Language in Botany and Math.

Two unrelated things I’ve enjoyed recently that can be shoehorned in here via their relation to language and/or communication: 1) Ildikó Enyedi has been one of my favorite directors ever since I saw her weird, brilliant My 20th Century (Az én XX. századom); the other day my wife and I made a rare excursion to an actual movie theater to see her new one, Silent Friend (Stiller Freund). It too is weird and brilliant, not to mention mind-bogglingly beautiful, and its main focus is on communication with plants in three periods, 2020, 1972, and 1908. You can read a synopsis here, and I’ll quote the Director’s Statement: It is a film made by humans (by an amazingly open minded, dedicated team) for fellow humans — the spectators. We humbly acknowledge and embrace our specific perceptual limits. This film speaks, with the help of light and sound waves available for the human eyes and ear, of world perceptions outside these limits. We acknowledge that we are not the default — our is one of the…