OBJECTION, YOUR HONOUR!

“You may say I'm a dreamer, 

but I'm not the only one. 

I hope someday you'll join us. 

And the world will live as one.”

(John Lennon, from "Imagine ”)

Every time we propose our ideas, in any context, it can happen that somebody may disagree with what we are saying. A good way to deal with them is by anticipating the objections we think our listeners may have in their mind and tell them before they will. In sales we call it inoculation against objections.
 
It's fascinating to see how great writers and songwriters are using it as well and creatively so.

Pessoa, a flâneur in the street of
Lisbon. (Wikipedia)

Fernando Pessoa in The Tobacco Shop may have felt that his metaphysical reflections may have led the reader too far and so he himself states in the poem:
  
“And an awareness that metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well”.

By taking the objection on himself he integrates it and neutralize it.


Cesare Pavese in the introduction to the first edition of  “Dialogues with Leucò” in 1947 writes of himself:

“Cesare Pavese, who many insist on considering a stubborn realist narrator, specialized in rural and suburban America-Piedmont, in these dialogues reveals a new aspect of his character. There is no authentic writer, who doesn't have moods, whims, a hidden muse, that suddenly cause him to become a hermit.”

(My Translation from the original Italian)

(Wikipedia)

In High Fidelity, Nick Hornby uses this technique not at the beginning but in media res while writing about some of the protagonist behaviour that affected Laura and that may cause a adverse reaction of the reader. So, before we could judge him negatively, or immediately after the reader may have formed his idea, uses the technique to inoculate against objections in a very creative way:

“I do not know what, precisely, Laura said, but she would have revealed at least two, maybe even all four, of the following pieces of information:

1. That I slept with somebody else while she was pregnant.
2. That my affair contributed directly to her terminating the pregnancy.
3. That, after her abortion, I borrowed a large sum of money from her and have not yet repaid any of it.
4. That, shortly before she left, I told her I was unhappy in the relationship, and I was kind of sort of maybe looking around for someone else.

Did I do and say these things? Yes, I did. Are there any mitigating circumstances? Not really, unless any circumstances can be regarded as mitigating. And before you judge, although you have probably already done so, go away and write down the four worst things that you have done to your partner, even if—especially if—your partner doesn’t know about them. Don’t dress these things up, or try to explain them; just write them down, in a list, in the plainest language possible. Finished? OK, so who’s the arsehole now?”

Single by John Lennon 
from the album Imagine 
(Wikipedia)

You may also have noticed how John Lennon in the initial quote of this post, taken from the song that has been considered by millions as the most beautiful and most representative song of the 20th century, does not only inoculates against the objection but uses is to lead the listeners to a shared vision of a peaceful world.

Imagine, you can. :-)
Adriano


driadema@gmail.com


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

DOES IT FEEL THE SAME?

In the last post we pointed out how ABBA's "The winner takes it all" is a wonderful constellation of hypnotic patterns. We want now to analyse the best hypnotic verse of the song together with some other non verbal and para-verbal communication nuggets.

After having led us through the introduction, the first verse and after having put us into a light trance thanks to the many Milton Model's hypnotic patterns, she ushers us into the third verse, the innermost cave, and that's where she unleashes her lovely masterpiece:

Agnetha Fältskog in 1979
(Wikipedia)

But tell me does she kiss, 

Like I used to kiss you?

Does it feel the same, 

When she calls your name?

Somewhere deep inside, 

You must know I miss you

But what can I say,

Rules must be obeyed

THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

ABBA in 1974, from left to right: Benny Andersson,   
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog, and Björn Ulvaeus

This beautiful song is an example of a sophisticated use of Milton Erickson language patterns in a way that let each one of us relate to the song by means of neurolinguistic and hypnotic stratagems.

Here is a link to the song on youtube: THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL


The first hypnotic pattern used extensively is the Universal Quantifier “I've played ALL my cards, And that's what you've done too” introducing in this way also the metaphor of a card game (a metaphor use by other like for example The Eagles in Desperado) that will be kept for the whole song.

Medieval gambling cards, from the year 1377.

Every time is possible to speak through a metaphor the possibility of our communication being received without resistance is increased. And communication improves along the increased hypnotic effect: something that is very much looked for when writing a pop song.

In this case playing a card will have a different meaning for each one of us: those who think that it’s about a bed of rose petals for the loved ones other will think about coming home earlier than usual other about buying all nice things and so on. What would mean for you playing ALL your cards in love? I mean All.

The universal quantifier and the metaphor continue: “NOTHING more to say, NO MORE ace to play”, “The winner takes it ALL”.

And a very effective Milton Model pattern is the Awareness Predicate (believe, think, realize, figure) that we all know are very powerful in making our communication less intrusive and more hypnotic, thus more effective. “I was in your arms THINKING I belonged there”, “I FIGURED it made sense Building me a fence”, “Building me a home THINKING I'd be strong there” until the end with “And I UNDERSTAND, You've come to shake my hand.”

Milton Model patterns abounds like the lost performative, a statement that has a value judgement in it without saying who's making it. “That’s her destiny”, “But I was a FOOL, playing by the rules”: Who says it? Fool according to whom?

 Deus ex machina in classical theatre:
Euripides' Medea, performed in 2009
in Syracuse, Italy.

And the way “The Gods” it's used in the song is an example of both and unspecified referential index and a nominalization (a process turned into a noun) while in this case, as the “Deus Ex Machina” in the Greek theatre, are also a device to rationalize something otherwise unexplainable to humans: “The GODS may throw a dice, their mind as cold as ice”, (note that the gambling game metaphor is kept). While the same sentence continues with a lack of referential index (someone, somebody, some times): “And SOMEONE way down here, loses SOMEONE dear” so that it can be referring to each one of us. Moreover the whole sentence is a Cause and Effect pattern because it describes a relationship between two events in such a way that one event (throwing the dice) causes the other (losing someone dear). At least four Milton Model patterns in a single sentence!!!! And can you find at least another two patterns in the same sentence? :-))

The Milton Model makes an extensive use with Modal Operator of necessity (need, must) and lost performatives combined in a single sentence: “The loser HAS TO fall” or later “Rules must be obeyed”.
 
But the most beautiful and pure hypnotic gem is found in the middle of the song, when we are already prepared and ready for a full hypnotic journey. We will analyse it in the next post.

Until then, feel free to comment and live your hypnotic dream! ;-)

Adriano


driadema@gmail.com


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.