I've read all the post with interest, especially Martin's on Nietsche &
Lawrences's, which is somewhat along lines I would take: that is, I
understand these changes are a sign of a living language, but some of them
just turn me off. And there're the 'facts' of enlish as a second language
in so many places, the shifts in various 'english-speaking' countroes, &, I
suspect, what computers & the web are doing to us all.
As to what can be done with 'ugly', I would point to the astonishing
'poetic' effects Jack Womack achieved in his near future novels, where he
slowly trains readers to wholly understand a 'vernacular' based on the
worst of business-speak...
I do recall the tale of an IBM executive many years ago telling a board
meeting: 'There is no noun we cannot verb.' Usually, I'd say, well, yeah,
but why bother; Womack made me reconsider some...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
This next poem is about the green fields
Which are to be found in England.
They contain certain small animals
Which have chosen to make their life there.
Bill Manhire
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