words matter
Like an amulet worn around the neck, these words might somehow shield or guide or console or sustain the one who held them close to mind and heart. I also thought of it, and continue to think of it, as a matter of these verbal amulets shaping our perception of the world. They form our thinking, our feeling, and our imagination in such a way that
... See moreThe Convivial Society • Amulets Against the Spirits of the Age
well-arranged words rearrange reality.
Visakan Veerasamy • Tweet
On the one hand, language is a wonderful tool. It allows us to describe these other worlds in metaphors that help us think and imagine them. But there are many places where our language leaves us in the lurch. Like with vision, we don’t have a word for detecting light but not having a conscious experience of it.
ed yong • What Counts as Seeing
language is a lens, and our thoughts and perceptions are almost certainly shaped in some way by its conventions and metaphors. It shows us that writing influences our thoughts even as we use it to describe them.
Laura Hartenberger • What AI Teaches Us About Good Writing
incessant radical change, is not describable in a language that assumes continuity and a common experience of life.
Ursula K. Le Guin • The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
Gabriel Winant (@gabrielwinant.bsky.social)
bsky.app
To make diagnosis something ‘empowering’, the first step is to completely break it apart and acknowledge all of its potential different and conflicting functions. Diagnosis can give you access to community, or cut you off from community. It can give you access to benefits, or it can bar you from income through employment. It could get you your
... See moreDazed • This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy
One word does not capture the thing. One language does not hold all things. More words and different words mean more and different perspectives, which is an immediate widening of our world.
poetrynw.org • Magical Realism and the Sociology of Possibility
"For example, look at the dominant discourse framing the current state of Work as an “Anti-Ambition” or “Anti-Work” Movement, painting a picture of people simply not wanting to work. In fact, they are not rejecting Work per se. They are rejecting the current system of Work (Work 2.0) and demanding a world of Work anchored in values such as equity,
... See moreRodrigo Turra from The Nexialist • 🛗✨The Nexialist #0133
we talk a lot about how we need new words to bring people into new worlds. what we've seen with so much of this new corporate press lexicon is new words to keep people in the old world.