Tag: English

My Curiouser and Curiouser Fascination with Words, Words, Words

In Act II of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is found in the library by Polonius where they engage in a conversation. At one point Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading and his response is: “Words, words, words.”

It is one of my favorite lines from Willie the Bard, nothing is more succinct and to the point. Yes, Prince Hamlet could have replied with a simple one syllable “Words”, but as another late great Prince so aptly sang it in his song, “Joy in Repetition“:

There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition

If you read Alice in Wonderland (or saw any of the movies), you would know that the author Lewis Carroll used words that were unusual, to say the least. A word like curiouser appears to be poor grammar because it does not follow the standard rules of the English language. The -er ending is almost never used with words of more than two syllables.

According to the Old English Dictionary, the word curiouser was first used by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland in 1865, as the phrase “curiouser and curiouser”. The OED cites this phrase only, and does not treat curiouser as a word by itself; the phrase has the meaning “increasingly strange”.

I think that by repeating the word twice, you are reinforcing it and expounding of the notion of curiouser, making what is already strange, stranger even still.

I like to look at “curiouser and curiouser” and see it as something that attracts your attention, something that you never saw before, like almost everything in the Alice books. Every new experience makes Alice think and that is what words do for me.

I enjoy researching the etymology of words, or word origins if you prefer. It can be fascinating to find out where words come from, how they evolve and their impact on our consciousness.

Always,
Alice Always

I’m On My Way, I Don’t Know Where I’m Going

I wake up and it’s a new month: May! What happened to April? It raced by like a road runner! Where is that adorable cartoon coyote when you need him? I had so much to do last month but I slept through most of it. This blog was originally planned last year for March 20, the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring. You know, that’s a good time to start something new. Everything is so pretty with all the pastel Easter egg colors. Also, marshmallow Peeps are available in a store near you. Now, if you happen to be reading this in Australia, things are a bit different from here in the good ol’ USA. You know, because you have koala bears and kangaroos and we do not. Not to mention it’s Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

But I digress. Get use to that phrase as digressing is to me what digesting is to a finished meal – it’s part of an endless cycle or as I like to say, a loop da loop, or with my lousy French accent: loop ze loop. (You may need to imagine an old Pink Panther movie with Inspector Clouseau, if you get my drift.) But I digress. Yet again! I have to tell you. I take digressing to a whole new level! If speaking was a spectator sport, I would win the Olympic Gold Medal of Digression. I could even teach a college course on it. Yes, I digress that much.

I also have a tendency to use words in ways that other people do and sometimes in ways that no one does. In another world, I played the role of a nonconformist English major. I rebelled against the Establishment and used “me and…” instead of “… and I” on a term paper. In my defense, I insisted that if Paul Simon could say “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard”, then I could too. Well, my English professor was not convinced and gave me an extremely low grade. I wonder if e.e. cummings got an F- for not using capital letters.

They have such silly rules in the English language, I don’t know how a non-native English speaker trying to learn the language could possibly master it. I mean, the language itself is constantly evolving. When I was a kid, yeah, back when “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” was a song played in rotation on radio stations across America, people wore thongs, not flip-flops, on their feet. Now, people wear flip-flops on their feet and thongs as underwears. Yep, I said underwears with a ‘s’ at the end. Get used to it. I like to play with words.

Maybe I should get around to telling you why I’m writing a blog. Well, I have this outrageous idea that through using our imagination, we can create a peaceful and loving world. I intend to explore various topics such as creativity and reality in a playful manner that expresses my personality. Hopefully, I’ll make some sense or a great deal of nonsense. I want to inspire people and show them how to use their imagination to transform themselves and in doing so, help to transform the world into a joyful place.

As Alice, I bring the sense wonder that is Wonderland to this reality. I may ask you to participate on projects or make up your own. Together we can make a difference while having a lot of fun.

Always,
Alice Always