Fundamental to all communication is the point of view of the person who is communicating. Speech, literature, poetry and art all communicate the point of view of the speaker, author, poet or artist.

Is art possible where the self who is the source of the art is absent? Where there is no ‘point of view’? Where, instead of an artist proclaiming ‘I know I know I know’, there is the direct presentation of reality itself?

The Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition opened this week.

Visitors to Venice can enjoy the work of over 100 artists from around the world. 76 national pavilions and 34 collateral artists are exhibiting in an event termed the Olympics of the art world.

One collateral artist stands apart. He is not a known entity in the art world. He is not communicating an egoic point of view. He is not, in fact, present at the event. He is a Western-born spiritual master offering a unique form of visual communication free of subjectivity. His exhibit is called Transcendental Realism: The Art of Adi Da Samraj.

Adi Da writes that his art communicates the “structure of perception” from beyond the confines of an ego:

The illusion of egoity is that, somehow, the world is being generated from your own position, or being shown to your position. That suggests the idea that the human being must make the measure of reality and control it—whereas reality is actually self-generated, beyond “point of view�, beyond control, prior to “point of view�, prior to control, prior to separateness. You could say the work I am doing is “Reality-Art�, or (as I call it) “Transcendental Realism�.

The question is, how can a person create art beyond the confines of an ego? This is possible only if that person has transcended the ego. Has Adi Da done this? Judge for yourself.

American Rhetoric is a wonderful resource for speechwriters and public speakers. This ‘online speech bank’ contains a library of over 5,000 speeches on video, audio and transcript. The cornucopia of speeches includes everyone from Cate Blanchett (as Elizabeth I) unifying the Church of England in the 16th Century to Barack Obama unifying the Democratic Party in the 21st Century.

In addition to speeches from politics, religion, the movies and more, other treats on the site include scholarly definitions of rhetoric, like this from Gerard A. Hauser:

Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal. It is not communication for communication’s sake. Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. For this reason, rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic. Its goal is to influence human choices on specific matters that require immediate attention.

What is your favorite speech on the site, and why?

My favorite FT columnist Harry Eyres writes in the Weekend Edition (subscription required) about the tragic lack of diversity in the modern world. The march to a monoculture extends from crops (all maize all the time) to literature (all Harry Potter all the time) to language (all English or Mandarin all the time).

Language loss is a topic addressed anthropologist Wade Davis at the wonderful TED Conference. His 2003 talk on endangered cultures argues language isn’t just a collection of vocabulary and grammatical rules. In fact, “Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.” The languages of the planet are being lost at the rate of 6 a week – 50% of the world’s 6,000 languages, he says, have disappeared in our lifetime and “are no longer being whispered into the ears of children.”

This lack of diversity removes different ways of making sense out of the world, forever. Whole networks of living relationships disappear. Those of us left inhabiting the vast monocultures of English, Spanish, Mandarin and French must work harder to capture different ways of seeing. Different cultures create different realities. Different realities of lead to different discoveries.

A monoculture sows and sees the same thing, everywhere.

Eyres concludes by quoting the Emperor Charles V, who on seeing the cathedral his architect had constructed in the middle of the great mosque of Córdoba, stated “You have destroyed what was unique to replace it with what could be found anywhere.”

So what differentiates your discoveries?

Seth Godin, author of The Dip spoke in Santa Clara last night. He’s a masterful public speaker as well as an awesome entrepreneur and thought leader.

I can recommend dipping into his blog for his take on a range of ideas.

This brief extract from his talk captures the flavor of The Dip: recognizing the power of being the best in the world at what you do and resisting the temptation to quit before you get to be the best.

Click on the podcast to hear Seth speak.

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I’m ploughing through an excellent book on Britain in the 1950’s. Having It So Goodby Peter Hennessy chronicles the decade I arrived on the scene in the UK. There’s wonderfully detailed stories about coal fires; the Suez Crisis; early television and more. A unique cast of characters parade across the pages with names like Mountstuart Elphinstone; Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (known to the Welsh as Dai Bananas); Meta Strachan; Glubb Pasha; Walter Monckton and, last but not least, Supermac – the British Prime Minister Sir Harold Macmillan.

Macmillan attributed his superior public speaking skills to decades of practice in the House of Commons and acknowledges the role of a particular mentor. David Lloyd George had been Prime Minister during the First World War. In 1924 he came to Macmillan and congratulated him on his first speech in Parliament, but advised him ‘you have no idea how to make a speech’. The great orator offered the following advice:

Never say more than one thing. Yours was an essay, a good essay, but with a large number of separate points. Just say one thing; when you are a Minister two things, and when you a Prime Minister winding up a debate perhaps three…Of course you wrap it up in different ways. You say it over and over again with different emphasis and different illustrations. You say it forcefully, regretfully, even perhaps threateningly; but it is a single clear point…there must be continual variation; slow solemn phrases, quick, witty amusing passages…Finally, don’t forget the value of the pause.

