so, i love jd salinger. i love him because — for whatever reason — his use of the english language makes me want to read his words, crawl inside the psyche of his characters, understand his viewpoint, read once and read again**. it is because of his book, franny and zooey, that i write, even if it is just this meager offering of a blog. i often sift and search through the used book section of my favorite thrift haunts, looking for no book in particular, but one that will surprise me enough to make me have to have it. i typically prefer fiction genres, so when the “instant english handbook” caught my eye, i was taken a bit off-guard by my own weirdo brand of delight at discovering it — an english handbook,
copyright 1968, published by the career institute at 555 east lange street, mundelein, illinois, zip code, 60060. truthfully, i think it to be the cover i really like, but i digress. this handbook has many of the little rules about the english language and how all of its aspects should be properly used. chapters such as, “agreement of pronoun with antecedent”, and “simple subjects and sentence fragments” are some of the fascinating gems contained within. yawner read, but i love it. i love it even though i know i am a mad, sad abuser of grammar-related rules. but still, i do really get excited when the english language is used correctly, when what can not otherwise be expressed must be spoken. words form sentences and sentences are spoken to significant others, strangers, adversaries, children, friends. people hear, people react — to words. politicians begin wars with words. poets write of love with them. how lucky we are to have words. most of the time. i’m actually trying to choose the words that fall from my lips with much much more care these days. practice not speaking all of the time. listening more. really paying attention and tending to the kind of conversations i want to engage in and removing myself from those that i don’t. i’m finding that it’s definitely a bit quieter this way and that going inward and listening to oneself is…well…sometimes the quiet and silence is…um…unnerving. weird. i think someone like salinger would probably appreciate this silence, this introspection. touché.
copyright 1968, published by the career institute at 555 east lange street, mundelein, illinois, zip code, 60060. truthfully, i think it to be the cover i really like, but i digress. this handbook has many of the little rules about the english language and how all of its aspects should be properly used. chapters such as, “agreement of pronoun with antecedent”, and “simple subjects and sentence fragments” are some of the fascinating gems contained within. yawner read, but i love it. i love it even though i know i am a mad, sad abuser of grammar-related rules. but still, i do really get excited when the english language is used correctly, when what can not otherwise be expressed must be spoken. words form sentences and sentences are spoken to significant others, strangers, adversaries, children, friends. people hear, people react — to words. politicians begin wars with words. poets write of love with them. how lucky we are to have words. most of the time. i’m actually trying to choose the words that fall from my lips with much much more care these days. practice not speaking all of the time. listening more. really paying attention and tending to the kind of conversations i want to engage in and removing myself from those that i don’t. i’m finding that it’s definitely a bit quieter this way and that going inward and listening to oneself is…well…sometimes the quiet and silence is…um…unnerving. weird. i think someone like salinger would probably appreciate this silence, this introspection. touché.
**i know some of you may abhor salinger and that those same some of you (“same some”? what??? whatever.) may be reading this blog as well, so if that is the case, please feel free to substitute an author that you really like — but might i suggest: gore vidal, david foster wallace, hemingway or…oh, ahem, sorry. someone you really like-.
totally random fact: jd salinger died on 28 january. my day of birth.
©littlebrownbutterfly
nice lisa, really.
<3