Re: Selbtdarstellung, et al

[btm805@btrtx9.hrz.uni-bayreuth.de (B. Gramlich)]

Tom, Re:

> The reason I immediately thought of modern German is that Pete in
> "Communication" uses the German word "selbtdarstellung," which I believe
                                        ~~~~~
                                       Selbst

> means "self-testimony" or "Self-examination" (please correct my
> interpretation of the word as necessary).

Sorry, both of your suggestions miss the point.  Actually, "Selbstdarstellung"
is one of those famous German words you cannot translate without writing at
least one paragraph.  (None of the "self-" words in Webster's fits here.)

"Selbstdarstellung" literally means `representation of one's self'.  A better
translation would perhaps be `the way one works on one's (public or private)
image'.  Selbstdarstellung is important in every business and political
communication:  Good Selbstdarstellung means showing your strengths and hiding
your weaknesses, trying to impress the people you talk to, sometimes even lying
in order to reach your goals.  Selbstdarstellung is the key word in every white
collar career, and everybody (not only in Germany :-) ) tries to improve
his/her ability of (positive) Selbstdarstellung.  (Idiots who successfully try
to create a great public image of themselves are called "Selbstdarsteller".)

Pete could not have found any better word to describe the vanity of political
and even private communication in our modern societies:  Often all we talk
about is ourselves, and the purpose of communication is no longer transmitting
information or feelings but working on one's own image...  "Selbstdarstellung"
seems to be the key word in the song "Communication".

Pronounciation hint:  Pete says "s-tellung" like in North German dialects.  The
correct pronounciation is "sh-tellung".  (But: "Selbs-t".)

> I was never really able to properly conjugate the verb-sense the German word
> for F--k, however.

All relevant words I know have a regular conjugation.  But - sorry - I will
post them in private e-mail only.

> But to hell with conjugating, just do it, huh?

Agreed :-).

Bernd   ---   `Never, never hesitate - communicate, communicate'