Janet enters
the murder room. Her husband is on the
floor in a pool of blood. On the wall, written in blood, is the message, youre
next. She leans over, dips her
finger in her husband’s blood, and on the wall puts an apostrophe: you’re.
I love
language, though I often abuse it - too lazy to go back over what I have typed
and put in the apostrophes, or just comfortable with the way I have expressed
myself.
I am not a
stickler on correct spelling and grammar (but thank you Microsoft for your
spell checker). To me, the purpose of
language is to communicate.
Communication
is different in different cultures. I
was told by an Athabaskan Indian in a Native village that white men talk too
much. And he was right. We can’t stand dead air space in a
conversation.
When we
first arrived in the villages, we might have two Native women come to the
house; we would greet them and they would nod their heads. We would give them tea and they would sit on
the couch silently drinking their tea.
Then at some point they would state what they had come over for; perhaps,
My son not like go to school. In
the meantime, we had filled the room with rambling words and sentences in an
attempt to fill the void.
An Inuit can
often express a entire meaning with the rise of an eyebrow. I am still furious when I think about
standardized testing judging the children in these remote villages from a
requirement they write essays in standard and correct grammar. Their
stories are rich when expressed in their own village language.
We all
misuse words; but their origins are interesting. Here is some word rambling:
The word decimate
literally means - to slaughter every tenth one.
The word dilemma,
the di comes from the Greek for two; so the meaning is limited to two
choices. The dilemma of choosing
the road ahead or the one less traveled.
Thanks to
computers we can modify grammar with bold or italic entries. I love semicolons and dashes. Again,
language is all about communicating your thoughts.
So a great
fuck-you to the word police who would willingly destroy a thought in the name
of inane rules.
the Ol’Buzzard
I hate to point this out, but fuck-you does not have a hyphen.
ReplyDeleteHahahahahaha, great post!
the way I use it it could be just one word.
DeleteOB
As a certified, albeit retired, member of the grammar police I'm going to point out that the reason the rules exist is to ensure clear communication. If an author mixes in enough idiosyncratic spelling and mangled sentence construction, the beauty of the thought becomes irrelevant. When readers have trouble reading something they give up and the writer has failed. FWIW, spell check is no one's friend. It can determine if a word is spelled correctly but it can't tell you if it's the wrong word for the context.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was teaching, there were days when it would have been nice to be able to scrawl "What the fuck are you trying to say here?!" on student essays. "Unclear" and "incoherent" didn't quite cover just how bad some of the work submitted was.
There is a time and a place for all things. I wanted my students to write. To put their thoughts and ideas on paper. We could go back and edit; but it was the writing process I was interested in. In a culture of few words I wanted to encourage my students to express themselves words - in writing.
ReplyDeleteI submitted my first article to Field and Stream magazine at age eleven. I have dyslexia was a terrible speller - still am. The piece was hand printed and I am sure full of mistakes in grammar; but the desire to write was there. I am sure it was a comical piece, but I do wish the editors of Field and Stream had acknowledged my effort. I still remember the theme of the story: it was about squirrel hunting in a swamp full of snakes.
OB
I will say that I agree with you on the grammar issue. Although grammar is important in it's own right, when writing a story sometimes it is just not how people talk. And I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by saying this, but in texting, I find it pretty unnecessary. However, I think kids need to know grammar and when and how to use it.
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence fits my attitude perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Can you please contact me through falconstar926@gmail.com. I need your help on a blog.
ReplyDeletethis is one of those give a fuck moments for ydg. i dont capitize, use commas, or anything that is required. I am no no longer in school. no one asks me what the fuck im trying o say. i know how do write correctly, i just choose not too. and debra made me laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteI find it a bit worrisome? frustrating? sad? that so many don't know the difference between your and you're; between their and they're; etc. Of course I write like I think so I shouldn't say much about others.
ReplyDelete