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Nov 23, 2010

De-familiarizing familiarity.

I don't know how many people have tried this, but when I'm bored of all the familiar things all around me, I like to try some mind tricks. If you focus your thoughts well enough, you can trick your mind for a little while into seeing familiar things as if you're seeing them for the first time. Or maybe you're not really tricking your mind, but just realizing how bizarre some things really are. Either way, has anyone ever had some fun with this?

I like to have fun with this trick when I'm bored. It works great with hands and feet, or even bigger things like trees and their shape, and how they grow. You can see how unusual anything really is if you think hard enough about it. The shapes of things, or what they mean to us as human beings, the way things were created by nature or the way human beings created thing. In a sense it's almost like questioning things and all their detail.

Anyways, another thing which this relates to is language and words. If you repeat any word about 10 times, you'll start to be more aware of how strange it really sounds. I think this one happens to everyone though, and it makes me laugh. I've always wondered how strange the English language sounds to somebody who isn't familiar with it!

7 comments:

Valeria said...

totally agree, specially words :)

natg said...

I tried doing that a few years ago with the word "sleep". To this day I laugh a little on the inside when I say sleep. Sometimes it doesn't feel like English to me.

Kathryn said...

Yeah, it's so funny with words. It makes me unsure as to whether I'm saying or spelling the word right!

I also find it happening when I look at a familiar face for a very long time. Because when you know someone so well you see in their face the person inside, but after a while you can start to see their features as though you were seeing them for the first time.

Kate x

Dori the Giant said...

Oh, I do that with faces too!
Actually, the one with faces bothers me the most. In fact I don't even know why it bothers me, but I like seeing faces in that familiar way and not in that new type of way.

Gale said...

i definitely need to do this more...looking at things around me and take time in observing.

but i can completely relate with words!! i do this with "elbow" often! i think how strange of a word it is and a lot of times i think i'm absolutely spelling it wrong.

elbow
el bow
el boh
elboe?

Anonymous said...

your so right! :D
i mean for real, how stupid do ears look? on everybody!

Dori the Giant said...

Haha, I've thought about ears before!
Or eyebrows. They look so right on people, but they're so strange.

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