From Susan Orlean

Wordly Inspiration from Susan Orlean, whose words jolted me - why is it that I have to remind myself so often of this, and struggle to accept that as sufficient reason??

"You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it."

"You have to appreciate the spiritual component of having an opportunity to do something as wondrous as writing. You should be practical and smart and... you should work really, really hard. But you should also be filled with awe and gratitude about this amazing way to be in the world."

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From Stephen King

Wordly Inspiration from Stephen King, reminding me that I look forward to more sleeping and more (well, any at all) writing soon. Well, really I look forward to unlocking my mind from the humdrum that has been dealing with 2022.

"In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives."

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From Hilary Mantel

Wordly Inspiration from Hilary Mantel, searching for trust that I will still be a writer when I can return to these pages.

"Of course, writers find it difficult to trust themselves. It can seem such an inflated claim, that you are a writer. So you think you have to keep proving it, by persecuting paper with ink or pounding the keys, as if you need a self-justifying witness to your own strength of purpose... You can’t measure your productivity day-to-day in any way the world recognizes."

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From Ursula Le Guin

Wordly Inspiration from Ursula Le Guin to help me hold it together while I do flood recovery work instead of writing. I like to think the ideas are scouring through some of the vast silences while I paint the walls. 

"One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience. There are always areas of vast silence in any culture, and part of an artist’s job is to go into those areas and come back from the silence with something to say." 

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Attention - paid or stolen?

By the end of this post I will have revealed my deepest secret, something about which I feel deep shame. I've never told anyone before but it's time I revealed all.

Um… no I won't. 

I just wrote that sentence to get your attention and I'm admitting it.

Apparently, that's a thing now. On social media I see people sometimes writing, 'Oh I just said that to get your attention' or they might add a picture of a dog which they describe as 'unrelated image for attention'.

Strange thing: attention. Something of yours I can 'get'. And now you are 'giving' your attention to this post. 

But did you actually give me your attention? 

Or did I take it from you?  

From Lucie Britsch

Wordly Inspiration from Luci Britsch: words that hushed my continual self-questioning about whether I should be writing or I should be doing something 'more useful':

"Write like the ghosts of all the women in history who weren't allowed to write are standing next to you wondering what a laptop is and why you're still in your pajamas."

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Evolving (part 4) - the language dance

Parody on the March of Progress

The Evolving series began by looking at Darwin's ground-breaking theory of 'descent with modification' to explain biodiversity in organic lifeforms. In parts 2 and 3, we explored how people have misinterpreted and misused his work ever since, including loading it with various moral judgements. 

Our everyday use of the words evolve and evolution reveals that we¹ think of evolution as purposeful and progressive improvement (a contradiction of Darwin's theory) but also natural and scientific. This (mis)interpretation provides what I call a 'sciencey veneer' over any number of beliefs.

We think of 'evolutionary progress' as how the world works. This understanding is so widely shared it is a common meme. 

So, I'm finally back to my starting point for exploring the words evolve and evolution: what do we mean when we say that language 'evolves'? Why don't we just say that language changes? Is language change like biological evolution? Are we saying that language improves and progresses over time? 

Unsurprisingly, the answers are not straightforward! 

Evolving (part 3) - scientific and natural

Parts 1 & 2 of the Evolving series explored our everyday use of the words evolve and evolution. 

We¹ have rather strange ways of talking about how biological evolution works. When we talk about life-forms evolving, we imbue a random, undirected, aimless process (Darwin's 'descent with modification') with agency, intention and purpose (part 1). We tell stories of change, and of life progressing and improving. 

When we tell 'evolution stories' (with agents and purpose), we add moral judgements about improvement. We meld the two contradictory dictionary meanings of evolution into a hybrid² concept of 'descent with modification (technical meaning) toward improvement and a better state (non-technical meaning)'. This sits behind many moral judgements about the 'value' of various life forms, particularly about non-human animals, e.g. saying that humans are the pinnacle of evolution (part 2).

Our 'stories' of evolution work more like metaphor - a simplifying shortcut - than being an accurate description.

