Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Save the Words


People don't realize the state of the endangered word. Every day more words are lost to carelessness, abuse, over use, etc. Humanity's tendency to expand its reaches at every cost has confined the natural environment of words to inhospitable locales. The word cannot thrive in these conditions, and due the word's lack in adapting effectively we have seen diminished numbers of words, and words that flounder in an attempt to survive in foreign environments.

Take for instance the species of word known as poetry. Poetry enjoyed great prosperity as a species for centuries, maybe even millenia, until recently when the islands of man began to rapidly drift further and further apart. Every word (poetry, prose, dialogue especially, etc) survives as a wanderer much as desert bedouins wander for survival. A word travels from one man island to the next finding food for itself, and also adding to the land it inhabits. For this, think of the bee; a bee pollinates flowers which then reproduce. In this way, the word (like the bee) is detrimental to its biome.

As I said, though, the islands of man have drifted further and further apart. The simple word has suffered greatly. Again, I return to poetry. In the past, poetry has exhibited ornate plumage, strong vitality, and great capacity for producing offspring. Recent years have seen a decline in the number of poetry capable of actually producing offspring, or producing offspring incapable of traveling from one island to the next. Ancestors of modern poetry demonstrate this concept plainly. Take for instance the following specimen:

"Ah, God, the way your little finger moved
As you thrust a bare arm backward
And made play with your hair..."

This particular poetry came from island of Crane, but it has been found to inhabit many other islands in some form or another. It is attractive and invites suitors, and has the capability to produce nearly innumerable offspring. Now take what we might see today in a similar environment.

"ooh baby, the way you text me/
it's oh so sexy..."

As you can see, this poetry is far removed from its ancestor, and has lost many of the ancestors qualities which might ensure survival, and propagation. Can you see how it is too weak to survive? How it isn't capable of producing viable offspring? All this because the islands of man have somehow drifted apart, or shifted in themselves.

We must work to preserve the endangered word in its various forms. Without the dedicated effort of thoughtful people like you the word could go the way of the Dodo- or worse.

So, please, please, save the words.

1 comment:

Matthew Snyder said...

"ooh baby, the way you text me/
it's oh so sexy..."

What the heck?!