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THE
REVIEW OF
COMMUNICATION Embodied Communication and Dialogical
Intimacy
Frank E. X. Dance
John Durham Peters Speaking into the
Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1999. x + 293 pages. $26.00 (cloth); $16.00 (paper). From the dust cover to the title page to the index I enjoyed this work. It took a longer than usual time to read because frequently I stopped reading and started analyzing, discussing within myself, and arguing with the author. The frontispiece background of title page limns Rogier van der Weyden’s “Annunciation,” the Columba Altarpiece in Munich, and serves as emblematic of Peters’ concern with communication and spirituality—a theme surfacing throughout the work. The title itself is taken from a passage from St. Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, 14: 9-10 in the King James version of the Bible, which itself addresses Peters’ concern with human embodiment in the act of human communication. On page one Peters sets forth the book’s goal: “I aim to trace the sources of modern ideas of communication and to understand why the modern experience of communication is so often marked by felt impasses.” On the way to fulfilling this ambition we are introduced to materials drawn from sources as diverse as the Synoptic Gospels, angelic communication, contributions of Descartes, Locke, Marx, Emerson, and others, and efforts to communicate with animals and extraterrestrials, all as related to the developing idea of communication. I was captivated by the fact that I could be held enthralled by a discussion of Plato’s Phaedrus and the Synoptic Gospels. On the surface that topic seems almost purposely designed to induce lethargy rather than pique excitement, but Peter’s exposition thrills with insights and vitality. Early on the author raises the consideration that human communication problems are part and parcel of human communication possibilities and this thread continues throughout the text. He implies that to some degree this natural affiliation accounts for the “felt impasses” we find ever present in human communication. Peters probes our natural inclination towards human communication difficulties and offers analyses of the causes of such problems. “The need for talk arises from something problematic,” writes Peters (150), stating a theme that is played out as one of the book’s leitmotifs. I enjoyed the frequent popping up of insights such as the idea that no one remarked on human communication as an entity until the advent of communication media caused communication itself to be noticed and named. Later in the book Peters reminds us that the idea of someone being “in person” had to await the possibility of mediated human communication and is what he calls a “media aftereffect” (141). There are many such delicious nuggets in the book. The author’s consideration of dialogue and dissemination as goals and practices of human communication yields continual “ahas” and “hmmmms.” This consideration starts early in the book and is a continual theme throughout. Peters castigates rhetorical promiscuity while embracing the intimacy of dialogue. “Indiscriminate dissemination is bad; intimate dialogue or prudent rhetoric that matches message and receiver is good” (46). Peters ponders the dynamics of dialogue, self and other, Ich und Du, as he works towards “the heartland of the problem of communication: contact between people via an invisible or elusive material linkage” (103). Peters guides us through his view of the contributions of St. Augustine and of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. In his treatment of angelic communication, the author tips us into a reflection that the flow of communication among the orders of angels may be a function of modeling and mentoring rather than planned communicative practice. At least that is the way I interpreted the passages of St. Thomas to which Peters refers us. Chapter 3 was hard slogging at times since I am not much interested in the discussion of money as communication but even here Peters is true to his emphasis on dialogue vs. dissemination. Another engrossing theme is how embodiment and
disembodiment play out in human communication.
At the time I was reading this book, a new academic term had just
begun and I was teaching an upper level undergraduate course dealing
with digital transformations of the spoken word and how digitality
affects human knowing and conceptualization. I found Peter’s thoughts
on the part played by the body in human communication, on the body and
dialogue, and on the differences and difficulties wrought by media
disembodiment (228) most useful in stimulating class responsiveness and
contemplation. One of the texts for the course is Lev Semenovich
Vygotsky’s Thought and Speech. Vygotsky’s views on speech as
the embodiment of language provided interesting parallels to the views
on embodiment and disembodiment in Speaking into the Air. In the first chapter I believe that the author conflates the concepts of communication and spoken language. This conflation seems evident throughout the book and yet there are passages, such as his consideration of Aristotle’s comments on the uniqueness of speech to human beings (227) that cause me to believe that, if queried, Peters would quickly delimit the two concepts as separate but overlapping domains in some way related to his concerns about embodiment. To me this possible conflation is a serious problem. Much of what Peters discusses could, I believe, be clarified by giving due positioning to human speech and spoken language as distinct from the idea of communication. In fact, human speech and spoken language are the very paragon of physical and physiological embodiment in the sharing of the spirit. As Peters implies, communication is widely distributed throughout the animal domain while speech and spoken language seem uniquely human. It always confounds me that people in the field or discipline of human communication have such a seemingly difficult time in recognizing the role played by speech and spoken language in human communication. On page 256 Peters quotes Pierce: “Facts that stand before our face and eyes and stare us in the face are far from being, in all cases, the ones most easily discerned.” Perhaps the very ubiquity and pervasiveness of speech and spoken language act as cloaking devices. I wish the author or publisher had encouraged a statement limiting the book’s ambition to a history of the idea of communication in Western culture, as that is much closer to the book’s chosen province and actual achievement. I was also discomfited to find sources identified as “communication theorists” long before the birth of such a disciplinary concentration. I can draw insights about communication from Socrates, Rene Descartes and Ralph Waldo Emerson and use those insights in building or refining human communication theory without considering the sources “communication theorists.” This habit of making voices of the past or from other disciplines into “communication theorists” seems unwarranted revisionism. When I finished my first reading I wondered how someone outside of the academic field of spoken language and human communication would view the book so I pulled up www.amazon.com and read the reviews thereon. In addition to a positive Kirkus professional review, there were reviews by two citizens who did not seem to be burdened by the preconceptions of a lifetime of concern with human communication theory. Both of these readers also gave the book very high marks. One of the lay readers noted that it took him six weeks to read the book. Me too. It is a book that demands a regimen of short readings and long thoughts. There is much in Speaking into the Air of use to media ecologists interested in media transformation as well as to the human communication theorist. John Durham Peter’s final plea for the
“wholeiness” (holiness)
of the body and for the need of a touch of kindness, for universal
charity funded by personal love, is profound, moving, and, for me,
transcends human communication. I will certainly put this book on my
recommended reading list for seminars in human communication theory. Speaking
into the Air is provocative in its conception, well written and
elegant in its execution. I recommend the book as an example of
craftsmanship in writing and dedication in scholarship. Frank E.X. Dance is professor of Human Communication
Studies, University of Denver ReferencesVygotsky, L.S. (1987) Thinking and Speech. Translated by Norris Minick. In R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton (Eds.) The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol. 1: Problems of general Psychology. (39-285). NY: Plenum Press.
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