Purple Numbers and Sharp Cheese

- OR - how to get from Synesthaesia to Cock in 10 minutes

SH was telling me about this lecture by an Indian neurologist, Professor Ramachandran, on Radio 4 which was about SYNESTHAESIA which is a condition that causes people to mingle the senses - e.g. see colours in sounds or taste shapes (as in triangles may taste like mature cheddar). The most common form of this is when people see numbers as colours. Its thought that because the two areas of the brain responsible for numbers and colours are practically touching right next to each other in the same part of the brain that there could be some kind of cross wiring going on. He also lectured on phantom limb syndromes -- an example of which is a face area cross wiring with the hand area leading to a person with a hand amputated finding that when touched at a certain point on their cheek it feels like being touched on the pinkie finger. He then led onto the idea of sound feeling like shapes or words being visual. Imagine two forms - one like an amoeba, bulbous with undulating curves, and the other jagged like sharp shattered glass, if you have to give names to each of these shapes and you have a choice of either kiki or booba which one are you going to give to which shape? 98% of people say kiki is the jagged shape - scientific reason for this is that they share the properties of jaggedness (therefore it is very hard for our brains to associate the bulbous shape with this sharp sounding word).


Which led onto a question and answer session drawn to a close by a Vincent Walsh from University College London who concluded that thinking about how your mouth looks when you say enormous or teeny weeny (large expressive use of muscles vs miniscule) he couldn't help thinking what a disappointing word penis was.


We laughed, said 'penis' a couple of times to feel the way it sounds in the mouth. I've never known a man who refers to his member as a penis unless there is something wrong with it (i.e. infection or sore or something that requires their mother or doctor to look at it). They always refer to it as something like My Cock - a proud, strutting kind of word worthy of the relationship men have with their member - conquering, doing battle, striking out into unchartered water...SH's ex's was his willy - which seems like a mother's name for her little boy's member - sexless, small and in need of special attention when washing (like behind the ears). So we came back to cock. A good strong word - your mouth makes the shape that you could fit one into as you say it. Nuff said.