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Contrarian Department of Words Mean Things, Dammit
Quote, from this article on the New York City bedbug problem:
"'We want to send a message to bedbugs,' City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, announcing the measure Wednesday: 'Drop dead. Your days are over.'"
1) Bedbugs aren't listening. They're bugs. You cannot send them a message. They have no motherfucking language centre or mammalian brain to put one in.
2) You cannot engage in psychological warfare tough talk with bugs. They're not scared. Because they're bugs and do not hear or understand you.
3) Nobody is actually going to send the United States Marines into a protracted land war with bedbugs right after this announcement.
Yes, there are literal, figurative, metaphoric, formal (as in an arrangement of forms), slang, etc. interpretations of language and all are valid; that's one of the things that makes language cool. But language isn't just forms; it's not an empty box. There's meaning in that box. Words mean things.
This is a mindfulness applicable to writing prose fiction; it deals with spotting second-order cliches and getting them out of your writing. It's also a good way to make sure, well, we aren't sounding hellaciously silly. :p
This is why rhetoric is cool and more people should learn it. The end.
"'We want to send a message to bedbugs,' City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, announcing the measure Wednesday: 'Drop dead. Your days are over.'"
1) Bedbugs aren't listening. They're bugs. You cannot send them a message. They have no motherfucking language centre or mammalian brain to put one in.
2) You cannot engage in psychological warfare tough talk with bugs. They're not scared. Because they're bugs and do not hear or understand you.
3) Nobody is actually going to send the United States Marines into a protracted land war with bedbugs right after this announcement.
Yes, there are literal, figurative, metaphoric, formal (as in an arrangement of forms), slang, etc. interpretations of language and all are valid; that's one of the things that makes language cool. But language isn't just forms; it's not an empty box. There's meaning in that box. Words mean things.
This is a mindfulness applicable to writing prose fiction; it deals with spotting second-order cliches and getting them out of your writing. It's also a good way to make sure, well, we aren't sounding hellaciously silly. :p
This is why rhetoric is cool and more people should learn it. The end.
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