A Rose by any Other Name…
I’m going to make some seemingly incongruous connections here, so stick with me…
Today my daughter was telling me about some photos she saw in her kindergarten class, and she described them as “breathtaking.” I was impressed at her word selection (far more expressive than “pretty” or “cool”).
Follow along…
Last night my husband and I watched an episode from the BBC series “Chef,” about a brilliant and volatile, well, chef. His behavior is shocking and hilarious because it’s so outrageous. Last night he called a high-priced vendor a “grasping, extortionate, avaricious, rapacious, usurious, devious, and deceitful personage.” Vicious, yet beautiful. We actually replayed that scene several times to catch the precise language.
Hang in there…
I have time daily to listen to the radio while I drive my daughter to and from school. Apparently having a short attention span, I often spin the dial. Recently I’ve been monitoring various “personality” political shows, both right- and left-wing.
Within the past week, I’ve regularly heard language such as “shut up,” “jerk,” and “idiot” from liberals and conservatives alike. I know it’s shocking and inciting; designed to rile up an audience (already likely riled), but it’s also inelegant, vague, vulgar, and imprecise.
Now, I’m not for name-calling; as humorous as I find “Chef,” I also find his manner appalling… but he does have a way with words. He used those adjectives because he believed he was being misled and overcharged, and those words provided a vivid and specific description. (He’s also fictional.)
To me, words such as “jerk” invoke (less than pleasant) memories of childhood, when many of us lacked the patience or vocabulary to state our positions better. Adults should be above this…just look at the size of a dictionary. I’m not advocating multi-syllabic words that few understand… I’m just suggesting precision, clarity, civility, and imagination when we discuss and contest issues. (Anyone else remember Salada teabags, with the pithy sayings on the tags? There was one that read, “Too bad we can’t disagree without being disagreeable.” No? Just me, then.) I know civil discussion with opposing viewpoints was a core belief in the founding of Brave Humans, and I’m been impressed and delighted at the diversity of views and the eloquence of language we’ve seen so far.
If this would happen in the mainstream media, I’d find it… breathtaking. Here’s hoping we become mainstream.
Be brave. Be human.
Susan
February 6th, 2007 13:43
I agree. I notice the same thing especially during or after finishing a good 19th century book.
February 9th, 2007 15:30
We love “Chef” for the very reason that his insults are incomparable.
I was often ridiculed in junior high and high school because I had a vocabulary beyond “cool” and “bitchin’” (it was the 80s), and I used it. Why was it so “uncool” of me to express myself? I still don’t get it.
February 9th, 2007 16:45
Elena, if you check out Grant’s post on Charles Murray’s theories, you’d see that you were clearly in the intellectual elite, and it was the lower 50% that were ridiculing you. Feel better?
Well, maybe not. How about this: Kids can be cruel. That might not make you feel better, but it’s at least as sound as Murray’s theories, and I bet more people would agree with it.
Be brave. Be human. Be verbal.
Susan