Parts Imply There's a Whole

Synecdoche is a term describing our poetic tendency to allow a part to stand for the whole: "hands were clapping" we say, and assume bodies were attached. Likewise with "There's a hundred head of cattle down by the river." We all understand, although, if you think about it - it's an amusing image.



Synecdoche - a useful device. We sometimes name people for their body parts, or even an entire group of people by a city, "Washington thinks ...", "Hollywood believes ...", and you can think of many more. Synecdoche can border on generalization, humorous or cruel.



But this blog is not about synecdoche, really. No one would read it. It's just a Blog Name not taken by anyone else which implies I'll be talking about little pieces I see that might make up some sort of whole I assume exists. But, perhaps the small part of the pattern we see is all that exists. No whole!



I could have easily named this blog "Slouching Toward Senility," or "Tottering Toward Totality" or some such - but I figured those titles would be even more off-putting. The point is to be read by someone.