Reading and Language
Even if you don’t understand words. Understand that they sometimes just need somewhere to go.
relatability—a logism so neo that it’s not even recognized by the 2008 iteration of Microsoft Word with which these words are being written—has become widely and unthinkingly accepted as a criterion of value, even by people who might be expected to have more sophisticated critical tools at their disposal.
The Scourge of "Relatability"
agree, when did relatability become required? why must we see ourselves in every story? But, is it possible not to, when we are all so similar?
ironically I’m annoyed by her choice of words. “a logism so neo”—is that necessary? Why go out of your way to be un-relatable, would you have lost any meaning if you had simply said “a word so new”?
if your words are so un-relatable that readers need a thesaurus to understand you, does that make you a better communicator? or is it just so you can feel special in your un-relatability? Is being unique “sophisticated” while being like other people “unsophisticated”? You claim readers are seeking relatability because they are selfish and self-centered. But in your own writing, you are so ungenerous
We often think of language as a means to an end, but rarely take the time to consider whether language in itself is influencing our thoughts, not just enabling the sharing of them.
Steph Smith • Gaining Perspective Through Untranslatable Words
Just as most of what happens to us dissolves, becomes part of an inner compost known in generalized terms—“my high school years,” “boot camp,” and so on—so most of what we have read loses definition and becomes a blurry wash.
Sven Birkerts • The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
But some things were too big to be really trapped in words, and even the words were too powerful to be completely tamed by writing.
Terry Pratchett • Equal Rites: (Discworld Novel 3) (Discworld series)
I don’t think I read enough to justify writing. But I am tired of consuming. I think I have something to say.
But I got the same painful pleasure out of writing prose that I did out of writing poetry—the pleasure of trying to put the right words in the right order. And I took away from my experience with poetry something else. I understood that the reason people write poems is the reason people write. They have something to say. ♦