Having It So Good p. 567

Feleciai is a member of the National Speakers Association 2007 Pro-Track class. She recently launched The Power of Beauty – an image management company offering education, events and products. Her goal is to help women understand the power of their personal and professional image. She is dedicated to delivering message about The Power of Beauty in a fun and exciting way via workshops and seminars.

When Feleciai is not helping women look and feel their best she is helping individuals reach their dream of home ownership in the San Francisco area as the as the owner a residential real estate brokerage company. Prior to entering the world of real estate and image management she was a hairstylist and brand manager for such companies as RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Pepsi Cola and Brown Forman beverages.

She spoke to me about her target market as an image consultant to women of color, her plans to develop her speaking business and how Pro-Track is helping.

To listen, click on the podcast icon below.

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Wonderful story in the San Francisco Chronicle this week about the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye. You have to love the town for its name alone. A name to conjure with: Why-oh-why in Hay-on-Wye? And who woulda thunk that in May, Hay was twinned with the Malian city of Timbuktu?

Why-oh-wye indeed.
The town is a now famous destination for book lovers from around the world. The annual literary festival attracts the likes of Al Gore, Bob Geldof, Cate Blanchett, and Elvis Costello. Bill Clinton called it a “Woodstock of the Mind” (claiming, no doubt, that he browsed but did not inhale). It’s a quaint British market town with forty bookstores and as many pubs. Sounds wonderful.

While America boasts a variety of ‘destination towns’ such as “The Live Music Show Capital of the World” Branson, Missouri, B&B destination Mendocino, California and, of course Sin City itself, Las Vegas I’m not aware of any other UK destination town apart from Hay-on-Wye for books. “What’s read in Hay, stays in Hay?”.

Just as Vegas needed Mobster Bugsy Sigel to launch it, Hay-on-Wye needed its don — the improbable anarchist eccentric Richard Booth is the self-appointed King of Hay.

He set up the first bookshop in town in the 1960’s. The well-heeled Oxford graduate bought the 800-year-old Hay Castle and, seeing no apparent contradiction between a belief in anarchism and self-proclaimed monarchism, set himself up as the “King” of the town lording it over an Empire of books. Dusty books. Brown books. Books with broken spines and books of fine vellum. Paperback and hardback. Soft core and scientific. All became part of his kingdom which prospered mightily until it is as it has now become: a rural fastness for bibliophiles.

Expressing an opinion that would get him tarred and feathered in many towns in rural America, Booth states “I feel the right to read a cheap book is more important than the right to bear arms.”

The festival is a marvelous smorgasbord of cross-cultural literary entertainment. Here, in no particular order, are some random snips from a small fraction of the events being held between 24 May and 3 June:

The causes and implications of our terrible war of attrition against the native mammals and birds of England and Wales from the middle ages to the present day….25 years of contemporary Turkish society….bilingual Welsh poet (Perfect Blemish) reads and talks with the Israeli poet, translator and publisher…the charismatic anatomist explores the vital organs and functions of the human body…how recent developments in cosmology and particle physics have led to the remarkable realization that our universe – rather than being unique – could be just one of many universes….traces her heroine’s options for losing her virginity from the Gambia to London, Boston and Mali …the significance of the Prophet for some of today’s most controversial issues…Rugby’s greatest full-back talks about his career with his biggest fan…Nigerian Nobel Laureate…the documentary about China’s building boom explores the idea that the concrete revolution has destroyed more than the cultural revolution…the Indian novelist…the great Welsh-Chinese short story writer…the Super Furry Animals singer-songwriter talks music, politics and the subtle art of being angry…the brilliant Syrian journalist…can Islam and democracy ever find common ground?…Bollocks, I wish I’d said that….the amazing tale of the brilliant and sexually voracious Welsh psychoanalyst…el rhan o ddathliadau penblwydd Radio Cymru yn drideg, bydd gohebydd gwleidyddol y BBC, Guto Harri, yn cadeirio trafodaeth fywiog ar hynt cyfrwng sydd yn parhau i oroesi ac addasu yn wyneb…the Australian polymath…a conversation with three of the greatest stars of contemporary Hispanic literature – Cercas (The Speed of Light), Grandes (The Wind From The East) and Abad Faciolince (Olvido Que Seremos)….the Sri-Lankan-born broadcaster and writer…Vivienne Westwood – The iconoclast fashion Dame…the editor of leading Israeli daily Haaretz discusses how to run a newspaper…the victory of shopping over politics, the collisions of government and people, and the resilience, comedy, cars and greatness of Britannia…the Castillian writers are joined by British actors…DUE TO CHANGES IN THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN PAKISTAN IMRAN KHAN HAS HAD TO POSTPONE HIS VISIT UNTIL 2008…the ancient tales of Prometheus and Pandora, Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and son beg the eternal question: just because you can, does that mean you should?…a series of walks to local farms…Morris Dancers…egocentric writers…the origins of Christian anti-Semitism… The Ghostwriters Séance – The inside track on the great act of literary ventriloquism…he wry comedy of Rhodes’ Gold and the Nigerian-London-Cuban dislocations of Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House…the chaos, corruption and sexual depravity of the 1815 Congress of Vienna…Bob Geldof in Concert…a 100-day, 1500-mile journey with camels from Lake Chad to Tripoli accompanied by a Chinese scientist, a 77-year-old Kenyan rancher, warring tribesmen and Gaddafi’s secret police…Craswall farmers life under the Black Hill…Tamasin Day Lewis…Roy Hattersley…Adrian Tinniswood…Geraldine McCaughrean…Guillaume Canet…Karate princesses, seasick pirates and demon vacuum cleaners…subject to hygiene compliance, visitors may be able to help milk the cows and feed the calves…General Sir Michael Rose examines the parallels between the guerrilla tactics used by Washington against the British in 1775, and by the Sunni insurgents against the Allies in Iraq today…the only overweight gay Bengali GP working the comedy circuit…the Russian novelist…the Yiddish Policeman’s Union…Monty Don discusses his project to engage drug-addicted youngsters in a farming rehabilitation…after the final full-stop.

