by Heather on August 31, 2010
by Heather on January 8, 2010
My awesome parents, knowing all about my obsession with words, recorded the Empire of the Word documentary series that aired on TVO last month for me. It was developed and narrated by the very impressive Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, The Library at Night, and The City of Words among other titles.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL0G_1KAoD4]
I watched every episode in a single sitting, and I have a hunch you’ll be as fascinated as I was. So brew some tea, get comfy, and follow the links below to the Empire of the Word.
Episode one is called “The Magic of Reading” and explores the origins of the written word and our irrepressible desire to read.
Episode two is titled “Learning to Read” and considers the intellectual triumph of reading from the neurology of the human mind to the education of new readers.
Episode three is called “Forbidden Reading” and investigates the authorities who have tried to ban the creation and consumption of texts as well as the people who fight for our right to read.
Episode four, “The Future of Reading,” speculates about how technology is changing the way we read and asks what will become of bound libraries in the years to come.
If you’re still craving more programming about the wonders of language, check out the BBC’s Why Do We Talk? over at the Lingua Franca blog. When you’re done you’ll want to stick around and read some of the really fun posts you’ll find there.
Thanks for watching!
by Heather on November 26, 2009
Recommended Read
Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. [ISBN-13: 978-0-06-077705-0]
Seeing Francine Prose speak last week galvanized me into finally posting on a book of hers I read last winter. Reading Like a Writer is your chance to sit in Prose’s classroom, where you’ll pull out your magnifying glass to examine just what it is that makes some of the finest books around really tick. This is a course in close reading that everyone can take.
Close reading is one of my favourite ways into the bones and sinews of a good book. You know the kind of book I mean—the book in which every word, detail, and turn of phrase feels as if it is the only one that could fit, as though it were somehow ordained from the beginning? Yeah, I’m remembering some of those books fondly right now…
But to get back to what I was saying, close reading asks you to slow down and ask yourself why the author chose that particular name for the little girl, why you don’t believe the aunt when she says she’s not drinking anymore, why it was Liberace playing on the radio when the taxi crashed. Each of these details reflects the broader story and each one can uncover another of its secrets.
Now, just as every good sleuth studies the case files of the great detectives who came before them, you can read Prose’s chapters on words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details, and gestures to learn how to unravel the mysteries your favourite books may still be concealing from you.
Prose provides a wealth of literary examples to show you what to look for: how Edith’s tepid and ill-fitting replies reveal that she’s just not that into Albert, how a boiled potato in a spreading pool of blood can make a scene more chilling, how the movements of a housefly can reveal the mind of its tormentor. After reading her examples, drawn from so many excellent books and stories, you’ll be glad to find that Prose has included all her sources in a list of “Books to Be Read Immediately.” And when you’re done this book, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to head back to all your favourite reads with an eye for what’s there that you haven’t yet seen.
by Heather on July 12, 2009
Recommended Read
Poerksen, Uwe. Jutta Mason and David Cayley, trans. Plastic Words. University Park, PA: Penn State UP, 1995. [ISBN-10: 0-271-01476-8]
Plastic words are words so pliable that their use in almost any context tends to sound authoritative and important. However, these words are inhabited more by what the listener wishes to hear than what the speaker wishes to say. You’d think speakers would want to avoid these fickle words, but these are some of the most popular words in recent usage. They are placebo words, costing R&D little if anything to produce when compared with the efforts that are required to craft effective, clear treatments in plain English.
Plastic words, as classified by Poerksen, often begin as regular words with specific meanings, but are then adopted for use as part of a scientific argot. That adoption in itself doesn’t make the words malleable and plastic—rather, it is on the occasion of their release back into the vernacular that these words’ phenomenal plasticity begins to obscure their meanings.
Consider, for instance, words like information, management, resource, value, energy, development, system, and function. These are just a few of the words Poerksen identifies as plastic. You’ll notice that almost any random sampling of these strings of nouns tends to form vague ideas or concepts—maybe they’re job titles, maybe they’re mission statements, maybe they’re activities—we’re just not sure. And even once the contextualizing influence of verbs, prepositional phrases, and subjects surround them in reports, essays, political platforms, and the like, we’re still not sure. This is what makes these words plastic, and it’s what makes them beloved of writers who aren’t quite sure what they’re trying to say—not to mention writers who don’t want us to know exactly what they’re not saying.
