5: Practical Examples of Emotional Communication
It is generally considered that the arts are vehicles for communicating emotion: a painting, a piece of music, a play, a movie, or a book are all emotional experiences. It's important to consider speech to be an art - rather than merely delivering information in the same way as a written report, a speech is a performance that engages the emotions of the audience. This is very often forgotten.
In this chapter, the author intends to consider the way that emotions are used in other arts, as a means to consider the methods by which they do so, as a model or at least an inspiration for the more effective use of emotions in speech.
Emotions in Food
The author refers to Grant Achatz, chef at Aliena (three Michelin stars and regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world). Achatz recognizes that a meal isn't just food, but "an emotionally rich experience" that is likened to reading a great book or listening to a symphony.
It's particularly interesting because cuisine interacts with senses that are often forgotten - taste and smell - such that their rarity can cause strong emotional associations. People long for the comfort foods of their youth, and a taste or a smell can evoke strong memories of a time in which a similar sensation was experienced.
He muses about the sense of smell, particularly, because it is a very primitive sense and linked strongly to animal instincts - a smell may evoke fear or desire, even without the person knowing quite why they feel that way. (EN: The jury's out on whether this is folklore or fact, as empirical research that suggests a strong connection is suspect, given the difficulty of measuring emotion objectively and the tendency of subjects to confabulate when asked about their feelings.)
The quality of taste is a must, but what is equally important is the emotion surrounding a meal. The taste can evoke existing memories, or it can create a memory of the present dining experience.
Dining in a restaurant, particularly a very expensive one, is often part of a momentous occasion. It may celebrate a significant event (wedding anniversary or a significant professional achievement) or it may precipitate one (a first date, dinner with a major client). IT may also figure into a chain of events (a restaurant may be where a couple first met, where he proposed, where they had their wedding reception, and where they celebrate major anniversaries).
Emotions in Music
The author refers to Ennio Morricone, who composed music for movies, particularly the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, and A Fistful of Dollars) and was recognized for composing a score in which music wasn't just background noise, but enhanced the viewer's emotional experience of a film.
Rather than proving music that was related to the theme, setting, or a character, he read the script to determine how the audience was feeling at any given moment, and used music to reinforce this emotional state.
Music itself is a device for delivering motions, and a piece of music can have a plot. The "plot" of a song may be that it begins slowly, builds in intensity, and ends triumphantly. It is very subtle and very general, such that music touches on the basic emotions - and when it does this well, it resounds with the listener.
(EN: This may be obscured because music is so badly used in the modern day. Attending a concert is pleasurable because, if it is done well, the performance is an emotional journey and the performer has considered the entire experience from start to finish. But radio stations and the "background" music that is heard everywhere is a sequence of tunes that does not consider the emotional journey - just random bits of noise that, at best, is a string of random emotions. In this sense, music is a lot of random brushstrokes in random colors that does not depict anything as a painting.)
(EN: In terms of using music in experience, it can be difficult. The tannoy systems in stores play the same music for all shoppers, who are in different emotional states when they enter the store, and go through different states as they proceed through the shopping process. So I'm not sure if it's even possible to use emotions effectively in that setting - but where the experience is on rails, maybe so?)
What we learn from this is that a great composer consider the emotions of the listener when pitting together a piece of music. It's not enough to have an interesting or inoffensive sound. In the same way, a speech that fails to consider the emotions of its audience is like a cacophony that doesn't make sense, or "elevator" music that is just a bit of pleasant noise that doesn't touch our emotions in the way that a well-composed symphony or concert can.
Emotions in Movies
The author refers to an Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He doesn't mention film titles, only that he is "celebrated" for having departed from the traditional format (hammy acting, formula plots, and lots of interruptive song-and-dance numbers) and produced films that have been very popular, domestically and abroad.
It's speculated his films were more accessible and emotionally intense to audiences because he used unknown actors and natural settings, and eschewed costumes, makeup, props, and other elements that commonly make cinema seem otherworldly and larger than life, thereby allowing the audience to feel a more intimate connection to the characters and their story.
It's suggested that film had begun in this manner, but over the years evolved away from a naturalistic depiction by using carious tricks and contrivances to dazzle the audience - all of which are regarded as shortcuts or cheats that are poor substitutes for having well-developed characters and a compelling story.
When you strip away the cheats and distractions, what's left is raw emotion - and the broad and lasting success of Ray's films is a testament to the expertise with which the director works with emotion, though it's suggested it is very subtle such that emotion is not used in excess - he does not pander to the emotions, merely depicts situations in a way that intellect "comes to terms" with feelings.
This is exactly what a speech must do in order to be successful: it doesn't require an elaborate stage or special effects, but reaches the emotions to the audience in an unobtrusive way, aligned with the content of the speech itself. In many ways, it is a performance in which the speaker is the only actor and the speech is his plot.
Conclusions
The conclusion reiterates that art of any kind is successful when it works adeptly with emotions, and that a speaker can learn much about this by experiencing art directly and being attentive to interviews with successful artists about their craft.