Words as symbols

家 

jiā, house

What are words?! Sometimes I like to get back to basics. As someone who deals with words in my personal, social, avocational, and professional life, I like to take a step back and think about what these crazy squiggles on a paper or screen are actually all about!

Words in and of themselves have no meaning. Words are composed of letters, or in some cultures characters. A particular combination of characters is formed to comprise words or larger characters. In Chinese, some characters resemble the idea or meaning of the character. 家 (jiā) means home, family, or house in Mandarin. The original character for home in Chinese was a pictograph of a pig inside a house. The current character has a hog under a roof! The character for house looks like a house. So there is a concept of a house, and there is a corresponding character of house. And for ancient Chinese culture, a house included a hog! The character is given a meaning, and the image of the character resembles the image of the meaning.

The English alphabet derived from the Latin alphabet around the 7th century C.E. -- the very word alphabet is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta!!. The origins of the English language hark back to the earliest influence on England -- Germanic peoples known as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Norman (French) influence on the English language is also significant. So what we consider the "English" language is rooted in influences from Latin, Greek, German, Dutch, the Netherlands, and France!

Words are composed of letters (in many languages, like English), and the specific combination of letters in a particular order forms a word that connotes meaning. However, this is where it gets tricky. The meaning I imbue to a word may not match the meaning you give a word. And that is precisely where communication goes awry. We use words and we think we are communicating well, but do we check to ensure the words we are using are understood the way we understand them?! 

In one of my classes, we had a lengthy debate about a word when studying Socrates. The word was DESK. I asked the class, "what is a desk?" Answers included the following: a table with drawers; a rectangular structure where one can work; a place to work; a place to store papers with a top to work on; a table with file drawers. I asked if the table I was at was a desk. Some said "yes" and others said "no." Does a desk need to have drawers? Is a desk defined by how it looks or its function? If I'm sitting in my backyard grading papers on my lap, is my lap a desk?? The word "desk" is composed of symbols, four letters in this order... D.E.S.K. In and of themselves, those letters have no meaning. The word itself has no meaning other than the meaning we give it. As it turns out, we don't all give it the SAME meaning! One simple word we think we all understand, but it turns out there is great confusion!

In the current political climate here in the U.S. words have been misused, misappropriated, and misunderstood. In my next post, I'll examine how words have power, both for good and for evil.

“Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch on absolute truth…” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

______________________________________________________________________________

https://www.chinasage.info/chars/fch_jia_house.htm

The Word: Logos

 Words fascinate me. As I wrote in the previous post, I deal with words, in words, and around words on a daily basis. I write words, read words, grade the written word, and speak words. Words have power--to enlighten, to heal, to change a perspective, to hurt, to encourage, to challenge, to express love. 

For the next few blog posts,  I'll delve deeper into the meaning and purpose of words--the relationship between ideas, words, and culture; how and why words are so often misinterpreted; how certain combinations of words have more impact; and how we can use words to change the world! For now, we'll start at the beginning.

The first verse in the bible is Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The word genesis means the beginning or formation of something. So Genesis 1 is the beginning of the beginning! And who was there in the beginning? God! Jews, Christians, and Muslims all hold the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as a sacred book and believe God created the heavens and the earth.

Skip ahead in the Bible to John 1:1-3: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him and without him nothing was made that has been made." So God created the world, heaven and earth, in the beginning, and the Word, Logos in Greek, was there. The Word, Logos, is Jesus. Jesus was present in creation with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, speaking the universe into existence: "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light," Genesis 1:3. 

The word logos has its origins in Greek philosophy and relates to the power of reason. According to Stoic philosophers in the 3rd century B.C.E., logos is the "active rational and spiritual principle that permeated all reality. They called the logos providence, nature, god, and the soul of the universe." By referring to Jesus as logos, the Apostle John is signalling that Jesus is the co-creator with God the Father, the One whose words reflect spiritual and physical reality. In addition, Jewish rabbis referred to God as "the word of God," so in a few short sentences the Apostle John is appealing to Jews and Greeks, and laying a foundation for the spiritual concept of the Trinity -- three co-equal aspects of God.

Our ability to use words to communicate thoughts originates in the creator of words, God Himself, and in the Word, Jesus Christ. God used words to create life. As we begin to explore the meaning and power of words, we start with the Word, Logos, the Messiah whose birth we celebrate this week, Jesus the Christ.