In Plastic Words Poerksen tracks the rise of these words, provides us with criteria for identifying them, and considers what their popularity says about our society. Although published by an academic press and shelved with “cultural theory” in your local bookseller, this book is, nevertheless, highly readable. Read this book, and I guarantee you’ll be looking at these words—and they’re all around you–in a whole new way.
by Heather on June 28, 2009
Recommended Read
Chappell, Warren and Robert Bringhurst. A Short History of the Printed Word. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc., 1999. [ISBN-10: 0-88179-154-7]
A Short History of the Printed Word is an impressively complete history of print and its astonishing cultural ascendency, beginning with the invention of moveable type in eleventh-century China and ending with the rise of digital printing at the end of the twentieth century.
Printing technologies, design and the thingness of the printed page are the focus of this history. It’s a dense but very readable book that’s absolutely packed with details from the histories of paper-making, type-founding, printing, and book-binding. You’ll learn about the history and aesthetics of typeface design, page layout, and illustrations. Everyone from Bí Shēng to Gutenberg to Garamond to Picasso to Alfred A. Knopf is here.
I read this one from the first page to last and was fascinated by this account of how the printed word has transformed the world. That said, this is also a book that is happy to serve as a reference to dip in and out of as needed. If you’re a student or practitioner of book design or typesetting, this really is a must-read. And those of you who love books—not just their contents but the books themselves—will delight in A Short History of the Printed Word, too.
I’ll leave you with a few words from the book’s conclusion to let the authors describe their work:
Why so much emphasis here on the physical quality of books? Durability and beauty, like intelligence, are something more than luxuries. They are tactics for survival.
by Heather on June 17, 2009
Ever wondered what the dark, secret side of your city looks like? I do all the time and love to read mysteries set in Toronto like those written by Maureen Jennings, Vivian Meyers, and Pat Capponi. So when I saw that one of the Luminato events was called Gothic Toronto: Writing the City Macabre, I knew I had to attend.
While waiting outside for the doors to open, I picked up one of the chapbooks for sale at the event and was delighted to get my copy signed by each of the authors present.
The readings took place in the Music Gallery, a onetime church in the heart of downtown, and its glowing stained glass and small dimly lit nave set the mood for the readings. Let me share with you a small bit of each writer’s story and leave you some linky breadcrumbs to follow in case you want to read more of their work. [click to continue…]
by Heather on May 18, 2009
Recommended Read
Lansky, Aaron. Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2004. [ISBN-13: 978-1565124295]
It stands to reason that the books reviewed on the Word Blog should be about words. And so they will be. Yet, however my knowledge of languages may restrict the rest of this blog to entries about English, happily no such restriction need apply to the subjects of the books I review. And so it is that the blog’s first review will be of Aaron Lansky’s Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books.
Outwitting History is the rousing, funny, affecting, and triumphant story of how a young man; his hardworking friends and peers; and a global, grassroots network of donors, volunteers, and contacts saved Yiddish literature from the brink of extinction.
That young man, Aaron Lansky, writes Outwitting History with an energy, sympathy, and passion that is infectious. He is a born storyteller and a champion of words who has lived one of the most fascinating tales in the history of contemporary world literature and, in keeping with his passion for sharing the delights of the written word, has shared with us the phenomenal story of how he saved over a million Yiddish books.
As a student in the 1970s Lansky decided to pursue Jewish Studies and more particularly his interest in the social history of Jewish culture in the past century. He quickly realized that, in addition to Hebrew and German, he was going to have to learn Yiddish as well. So, at a time when Yiddish language classes were as rare as Yiddish collections in university libraries, Lansky, a few other devoted students, and a generous professor who taught them during his spare time created their own class.
Because they couldn’t immerse themselves in spoken Yiddish, they immersed themselves in Yiddish literature—at least in the literature they could find. Before long the students found themselves wandering through Jewish neighbourhoods, knocking on doors, and drinking voluminous quantities of tea in order to track down and borrow the books they needed for school. Many of the people they met insisted they keep the books since there was no one left in their families who could read them. Lansky realized that thousands of private Yiddish collections, full of books that had survived Hitler and Stalin as well as cross-Atlantic journeys were at risk of being destroyed, or lost to damp, unfriendly basements—and he decided to save them.
At the age of 23 Lansky created the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, and started collecting books that would otherwise have been consigned to destruction. When he set out on his mission, it was estimated that only 70,000 Yiddish books were left in the world. Six months later he had already saved 70,000 books. He’s since gone on to save 1.5 million, making them available to libraries and individuals around the world.
If you love words and revere books, Outwitting History is a book you simply must read.
Here are some links where you can
