Needs lacking adequate language may cease to be felt

Evidence

Ignatie¡‘s answer is strong: Needs which lack a language adequate to their expression do not simply pass out of speech: they may cease to be felt. The generations that have grown up without ever hearing the language of religion may not feel the slightest glimmer of a religious need.'' But the volunteers were ¢xated on the unspeakable; their drive to make the world make sense was not quenched by the unambivalent language of close to home”; the thin language barely kept inexpressable curiosity and doubt in order. Curiosity and worry kept popping out. The language was necessary partly because of what it covered up. — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 148

Categorization

• DEFINE: Ignatieff’s claim that inexpressible needs risk being unfelt is quoted as a load-bearing definitional insight about language and desire.
• CANDY: A quotable line — ‘Needs which lack a language adequate to their expression do not simply pass out of speech: they may cease to be felt’ — handy for a dinner-party conversation about language, religion, and desire.
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 148
• XREF: connects to: Discourse constrains but does not fully determine what can be said — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 55; Silent majorities think but have been deprived of the means of speaking; Language unfamiliarity creates a silence that enables new perception — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 26

Broader Connections

• Language unfamiliarity creates a silence that enables new perception #expands (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 26
• Silent majorities think but have been deprived of the means of speaking #corroborates (0.78)
• Discourse constrains but does not fully determine what can be said #corroborates (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 55