Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA00489 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 15 May 2001 14:23:39 +0100 Subject: jabberwocky Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 09:19:11 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010515131911.AAA16065@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 05/15/01 03:51, Robin Faichney said this-
>I'd say, there's at least one example of a word that is used
>unusually, where that use conveys exactly what the writer intended.
Not to put too much of a point on it, but, yeah, that's what creative
writing is all about- making something understood on an
emotional/intellectual level, and yeah, poetry is sometimes putting
things in previously wrong places or using it in a new way to make this
understanding possible.
And, yes, in these instances, 'the best use of a word' might well be one
at odds with common definitions or idiosyncratically.
But this is poetry, and that particular use of that particular word in
that particular way _will not be repeated_ (usually) in other places or
times, and certainly not for understanding things of a different nature.
Language is an ever-changing, shifting landfall of human expression.
And when science becomes poetry (which I dearly desire, BTW) then even
technical journals can look like Finnegan's Wake.
But until then, plodding learners that we are, we need stepping stones of
permanent fixture on the landscape of facts.
And the unchanging symbols of science to mark them.
- Wade
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