__________________________________________________________

Holy Bible. New International Version. Cornerstone Bible Publishers, 1984.

"Logos." Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 May 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos

 

Are You a True Reader or a Book Nerd?

Not a day goes by when I don't read. I read the bible daily, and I am also usually reading a novel; articles online; student work; texts and email messages; recipes. I can't imagine a day without reading as an integral part. But none of these activities make me a "true reader" according to C.S. Lewis, beloved and renowned Christian author, professor, scholar, and novelist. Lewis highlights a few characteristics of a "true reader" in his book (compiled from letters and writings) The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes. 

C.S. Lewis has been described as "the best-read man of his generation, one who read everything and remembered everything he read" (Epmson, qtd in Lewis). Anyone who is reading John Milton's Paradise Lost at ten years old and Shakespeare at eleven is beyond erudite! So Lewis's ethos argument is strong--he has earned the right to qualify who earns the title of "true reader." See if you pass these four tests of a "true reader" C.S. Lewis uses to separate the serious from the inconsequential! 

 1) Loves to re-read books 

    Have you ever purposely re-read a book? I read so many books, some serious literary tomes, and some lighthearted romances, that I can forget I read a book. This has happened more times than I'd like to admit, and I usually reach a point where it seems so familiar that I realize I have read the book previously. At that point, I sometimes continue and finish the book, and other times set it aside.

    I'm a member of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America). Any good Janeite will tell you how many times they have read each of Austen's six books. I remember hearing a Janeite say at a conference, "Oh, I didn't realize that until my thirteenth reading of Persuasion." Some books beg to be re-read. Why re-read a book? It's not for the plot - we already know the plot. We re-read for the lyrical prose, for how the book makes us feel, and think, and see differently.

 2) Highly values reading as an activity 

    I read daily because I love to read. Now that I'm on Goodreads it's easier to keep track, but I generally read 4-6 books a month. Do you read because you love to read, or because there is nothing else to do? When I travel I always have my iPad, or Nook, plus a few actual books. I can remember when I was a pre-teen I would get together with my friend Connie and we would spend the afternoon sitting outside each engrossed in our own book. Yep, I'm a book nerd.

 3) Lists the reading of particular books as a life-changing experience 

    Books have changed my perspective, taken me to the past and the future, provided hours of enjoyment and suspense, and made me a more empathetic person. First, the Bible has changed my life and revealed spiritual truth. All other books pale in comparison to the impact of the Bible on my life. 

    Second, authors who have greatly impacted me include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Tracy Chevalier, Jojo Moyes, Philippa Gregory, Barbara Kingsolver, Olaudah Equiano, Noah Gordon, Langston Hughes, Sophocles, Homer, Ann Patchett, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Vikram Seth, Thrity Umrigar, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maeve Binchy, Rosalind Laker, Ann Tyler, .... and too many more to name.

 4) Continuously reflects on and recalls what one has read 

    (these four points are taken from The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis).

    Book groups are great. I'm not in a book group right now, but I love sitting around and talking about books. Book groups are one way to reflect on what we've read. I guess some of my literature classes are like book groups in the sense that we read and discuss literature. But there are other ways to reflect on books - writing reviews, journaling, and talking to friends. When a book simply blows me away I write a review -- it comes out of the life-changing experience of reading the book and I'm compelled to share my experience with other readers. I also blog about my favorite books!

    What do you think? Do you meet all four of these criteria and qualify as a True Reader, according to C.S. Lewis. Or, if you'd like another evaluation to determine if you're a Book Nerd, take this quiz: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/whats-your-book-nerd-score/

    What's the verdict? Are you a True Reader or  Book Nerd?

_______________________________________________________

Lewis, C.S. The Reading Life, The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes. Harper One, 2019.

Where the Crawdads Sing - Paean to the marsh

Don't you hate it when book descriptions are imprecise or inaccurate? I have avoided reading Where the Crawdads Sing because I was told it was mainly about an abusive father. An abusive father plays a role in the book, maybe a pivotal role, but he is not the most important character, and in fact, his part on the book's stage is small.

Order here 

Rather, the book is a love song to the marsh and the Marsh Girl. Delia Owens' lyrical writing about nature reminds me of Tracy Chevalier's At the Edge of the Orchard, or Remarkable Creatures, or Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior or Prodigal Summer. Interestingly, Barbara Kingsolver has a degree in biology and Delia Owens is a zoologist.

