SLANG?

When thinking about language, especially the English language, one cannot deny the use of 'slang.'  Many people of course consider slang as a socially inappropriate use of language, but really, in most cases, slang often represents an informal use of language.  We can consider the term "cool" and the way it is used in culture.  Formally, the term cool refers to temperature, but informally, cool refers to something that warrants approval of someone or something that is novelty.  Cool becomes a slang because of its informal use in language . 

There many examples of slang that have also become inappropriate in social settings.  Read classic poety aloud in a room full of teenagers and you'll know what I mean.  This list continues to grow in our culture according to use and the way people use words.  Slang often begins with a partiular group of people who use a word in a specific context and the term spreads like wild fire, but celebrities pocess the power of using a word once on a sitcom, movie or in a song and suddenly a once innocent word now means something dreadfully grotesque. 

How does slang relate to writing?  I know you were asking that.  Slang directly relates to writing because the majority of writing either represents soceity or becomes a commentary of society.  Regardless of purpose, writing allows for the author to explore language and use langauge in a valuable and/or realistic way.  If writing represents our culture, it will represent our slang and eternize "cool" or "rad" by exploiting the users. 

Writing invites us to use words differently as well.  For example, the countless poets and song writers who have developed slang terms into words.  Shakespeare (for those who believe him to be responsible for his empire) contributed thousands of words to the English language through his writing.  At the time, his plays were considered entertainment and the slang he used often elaborated a point or dug deep into a characters development.  These puns and innuendos became part of our language and part of our society today. 

To conclude my thoughts, slang gets treated unfairly in our culture because many people really don't understand its purposes.  The intention of ones meaning really deserves criticism and not the words they use.  What is being said? How is it being said?  These should be our concerns.  And for all authors out there, continue evolving our language by exploring its options, because the moment you stop, our culture dies with its language. 

Motive of Text

Motive appears to both direct and at times neglect an author's writing.  When a reader experiences a text, they view the text from both a direct point of view and an indirect point of view.  When a text becomes fully transparent, we see the visible and what appeared to be invisible.  There are layers which manifest themselves as a reader infers and explores.  When we think about the complexities of the mind of an author when writing, we can't help but consider our own writing.

An example of this can be found on my POETRY page.  There's a poem titled "The Parasitic Psychology of Night."  This poem represents an interaction in my mind that became a surfaced piece of writing.  Some think and ponder before beginning to pen their ideas or imaginations, but other writings are streams of consciousness.  This poem resulted from the pondering of a deep rooted emotion.  There wasn't a direct plan of representing this moment, because it warranted an impossibility of representation.  In this moment, I wrote.  The feeling revealed itself later when I wrote my directed emotions in the poem below it, titled, "A Prophetic Eulogy".  The first poem attempts to capture a moment of emotional confusion after awaking from an unclear dream.  The relevancy of the poem's motive became the search for motive.  The next poem gives answers searched for in the first poem when I gained more focus.

As mentioned above, the motive of writing becomes direct but many times neglects itself.  There are expereinces of the mind in peoples' writing that captures concepts, emotions and ideas that are beyond the intentions of the text.  Interstingly, the mystery of text continues to move cultures and test the way authors write today.  The real question though, is, "When we read a text, what is the real intention?"  And of course, this causes us to ask, "Are we really, fully declaring our motives when we write?"

Writing for Penmanship

Lately I've been reflecting on the correlation between writing as a physical activity and writing as a mental activity. We often consider writing to be reflective, expressive, existential and many other things, but the phenomenon exists when the mind becomes written words. A thought can exist in images which then portray an event or emotion, and often times writers attempt to share or relive an emotion through words. Ironically, these emotions are often too complex to fully describe linguistically.

Regardless of the perception of thoughts, society spends more time teaching how to write than how to think and the result has become an awkward focus on penmanship. For many years, if someone could not write in shorthand (cursive) then they were labeled as bad writers, but what constituting this label? Were they really bad writers or did they lack the ability to physically write a working piece in their minds?

In recent years, typing has enabled many people to avoid penmanship altogether and rarely do we find a student who can neatly and properly utilize shorthand (cursive). Many people debate over this lost art, arguing, "What if they have to write something in cursive?" Honestly though, how many required moments will take place? Cursive possess a beauty and neatness but its' relevancy is in presentation and not syntax, style, voice or any other truly valuable aspect of writing.