This story of 'evolving' and improving is now the dominant way that we understand the world - not limited to explaining biodiversity (as Darwin intended his theory). We refer to societies, cultures, ideas, businesses, technology, musicians, language (and more) as evolving. 

And that leads to some very dangerous ideas. 

Evolving (part 2) - progress and human ascendency

Part 1 of Evolving started my exploration of our everyday use of the words evolving and evolution.

Part 1 showed that when we¹ talk about evolution, we tend to use concepts of agency (some who acts), intention, purpose. This means our everyday use of the words evolve and evolution contradicts the very theory of evolution: the unpredictable favouring of random, undirected, purpose-less changes leads to the Earth's vast biodiversity.  

We use the words this way because we understand the world through stories rather than bits of information, and to tell stories we have to impose the features of storytelling - who, how, why!   

The other common feature of storytelling is morality. And sure enough, morality turns up in the way we use the words evolve and evolution. 

This post will explore how the idea of progress and human ascendency came to be seen as the 'purpose' of evolution (while Darwin rolls in his grave for the 100th time).

Evolving (part 1) - agency and purpose

I read about spitting cobras the other day. Not a critter I'd like to meet. 

The headline of the article read: Spitting cobras may have evolved unique venom to defend from ancient humans.

I pondered: not only can the cobra spit venomous liquid some distance, it chose to purposefully develop this capacity in order to poison humans.

A planning and spitting cobra! Definitely not a critter I'd like to meet!!

This sounds a bit ludicrous, sure. We know that's not how evolution works, but that is implied in the heading: choice, intention and purpose about changing physiology on the part of snakes. 

It's just one of many examples of the strange ways we talk about evolution and about life forms evolving. 

I think how we talk about evolution says a lot about us, and not very much about evolution! 

Obsolete - who says words are no longer useful?

If you love words, you may be like me and particularly relish uncommon old words. Words that have fallen out of use, that sound extravagant and fanciful to the contemporary ear; words the dictionary still includes but describes as 'obsolete'. 

All Grandiloquent images from 
Grandiloquent Word of the Day

If you share this love, you will enjoy the site Grandiloquent Word of the Day by Jason Travis Ott who shares his work widely on social media.  

Ott's artwork, his Victorian-era characters, and funny quotes make the words come alive again for a minute. But the words are really not alive, they are obsolete. If they are not used, they are dead. 

Were they grieved on their way to obsolescence? Did someone, at some time, say to themselves (or their barber), "Oh, why don't we hear the word 'palpebrous' anymore? It's such a handy word, so why has it fallen out of use?" I know I just did (to self, not barber). 

Well, yes, they are obsolete, I rarely know any of the Grandiloquent words. But who decided they were no longer useful? How did they fall out of use? Were they perhaps pushed? 

So she didn't

So much advice about writing urges routine, persistence and 'turning up'. No advice says what to do when the rest of life takes over, other than getting up at 4am to make more time to write. If that's what it takes, it makes you wonder if you really are a writer.

Lately, I've had to concentrate on sleeping when I can, especially at 4am. So, not much writing, but I believe I can. 

Bonus for you: you can also rest!

Source

Nervous - not writing

So, I'm feeling a bit nervous right now. Probably from #2 and #3, but not from #1 unfortunately. About that I'm feeling torn. 

But there are times in life when you can't do what you most want to do.

Source

Language - falling off the bars

Source

By now, you can no doubt tell a bit about what I like from the topics I write about.

I love words. I relish language. I eat metaphors for breakfast. And I believe you can never have enough cartoons.

So, instead of the regular post, I bring you a state of Wordly Explorations - with words, language, metaphor and cartoon.

This toon by SMCB is one of my favourites. It says everything I've tried to say in my thousands of words, ridiculously long posts and endless series. Only considerably more nimbly and gracefully, which is appropriate given the content of the cartoon.

As SMBC says, 'Language is like gymnastics' (simile, sure, not metaphor, but good enough when you're pressed for time) works for the conflicting prescriptivist, descriptivist and pragmatist perspectives. That's a simile doing overtime!

Language is like gymnastics. There are rules and standards and those who fail to follow them should be chastised.

