Heaney uses a lot of older words in his poetry - stook comes to mind
as one of those words - and , in reaction to him, I thought, what am
I? A librarian, a curator of dead words? I forsook that position a
while ago.
I suppose it's that writer's problem of what words to use where and
when, to what end, the field of words wherein we pitch the tent of our
work.
Roger
On Dec 21, 2007 7:54 PM, Peter Cudmore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> There's a rather lovely essay by James Meek on the Guardian website at the
> moment, called
> From albedo to zugunruhe. Put me in mind of Orwell's essay Politics and the
> English Language, since it addresses the problem of expressing clarity and
> character in the written word.
>
> Standfirst reads:
>
> How often do you bother looking up an unfamiliar word? Should writers make
> us reach for our dictionaries? Four years ago, James Meek vowed to learn
> every alien word he encountered, and discovered poetry in obscurity
>
> And the link: < http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2227650,00.html
> >
>
> It's funny to see some terms that seem to me familiar and normal
> (geology/geography terms I learnt at school) being found exotic and rare.
>
> P
>
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"And we're slow to acknowledge the knots on the laces
heart it races"
Architecture in Helsinki
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