Subject: Questions - The Interrogative Mood
Event: Bob Dylan records “Blowing in the Wind,” 1962
I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. -Richard Feynman
On this day in 1962, Bob Dylan recorded the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” for his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Of all the memorable protest songs that came out of the turbulent 1960s, “Blowin’ in the Wind” is the best known. Its success lies in its anthem-like quality as well as its universal and timeless themes of war, peace, and freedom. But perhaps its most powerful feature is its presentation of a litany of rhetorical questions, questions which perfectly balance the general and the specific in such a way that the questions remain relevant more than fifty years after they were written:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
“Blowin’ in the Wind” is Bob Dylan’s most covered song. The most successful cover version was recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary, which reached number two on the Billboard pop chart in April 1963 (1).
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
As Bob Dylan reminds us, a question is like a magnifying glass that allows us to more closely examine ideas. A question also allows us to expand our thinking, limited only by the size of our own imagination.
One example of a writer with an enormous imagination for questions is Padgett Powell, who in 2010 wrote a novel called The Interrogative Mood, a Novel? In case you are unfamiliar with the term interrogative mood, it simply refers to sentences in the form of a question. So instead of a typical novel featuring a narrator, Powell’s novel features an interrogator, who riddles his reader with roughly 2,000 questions over the course of 160-plus pages.
Here’s a small sample:
Can you read music? Would it be reasonable to ask someone if he or she has a favorite musical note? Would you like to visit a tar pit or peat bog, or would you rather eat cucumber sandwiches on a pleasant veranda with a civilized hostess in England? Will you wear a garment with a small tear in it? Do you cry at movies where you are intended to cry, or at other points in the drama, or not at all?
Padgett, who has taught writing at the University of Florida for more than 20 years, got started asking questions when he noticed that some of his university colleagues wrote emails to him composed entirely of questions. In response, he began composing his own witty replies, all in the interrogative mood.
Asking questions is the foundation of philosophical thinking, best known as the Socratic method. Socrates’ mother was a midwife, and he used this fact as a metaphor for his teaching method: rather than filling students with ideas, his goal was to draw the ideas out of his students by asking questions. Instead of arguing with people, Socrates asked probing questions -- questions that forced his interlocutor to examine and test his or her own beliefs. Socrates’ questions could make people uncomfortable, but he didn’t care. More than being concerned about the feelings of others, Socrates cared about finding the truth.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: Why did Socrates use questions as the basis of his teaching method?
Today’s Challenge: Interrogate a Topic
What is a topic that you care about -- a topic that you are curious about? What are some questions you have about the topic? Select a topic that you care about. Use your passion for the topic to generate a list of at least 10 legitimate questions that you do not know the answer to. Use these questions as springboards for future writing.
Sources:
1-Songfacts.com. “Blowin’ in the Wind”
2-Powell, Padget. The Interrogative Mood. New York: Ecco, 2010.
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