Stardate: 20251027
Intro:
Wow, the very first ‘real’ one. The ‘Hello World’ post. That language, like all language, is important.
Language gives shape to ideas, and ideas aren’t possible without it. The universe, Straczynski wrote, began with a word. But which came first: the word or the thought behind the word? You can’t create language without thought, and you can’t conceive a thought without language, so which created the other, and thus created the universe?
A little meatier than chickens and eggs.
Language is at the core of everything, and language is a power we barely understand. Today, we’re going to talk about language, and why I refuse to moderate mine.
News:
Had an adventure getting Smythings set up. Originally, this started life as a Substack (then I found out about Substack and fled it screaming). and while I’m still looking for a permanent home, for now it’s a blog on my website.
God help me. 😉
In The Library:
I am so excited to get Flame & Claw out to the world. That’s book-related and vaguely library-ish, right? It counts.
I’m not harboring any illusions about how well it’ll do out of the gate. I mean, nobody knows me. This is my debut work and it’s not like I’ve got a big following on the socials or something. I think this is the wall. This point right here is where I feel the defenses around traditional publishing most. Because the imposter syndrome is real.
I’m sitting here hearing all the little voices telling me I will fail. Well, maybe. But the fact is I don’t care. The books will do what they’ll do. I’m tempering my expectations and charging blindly forward. Emotional Support Ice-cream at the ready. 😉
The Good
Let’s get back to language. My wee Nan taught English for YEARS.
Picture Maggie Smith, and you’d be real close. Nan was the undisputed MATRIARCH of our family. Every year, we’d spend either Thanksgiving or some of the week between Christmas and New Years with her.
The year her youngest grandkid turned eighteen, we gathered at her house for Thanksgiving dinner. All of us. Nan, her two children, their spouses, me, my brother, and my Aunt and Uncle’s three kids. Her entire family, all ten of us crammed around one table.
As it happened, it was the last time we were all together. My folks divorced the next year and I moved across the country. My brother passed away two years after that. My cousins scattered to the winds. She couldn’t have known this was going to happen, but Nan was not one to let an opportunity go to waste.
When dinner was ready and steaming on the table, after the blessing was said, Nan rose to her feet. She spoke not a word, but made eye contact with each of us.
And when this diminutive grandmother towered over us all like Everest, when had firm control of all our attention, she uttered a single, clear word.
“Fuck.”
You could have bowled us all over with the swipe of a single feather.
Nan smirked and met our eyes again. I will never forget her next words (yes, she wrote them down). “If I have tried to teach anyone anything,” she said, “it is respect for the power of language. Words have power. Use them wisely and well.”
Then she sat back down and asked my dad to pass the turkey. I will never forget that lesson. So forgive me for not editing the word, I refuse to neuter it’s power.
The Bad
“Oh, don’t use such harsh languages around children!”
“Are they YOUR children?”
“No, but you shouldn’t use foul language around them anyway!”
That idea really grinds my gears. Here’s why.
When you deny language, you’re not only reinforcing guilt for the emotion that prompted said language, you’re dismissing the emotion in the first place. Why is the person cussing? (Note, I don’t say swearing. Because swearing is an oath, or an invocation- not a statement of anger or whatever else prompted the F-bomb in the first place.)
Language, even it’s less appealing sides, is important because it is how we convey thoughts. There’s no such thing as a ‘bad thought’, only bad actions. If, when I stub my toe in a dark hallway, I say something explosive it’s because of the shock and pain. If I’ve received bad news, it may be in response, and because I rather desperately need an emotional bandage.
It’s never the choice of words that should concern someone, it’s the reasons behind that choice.
So, if language is thought, and words have their own power Should one consider the impact of their chosen words?
Absolutely. The reason my we Nan dropped that F-bomb wasn’t to shock us, it was to prove that there is a time and place for powerful language. If one cusses constantly, the words have no power.
The Fugly
Now, lets end on a funny,shall we?
What’s funny about language and specifically cussing?
In the last decade or so, I’ve noticed a rise of creative cuss replacements in various liturature. I’m not talking about Battlestar Galactica’s “Frak” or “Felgercarb”, or the way they used various forms of Chinese to cover English cusses in Firefly.
I mean stuff like the Aurora Rising series, which added such gems as “Son of a Biscuit”, “Holy Cake” and “Mother Custard” to my own personal thesaurus.
It was as an homage to this trend that the main character in Flame and Claw uses “F to the duck” when she gets angry. It’s a bit unwieldy, but always heartfelt. 🙂
And that’s my thoughts. Your Mileage -Will- Vary, and that’s why the world is a great place. We don’t all think alike. How boring would life be if we did?
-Dev