
Jeffrey T. Kiehl, PhD, Jungian Analyst, scientist, and author of Facing Climate Change, An Integrated Path to the Future
It is a useful and important exercise to challenge one’s closely held assumptions about all things from time to time. This book asks us to challenge some of our core assumptions about language. Even if the reader ultimately rejects some of the assertions made herein, the mental activity should prove fruitful, as it is always rewarding to meditate on the nature of language, and our connection to it.
David J. Peterson, author of The Art of Language Invention
Many modern scientists and philosophers have come full circle to an ancient and indigenous view of the world as a radically interconnected whole. But Indo-European languages, of which English is the most widely spoken, are inherently dualistic. They are based on subject/object relationships that separate. We have a budding awareness of our radical interconnection, but a language that handcuffs us from doing much about it. What to do? Enter L.E. Maroski. Maroski has written a richly evocative book about a new language for the future—a book that not only recognizes the world as radically interconnected and the English language as incapable of describing it, but does something about it. She re-examines English in relation to paradox and metaphor and proposes many potential ways to transform the language into a more inclusive, relational way of communicating. She asks lots of generative questions throughout the book, and she grapples with real world examples of changing the language to accommodate a shifting worldview. What she has done in this book is immensely important. Not since David Bohm’s short-lived attempt at shifting English into a more verb-based language rheomode, based on the Greek rheo (to flow), has anyone tried to remedy this foundational dilemma of language being out of touch with reality.
Glenn Aparicio Parry, author of Original Thinking: A Radical ReVisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature and Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again
She asks: ‘How much do we have to ruin life on Earth before we change our beliefs and their concomitant behaviors? How many species must die, how many rivers must dry up…?’ While she cannot answer the timing of this question, she does propose a solution: an emergent, integral form of both/and consciousness not unlike an emulsion of oil and vinegar that holds the integrity of the difference within a unified container. You might call it sacred mayonnaise. Or use Maroski’s own words: ‘interconnected opposites, interpenetrating ideas, and dynamic interdependence.’ This is exactly what the world needs now.
Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language is a rich exploration of the impact of language on our ability to live sustainably. Maroski argues that our language is a significant barrier to achieving a more holistic approach towards addressing our role in the destabilization of the Earth’s ecological system.
Bill Reed, Regenesis Group, co-author of The Regenerative Design Handbook
She highlights the dualistic perspective that underpins our language – either/or logic, the split between subject and object, the separation of ‘me’ and ‘not me’ – which has resulted in a mechanistic approach to fixing the damage rather than working with life on its own terms. Opposites remain polarized rather than being seen as mutually interdependent. Paradox is not antithetical to logic and life, it is an indicator of the capacity of life.
Maroski’s use of multiple sources provides rich perspective and insights into the consequences of language as an indicator and window of progress. This enjoyable read challenges us to think differently and opens the door to the subliminal work required to shift our engagement with life.
In Lisa Maroski’s well-written book, she examines the dualistic structure of conventional language and its limitations. Existing languages (especially those spoken in the Western world) cannot deal effectively with non-dual contemporary phenomena. To give one example, we are hard put to understand and express in the language we have the non-linear processes of rapid change sweeping through our families, communities, and religious institutions—processes that sweep away the old boundaries and divisions that had been relied on within the subject-predicate framework of the dominant language. Another good illustration comes from the field of science, where our dualistic way of thinking and writing makes it nearly impossible for us to grasp the enigmas of modern physics. In the face of challenges such as these, Maroski urges that, instead of retreating from the paradoxes of today that confound traditional language, we must embrace them. We need a language of paradox, she declares.
Steven M. Rosen, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Psychology, CSI/City University of New York
To approach this goal, the author turns to a field of mathematics known as topology, and to two paradoxical forms in particular: the Moebius strip and the Klein bottle. While each of these figures possesses opposing sides, at the very same time the sides flow together as one. The Moebius strip and Klein bottle therefore defy the either/or logic of the language we know. These two structures appear throughout Maroski’s book and are recognized as offering a tangible guide to the kind of both/and, holistic relationship that is needed in order to transform language, thinking, and consciousness itself.
As someone who for five decades has been writing about the significance of the Moebius strip, Klein bottle, and related topological forms for holistic philosophy and science (see, for example my “Science, Paradox, and the Moebius Principle”), I was very pleased to see what Maroski has done and was delighted with the way she has done it. She writes with a reader-friendly, informal tone, and with a light touch that makes the challenging ideas accessible. Her use of language is playful and inventive, with elements of humor. She asks many questions and the questions she asks are to my mind the right ones. Perhaps most importantly, she writes in a way that inspires the reader’s creativity. In view of all this, I wholeheartedly recommend “Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language” to all readers with an interest in language and an appetite for conceptual adventure.