What other town with a resident population of 1,846 could boast such offerings?

How to Build an Information Marketing Empire

Fred Gleeck rocked the house at the May meeting of NSA/NC on Saturday.

He was everything the usual NSA Speaker isn’t. He doesn’t dress for success (he is a success). He doesn’t make most of his income selling his system to other speakers (only 15% of his income comes from other speakers). He does not insist on CSP or CPAE credentials preceding him (he has found out that Bank tellers are not impressed by any initials on a check). Finally, he doesn’t believe in making money from each and every tip sheet, eZine or special report (he openly boasts of giving away his best information for free!)

Fred spent two hours giving a taste of the material he usually covers in his three-day workshop. His expertise is in selling information online. In terms of the future of the speaking professional, who must survive in a world which will someday be devastated by Avian Flu, the ability to generate income outside of face-to-face interactions will be crucial. Fred has a system to allow us to maximize income from “products” versus podium speaking.

The four fundamentals of Fred’s Info Products business system are Product; List; Copy and Traffic.

Fred’s strong suit is creating products for himself and others.

He’s built a mailing list of 100,000+ by making sure that when people go to his sites (he has 300+ websites), if they don’t buy a product, they sign up for his list.

Copywriting – especially for the content of the websites and emails he sends – is an area he outsources.

Building web traffic via the search engines is also something he outsources to his webmaster.

Want to know more?

Since a cornerstone of his whole system is to give away the best information, you can do worse than go to his website and download his five 100-plus page information-packed books.

I did. They’re fabulous.

Thanks to a comment by The Friendly Ghost I’ve been made aware of the current series running in The Guardian Newspaper in the UK on Great Speeches of the 20th Century. The newspaper is doing more than merely reprinting the speech text:

Each day for two weeks you can collect a free booklet containing a historic address and the Guardian’s coverage of the speech from the time. The speeches are introduced by prominent figures ranging from FW de Klerk on Nelson Mandela’s statement to the Rivonia trial to Mikhail Gorbachev on Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin. Complete your collection with a CD featuring extracts from 10 great speeches free with the Guardian on Saturday May 5.

The series kicked off with Churchill’s We Shall Fight on the Beaches; moved on to JFK’s Ask Not what Your Country Can Do For You and covers the following list:

• Nelson Mandela An ideal for which I am prepared to die April 20 1964
• Harold Macmillan The wind of change February 3 1960
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt The only thing we have to fear is fear itself March 4 1933
• Nikita Khrushchev The cult of the individual February 25 1956
• Emmeline Pankhurst Freedom or death November 3 1913
• Martin Luther King I have a dream August 28 1963
• Charles de Gaulle The flame of French resistance June 1940
• Margaret Thatcher The lady’s not for turning October 10 1980
• Jawaharlal Nehru A tryst with destiny August 14 1947
• Virginia Woolf A room of one’s own 1928
• Aneurin Bevan We have to act up to different standards December 5 1956
• Earl Spencer The most hunted person of a modern age September 6 1997

I’m planning to bookmark the speeches and the debate around them for future reference, as well as asking my Dad to pick up a copy of Saturday’s Guardian and send over a copy of the CD.

Back on March 30 I entered a Toastmasters Speech Contest in Silicon Valley which was held at SAP. I gave this speech on my first months in the US in the mid-1970’s, when I arrived as a graduate student to study sociology at Tufts University. Every word is true, describing things that actually happened to me.

I won the contest and and went on to the next level. Unfortunately I had added some killer phrases and a compelling conclusion while forgetting to do a word-count or rehearse with a stop-watch. I went over the 7:30 maximum allowed time by a few seconds and was disqualified.

Still, it was ton of fun. An adrenalin rush. Every speechwriter owes it to their clients to stand on the podium from time-to-time. Experience an audience first-hand. Otherwise, you’re like a celibate writing a sex-manual. You might describe the position accurately, but until you assume it yourself you don’t know Jack.