The book is about survival - Kya, aka the Marsh Girl, is abandoned by everyone. Her mother leaves, then all her siblings leave, and finally, her abusive father leaves. She lives alone in a shack at the edge of a marsh in North Carolina - alone as in there were no other humans around. With only one day of formal schooling, and no adults to guide her, she survives. When she becomes a young woman, two men come into and out of her life, and she survives their betrayal, too.

Kya's best friends are the seagulls, the great blue heron (one of my favorite birds), and Cooper's Hawk. Owens describes the great blue heron as "the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water" who walks slowly "like a predacious bridesmaid" (Owens 109). Kya is so intimately attuned to the creatures who inhabit the marsh, she takes on some of their characteristics (read the book to find out what I mean). Kya observes the birds, insects, amphibians, and sea creatures and even mimics some of their behavior. Owens' writing almost has me scratching imaginary mosquito bites and feeling the cool mud on my feet -- it's that descriptive and engaging.

Like the best writers, her analogies and descriptions are original, yet with a veracity that makes them feel obvious. She describes the nearby town as "quite literally a backwater town, bits scattered here and there among the estuaries and reeds like an egret's nest flung by the wind" (Owens 32). And her analogies, similes, and metaphors reflect the natural world of the novel, so Kya is depicted as "trying to disappear like a bark beetle blending into the furrowed trunk of an oak" (Owens 45).

When her only real friend, Tate, teaches her to read, she reads this line: "there are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot" (Owens 125). Kya exclaims, "I wadn't aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full" (Owens 125). Indeed, I feel like Kya when I read the book - who knew sentences could be so full!

There is a plot, and it has enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. But the plot is not what made me love this book. The descriptions of the birds and Kya's relationship to the birds, how she crafts a life for herself, albeit lonely, and how she survives kept me riveted.

Have you read Where the Crawdads Sing? Did you love it as much as I do?!

___________________________________________________________________________

Owens, Delia. Where the Crawdads Sing. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018.

A Community of the Curious - Writing and researching historical fiction

 I love research! My students question my sanity, but honestly one of the parts of writing historical fiction I love the best is the research--so much so that I need to forcibly stop myself from continuing to research and start writing my novel. I'm revisiting and revising my historical novel about the daughter (Joanna Vassa) and sister (name unknown) of Olaudah Equiano. In the process of conducting research, I came across three scholars/historians and Equiano aficionados. They are part of a community of the curious about Joanna Vassa. I'm a card-carrying member now, too.

Dr. Angelina Osborne's research uncovered documents about Joanna Vassa and information about her life, which she published in a book entitled Equiano's Daughter, The Life and Times of Joanna Vassa. Momentum Arts in Cambridge published the book as part of the Untold Stories Arts and Heritage Project designed to highlight the lives of Cambridgeshire's Black and Minority Ethnic people. Nine years ago I undertook a pilgrimage to England to visit the sites where Equiano lived and wrote, Joanna's grave, The Congregational Church in Clavering where her husband was minister, and William Wilberforce's museum in Hull. 

Dr. Vincent Carretta is another member of the community of the curious. His research led him to write a seminal biography of Equiano, Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. 

Arthur Torrington, CBE, is a Guyanese-born community advocate and historian who co-founded the Equiano Society in London in 1996. He personally took me on a tour of the spots in London where Equiano is known to have lived and worked and brought me to Joanna Vassa's gravesite in Abney Park Cemetery. The Equiano Society recently hosted a Zoom event on Joanna Vassa, and Dr. Vin Carretta was one of the speakers.

The community of the curious about Equiano, his life, and his family continues to grow. I am honored and delighted to be part of this particular community of the curious about Joanna Vassa.

What kinds of wonderful people have come into your life through your research?

 

Centering the marginalized ... in fiction

 

According to Merriam-Webster.com, marginalized means "relegated to a marginal position within a society or group."

