Shining threads

Shining threads

Monday 24 April 2017

Words consume worlds

The world is being consumed by a few 3-5 letter adjectives.

Opinions vary as to whether this is bad, sad, good, nice or great.

A radical suggests, provocatively, that we might stretch to include 6 letter adjectives.

This is declared a 'lovely' suggestion.

On hearing of the acceptance, the radical says 'that's great' and that 'it will be good to hear some 6 letter adjectives'.

'That's nice', says one person encouragingly.

'That's nice', says another person condescendingly.

A starry-eyed person sees this step forward and joyously says 'what about 7 letter words?'

A crowd puzzle together over whether this might be feasible, until they declare in unison that 'it would be AMAZING!'

An observer muses that their response was 'very nice', the way it was so co-ordinated and gave a sense of positive agreement.

Someone new walks into the scene and says ‘how about extending the range beyond 7 letter words?’

‘Yes.’ Says someone else, without emotion. ‘That would be interesting.’

‘We could even use pairs of words.’ Says the newcomer.

‘Of course, that would be fantastic and interesting.’ Was the robotic reply.

The council of the Oxford English Dictionary look on with heads full of richly descriptive adjectives, weeping at the linguistic reduction taking place through society.

They are sad.

The world is represented by words, and words animate our perceptions.

This was a great piece of writing, written at a good pace, on a nice computer, with a touch of sadness shared with the OED council, and perhaps a touch of contempt. Oops. My bad.

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