In which Wolf talks about talking about things. Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/PlDds3q3tUs
In my last video, on the subject of pancritical rationalism, I got pretty meta.
Well, the human ability for self-reflection is one thing that makes us truly human. This ability to think about our thoughts is called metacognition. The prefix "meta-" is from the Greek, and conveys the idea of something that is "on top of" or "transcends" something else. Here are a few examples.
The files on your computer are data, but their filenames, their creation dates, and what folder they're contained in are all metadata (data about data).
Metahumor (jokes about jokes, or jokes that reference themselves) might include a sign instructing people to not use thumbtacks, itself put up with thumbtacks, or a piece of graffiti apologizing for its own existence.
One of my favorite self-referential jokes is:
THIS SENTENCE HAS CABBAGE SIX WORDS.
Have you ever gotten into an argument with a loved one and found yourself discussing the tone of voice someone used and how the other person felt about it, or where someone ends up saying, "This conversation isn't going anywhere!" That's a metaconversation (a conversation about conversation.)
M.C. Escher's work Art Gallery is one of the finest examples of meta-art (art about art) that I've seen. It depicts a young man standing in an art gallery displaying many of M.C. Escher's works. The print he's looking at unfolds to reveal an aerial view of an entire city, with the nearest building being the roof top of the building in which the man stands!
When you're watching a movie like Deadpool and he "breaks the fourth wall" by talking to you in the audience, that's one form of metatheatre.
Another of my favorite examples would be Charlie Kaufman's movie Adaptation in which the writer Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage) struggles to write a movie adaption of an impossible to adapt work of non-fiction, and ends up writing a thriller instead, at which point the movie itself morphs into a thriller.
---
I'm going to finish this brief self-reflexive reflection with a poem I wrote back in 2005. It's just called, "META".
META:
Do you love your ability to love?
Do you tolerate tolerance?
Do you hate “hate?”
Do you think about your thoughts?
Are you awake to being awake right now?
Are you aware of your awareness?
Are you in the habit of making good habits?
Are you living your life?
When you walk, do you direct your steps?
When you listen, do you let the speaker in?
When you talk, do you know who is speaking?
When you experience this poem, what do you feel?
Do you love your ability to love your ability to love?