A Million Billion Trillion Words
Posted by
Sad Blogger
, 19.11.09 at Thursday, November 19, 2009, in
When I was thirteen years old I stumbled upon an album in my uncle's record collection entitled Playin' With Your Head by a man named George Carlin. I had not heard the name until then but that name quickly became the most important name I would ever know. But that part is irrelevant. Playin' With Your Head was Carlin's 7th comedy album and starts off with a track titled 'Hello-Goodbye.' This track is basically four minutes of different ways to say hello and goodbye. And that's what I'm getting at. Words.
Words have been my second biggest obsession--next to comedy, coincidentally--since my discovery of that album. The way they sound, the way they look, the way they feel as you slowly piece them together out of letters. One of my favorite feelings is to simply write words with a pencil and feel the ideas being formed into tangible symbols right in front of me. That's one of the things I find most fascinating about words. Inside our heads, ideas just float around arbitrarily, like bubbles or bumblebees. You can't see them, can't smell them, can't touch them. There's no way for another person to perceive a thought. But words, spoken with their funny sounds or written with their goofy letters, bring thoughts to life.
One interesting thing words can do that thoughts can't is affect. A thought is harmless, trapped inside the mind of its creator. But once it squirms its way out into the real world, it has the power to provoke. When a thought is given the new ability to provoke, one of two things will happen. It will either lift up or bring down. Lifting words can be funny, romantic, encouraging, educational. They convey a message of positivity. Then there are the down words. Words that insult, reduce, discourage, discriminate. They are meant to offend or belittle. Some words are not even necessarily positive or negative, but arranged in a specific order with other words, can be either. I know that sounds so obvious and basic. But have you ever actually thought about it? How fascinating it is?
One of the most fascinating words to me is somewhat taboo and widely considered a curse word. The worst of them some might say. It's a word that we use in almost every possible grammatical context. It can be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun...and in each tense too. It's a word we often use to refer to the process of creating life. But possibly more often as a word to insult and condemn. That word is "fuck". Fascinating that a word we associate with the miracle of basically causing life is also one our most obscene curse words. The history and etymology of the word is even connected with copulation. In ancient England, couples were required to ask permission of the king before procreating. If awarded permission they would receive a placard to place on their door reading F. U. C. K. Fornication Under Consent of the King.
I hope you enjoy my words,
- Sad Blogger
EDIT June 26 2011: I just watched a film called "Fuck: The Documentary" and according to several linguists confirmed that the "fornication under consent of the king" thing is total bullshit. The doc made a point of actually mocking people who believed that's where it came from. So perhaps I'll come back and either rewrite this piece or write an entirely fresh piece with my newfound knowledge.