Language is like gymnastics! There are lots of forms and none is preferable to any other.

Language is like gymnastic. There isn't a best gymnastics, but most of you are really, really shitty at gymnastics.

I agree with all that, but today I have a different take. Let's call it the language 'performativist' perspective.

Language is like gymnastics. There's performance anxiety; there's pain and sometimes injury in the process of nailing the 'position' you are working on. 

It's hard to focus on your goal on the parallel bars, when you can't even get to the gym due to everything else happening in your life. The coach yells at you about discipline and dedication, but gymnastics is not the only thing in your life. It's not dedication you lack, but days with more than 24 hours!

Sometimes, despite trying your best, you just lose your grip, miss the bar, and you don't get a post written. 

Source: Laura Sweet

Your eyes go wide, you feel fear as you realise what is about to happen, then you fall down hard on your backside.

You get up, and things are still okay.

And you take another run up and hope you'll get it next time.

Research - in praise of the prefix 're-'

Along with widespread distrust in authority, experts and professionals, we see the very common suggestion (or sometimes taunt) online to ‘do your own research’.

I know several people who have 'done their own research' - spending three or four years of their lives working extremely hard on a specific question to earn a PhD. Having watched just how difficult it is, and how they had to put the rest of their life on hold, I don't really want to 'do my own research'.

So, why is it so commonly suggested? And why is it so often accompanied by poor spelling and insults?

Unless… perhaps they don't really mean 'research.'

Tea - with sympathetic adjectives

Tea is the most consumed drink in the world after water.

It's my preferred beverage. Each day, I have about 6 of the estimated 18–20 billion cups of tea consumed around the world. My personal motto is if in doubt, make tea.

From the 1800s, Australians adopted the British penchant for a cup of tea for all occasions and the philosophy that a cup of tea can make things better, at least while you are sipping the steaming brew. (The recent Australian trend to adopt American habits means that coffee has taken over as number one hot beverage, but it sadly lacks any equivalent philosophy. This 2016 poll found the most common drinks in Australia are water, milk, hot coffee, and then tea.)

Tea is so much a part of our days that it turns up in various sayings, and much has been written about how to make tea properly. 

I’ve noticed something else while recently experiencing a series of minor problems escalating to a natural disaster. The adjectives we use to describe a cup of tea hold a secret code for human connection and sympathy.

The @ sign - my symbolic resistance

By guest explorer: Fred Shivvin

Language is dynamic and constantly changing, that is what makes it powerful.

 

But when our language changes - the word meaning, the punctuation, grammar, usage rules, spelling, and more - we often don't like it. Many of us resist many of these changes, and some sticklers never give in.

But for most of us, slowly, gradually, insidiously, the unwelcome changes slip into how we talk and write. The shift happens without our awareness, until one day we find ourselves using the word form, sentence structure, punctuation, etc., that we had resisted in the past.

We don't often recognise our shift to acceptance, we don't remember how long we resisted, we don't often even notice we've stopped fighting language change. And if we do, we might shrug an acknowledgment, and then get on with life and language.

But there's one change I resisted for exactly 27 years and 9 months. Until last week, to be precise.

Cynical - the easy way out

It's that time again in Australia - the time we're not officially in an election but, yeah, we sure are in an election. We can tell by the politicians' behaviour: the clearing of decks, the salves to lobby groups, the announcements, the special funds for 'special' electorates. 

One of the words I hear a lot around election time is cynical. We're told the 'voters are cynical' and wary of political promises, but equally we hear that some politicians undertake actions as 'cynical attempts to win votes'. And we turn off. 

That makes me wonder: where does cynicism reside? 

Is it in me - in the way I interpret other people's behaviour as negative? Or is it in other people - in the way they think they can treat me, can buy me off? If I describe a politician's actions as cynical, just who is the cynic? Is it a type of judgement or is it a more general 'lens' through which a person sees the world? 

Welcome to the first Wordly Explorations for 2022. I will return to truth soon, but the universe keeps flinging things at me that don't allow much writing time, and not enough for a challenging topic like truth.