As the discussion of the use of sound in composition is new to me and I don't have a lot to add on the subject, I wanted to at least post something in regards to our lengthy discussion in class on Tuesday regarding autism.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of reading Temple Grandin's book Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism. As is obvious from the book's title, Grandin discusses how, rather than using what linguists might call "interlanguage," she thinks in images.

Here are the first few lines from chapter one of her book:

"I THINK IN PICTURES. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head. When somebody speaks to me, his words are instantly translated into pictures. Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand, but in my job as an equipment designer for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a tremendous advantage."

The above quote and the whole first chapter can be found here:
http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html

I guess rather than an aid to talking about sound, perhaps Grandin's experience might be useful when discussing with students the power of visual rhetoric to communicate one's message? Or perhaps it would make for an interesting departure point for a discussion on "different ways of thinking" and how much we take for granted that our message will be easily communicated and understood by our audience.

Anyway, I have a couple of copies of Grandin's book at home if anyone is in need of any summer reading.

CE