"Refugees are the world's quintessentially marginalized population: They are by definition located at the edge, beyond boundaries, on the outside."    — Tamar Mayer"… the domination and oppression of women and other marginalized groups within patriarchal culture."    — Susan M. Squier

Joanna Vassa's grave at
Abney Park Cemetery

Marginalized - the first image that comes to mind is a sheet of paper with margins. The margins are purposely blank. The important information is inside the margins. But what does it mean to be marginalized? Society deems certain people, certain groups, usually the oppressed, unfortunate, those struggling for equity and opportunity, and often people outside the bounds of "the norm" -- marginalized.Who says? Should we accept this relegation to the margins? No! I say let's shift our perspective. Maybe those who have been shuffled off to the margins should be in the center. And even more radical... maybe those consigning people to the margins should be marginalized themselves!Who is marginalized in American society today? Those who don't have a home or a job or hearing or vision or mobility -- they are identified by what they do not have rather than what they do have. Those who occupy an extreme... too dark, too small, too big, too flamboyant, too religious, too political. I've been thinking about the issue of marginalization in relation to the two novels I have written. My first novel, Remnant, a historical novel about the daughter (Joanna Vassa) and sister of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano wrote and self-published his autobiography in 1789 and became the richest African living in England in his day. He married a white woman, Susannah Cullen, and they had two daughters. By 1797 Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vassa, Susannah, and their firstborn daughter Anna Maria had all died, leaving Joanna Vassa a bi-racial two-year-old orphaned. Joanna could be the poster child for a definition of "marginalized" (except for the fact that her family had money and she inherited a tidy sum of £950 when she turned 21). Even the grave of Joanna Vassa was marginalized until Prof. Vincent Carretta discovered it covered in weeds and lying on its side, and brought it to the loving attention of the Abney Park Cemetery staff. He centered her grave. Additionally, Equiano's final resting place was unknown until recently, when Prof. Carretta aided by Equiano Society associate David Gleave found this record in church archives: “6 [April 1797] Gustus Vasa, 52 years, St Mary Le bone.” Equiano is buried in the cemetery next to the former Whitefield’s Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road (currently the American International Church). Equiano's gravesite location has been centered.Susannah Cullen married Olaudah Equiano - interracial couple #1. Joanna Vassa marries Henry Bromley - interracial couple #2 (these are both historical). Olu (Equiano's sister) marries Teddy - interracial couple #3 (fictional). I'm moving the marginalized (interracial couples) to the center. I'm centering the marginalized in my writing.In my second, contemporary novel, Expecting, the main character Michaela is traumatized when her mother dies in childbirth, leaving her with a fear of childbirth and determination to become an obstetrician, and preventing her from accepting Victor’s advances…the Deaf man with whom she has fallen in love. My Deaf characters in the novel are in the center of the action, not on the margins. In Expecting, it is normal to be Deaf. I center the marginalized.How do you "center the marginalized" in your writing?

A Long Petal of the Sea : Why I love historical fiction

 “One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende’s] long career.”—The New York Times Book Review

I'm a big fan of historical fiction. It's my favorite genre. A Long Petal of the Sea has all the elements I love in historical fiction: a good story, well told, set in a historical time and place, with both historical and fictional characters with whom I would love to sit down and have a cup of tea!

A Long Petal of the Sea covers the mid-1930s in Spain, to the 40s-90s in Chile (with brief stops in Spain, the U.S., and Venezuela). If you had asked me anything about the Spanish Civil War before I read this book, I would have a blank look on my face. Whether I ever learned about it (doubtful) or have just forgotten (possible) I could not have related any details whatsoever. Having lived through Allende's fictional retelling, I can now almost picture the war between the Catalonians and the Fascists - with Franco defeating the indefatigable Republican Spaniards. If I want the facts of the Spanish Civil War, I can read a book, or an essay (or Wikipedia!). I will learn about the two sides, the Republicans versus and Nationalists, with "communists" against "Christians" the rallying cry. But if I want to get a sense of history, and engage my senses, I read historical fiction. Through Allende's masterful writing I can smell the fires, feel the fear, cringe at the deprivation and cruelty, and see the destroyed city of Barcelona. 

The book is also a paean to Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat. Neruda transported over 2,000 Spanish refugees living in sub-human conditions in concentration camps in France, having fled at the end of the Spanish Civil War, in a ship called the Winnipeg to their new home in Chile. The title comes from Neruda's poetic description of the country of Chile.

For more on this fascinating moment in history, read this: 

https://socialistaction.org/2019/09/25/the-ss-winnipeg-pablo-neruda-and-a-long-petal-of-the-sea/

It strikes me that this book is particularly apt in our present day when fascism and nationalism are on the rise in many countries, and the lines that so starkly divide us get wider every day, becoming more like chasms than lines. 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, poet, and novelist).