Although in terms of penmanship, print still serves a significant importance, typing has become a way for many to write. I have overheard many adults referring to grammar and writing applications as being a blessing. The generations are changing and writing changes with them, but the question still remains, "Do we need to write neatly or write well?"

An Acknowledgement of a Losing Art

Let's think about writing as a means of entertainment. Throughout history, the masses gathered for a word of knowledge or to be entertained. For many years, writing served both attractions. In Ancient Greece, people esteemed poets as those who supplied a direct line to the gods, and provided the people with stories that entertained and aspired.
Today, many people in American society only value entertainment for its lack of thought. There's a moaning, zombie fetish with television, music and other forms of media, and sadly, most people don't even value the possibility of knowledge. Reality TV has replaced reality in an ironic twist of events, and in turn, tragically marginalizes our culture. Where has the value of entertainment gone?

Yes, there was a time when entertainment had literary value. Poetry ruled the literary world for many years when considering the Western culture. Poetry provided a way to enter society through beautiful language and soothing rhythm. Poets called upon their intellect, observations and emotions to form a poem which captured themselves and their world.

Today, the mere mention of poetry to many blinds them from its potential. Poetry continues to change and evolve with our culture, but generally speaking, slowly dies and fades with each passing day. Personally, I have always loved poetry and consider true poetry to be an experience which only a poet can authentically capture. But regardless of our personal definitions, the awe, mystery and potential of poetry remains to be only understood by few.

What can we do to share the experience of poetry with others? This question has a haunting tone to those who understand the value that has been lost, but may also bring comfort to a culture that is ready for the next step. Will we lose poetry completely or will it survive a long transition of cultural change? I guess we will have to find out for ourselves.

The Mystery of Blogging

What on earth am I doing? That would be an appropriate question for me to ask on a blog, and especially a blog about writing as an evolutionary art. As far as terms are concerned, writing seems a bit subjective to me, and almost as subjective as "love" would be in our culture. People approach writing from different backgrounds and perspectives and writers take the craft a step further by implementing purpose and devices to serve an end. Blogging though, seems to be both poetic and prosaic, both conversational and conventional, and both personal and global.

In order to fully capture the blog life, one has to let go of conventions (to a degree) and let loose. The blog then becomes a journal or free-write, where the blogger takes on the role of a useless communicator. But is this a fair assumption to make? Perhaps not, but in all sincerity, many blogs seem to capture and essence of carefreeness and release pointless information into a world of starving minds (starving for intellect of course).

But if the author comes alive in the text, the personality of the author becomes visible, or does it? Can the reader or follower"Know" the author through blog jibber jabber? Well, I'm not sure yet because I'm new to this whole process (as you can tell by the length of my blog). I mean, my blog has started off as a wonderful website. I have eloquent philosophies, and I've provided links to available and valuable information for myself (oops, and others), but does this blog really fit in?

At times I almost feel as though this new blog has already been ostracized by all its' school mates as he leans against a brick wall while everyone else throws dodge balls at "him" (assuming my blog also takes on my gender). Wow, this is becoming quite fun actually, At first, the idea of rambling on to the world appeared to be counterproductive, but I disagree now. Anyway, not to get off track from the original point of this post, but honestly, who doesn't want to read my mind? Isn't that the point?

In the end, what matters most is the point. Does it allow me the opportunity to share something? Does my blog fulfill the purpose I set out for it? Does it supply the reader with a clear definition of a blog in my mind? Does it share the conclusion I've made so far about blogging? I hope the answer is yes.

Hypertext

Hypertext opens a number of avenues to writing and communicating information online. With this mode of writing, one has the world wide web at their fingertips and uses its resources to create a multi-modal text. The web becomes a pun and a text becomes connected to many websites and informational avenues. In the world of hypertext, the author considers the key words which can enhance the piece and creates connections to other works in order to fully represent their points, messages or expressions to others.

Fascination with writing

One of the most fascinating aspects of writing would have to be the possibilities it holds. Not only can a writer choose from a number of avenues in communicating and expressing an idea or emotion, but s/he can manipulate those avenues to suit their own personality, style and cultural flare. What makes writing limitless? The qualities of humanity create so many unique and new ways to explore our world and that world put into a written representation makes us think ourselves and write ourselves.