dictionnoun - dic·tion - \ˈdik-shən\
Choice of words, especially with regard to precision of meaning, clarity or impact. |
aerienoun - ae·rie - \ˈer-ē, ˈir-, ˈā-(ə-)rē\
The nest of a large bird, built high up on a cliffside or mountain face, with a beautiful panoramic view. |
MISSION STATEMENT:
A warm welcome to The DICTION AERIE ™ -- an experiment in restoration. Time to celebrate the musicality, rhythm and vigor of the English language again, via word choices that jostle and jam with the joy of life. Friends of our mother tongue will be invited to share new poems, essays and short stories, with the goal of re-energizing a war-weary Mama. For two decades, countless coarse forces across the World Wide Web have been corroding the English language with lazy grammar, vulgar slang that evolves faster than a flu virus, the neo-fascist babble of political correctness, fundamentalist hate rhetoric and... OMG... giddy mobile shorthand. When our prime conveyor of thought falls ill, societies that depend upon it also sicken and stumble. That's why, whether printed, spoken or seeded in the Cloud, diction does matter, because language is the mother of thought. And who among us -- politicians, spin doctors and bigots aside -- wants the world to think their Mama raised a fool?
One force grinding Mother English down is the glib acronymic code of texting, as in "LOL" -- or "Lame Over-Used Loitering." Cell-phone-speak is the lingua franca of feed-me teens and (we) the hovering parents who conditioned them with delusions of entitlement, until legions of these young ones devolved into a trance-eyed Selfie Generation. When in human history have so many allegedly well-educated people been so devoid of discernment? All the folks who are glued to mobiles -- Sad Surfing Serfs of the First World -- seem oblivious to how methodically they're being groomed for fiscal harvest by the parasites of Madison Avenue, whose marching orders flow from social media Goliaths -- such as FleeceBook and Twaddle. Limp diction is a lubricant for their machinery of mindlessness. It gathers and enchants the loafing masses, then anesthetizes them with sheer convenience. So the key First World Paradox is this: depending on how much we care, we might be both empowered and enslaved at the same time by the Web's sickly sweet seductions -- that instant gratification so intrinsic to G7 pop culture. Let's just call it ... "Insta-Grat."
The British poet William Butler Yeats, in a burst of prophetic brilliance a century ago, unleashed this melodramatic howl in "The Second Coming" ... "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity..." Seems Yeats had a clairvoyant window on the pallid soul of this decade, eh?
That's why The DICTION AERIE ™ has one core goal -- to encourage all literate souls to reject the Device-Age Mediocracy that has trapped us waaay down deep inside the Vapid Zone. This means resisting the soul parchers who rule TV, news and movies -- by wielding words that buzz and glide and often heal -- with health, humor and luminous common sense. Our hope is that folks, sick of being beaten down by the banality of pop culture, will feel re-energized -- to stand up and live free again -- not in the dim light of some screen, but the living light of day. We must concede that fresh diction alone cannot cure an ailing ethos; but hey, it's a start. And as poet T.S. Eliot warned in Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock -- these are mission-critical "decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse." Fleeting as diction decisions may seem at first, when declared with passion and precision, words carry astonishing power, and can move hearts and minds to boldly advance humanity. The right words used in the noblest way -- benediction -- can fire up a fading love, create a candidate, build a brilliant business, launch a Renaissance or spark a revolution that inspires millions; while the wrong words -- malediction -- can tear it all down in a thundering moment. Consider the vicious rancor permeating America's political arena today. If we rehab our diction with rigor, vigor and light -- maybe, just maybe -- our moribund culture might find a way to rebound with fresh new life. Now on to the theme of reform... We promise that our default setting here will never revert to cheapo hipster trends nor to milking those flash-in-the-pan Web memes. We'll work to offer an impassioned standard but never pander; to delight and never dull the mind's eye. When seamless diction is the goal, oh man, there are countless risks. No communicator is flawless and no strategy is perfect -- given the vanity of human wishes and the Internet -- which today make nearly everyone a half-baked critic of nearly everything.
Clearly the hour has come ... for a Bold New Literacy. Time to gather our wits and reject the mass media brain blur, created and controlled by cable conglomerates, the New Vulgarians posing as a cultural elite. Their raw billions, backed by close to zero wisdom, propelled them into an arrogant, manipulative new cyber-aristocracy. But no New Order lasts forever. There's always room for something new under the sun -- something hipper, fresher, brighter. So... get it on, word wranglers -- pound your keys, keep reading, writing and ranting like you mean it. Each literate e-mail, text or (ah, remember when) hand-written letter you create, is another salvo in the war on cultural crudity inherent in "Insta-Grat." We aim to storm the fall-back lairs of lazy brains.
OK now, breathe in... The rant is done and on to the fun... Thank you for spending some of your precious time with us, here at The DICTION AERIE ™ -- a hub for healing the language we all love -- and need to live. Readers are encouraged to comment as they wish or to contact the editor with new ideas, any time. Please feel free to subscribe to as many Lit-Blogs as you wish. No charge. They are accessed below via the nine teal-colored buttons. We'll be adding new posts randomly, frequently, so check back often, sunseekers... I hope you enjoy reading these literary blogs, as much as we have enjoyed writing them. I feel honored to share this time with you and promise this: I will try to reply personally to every comment you send in. Blessings of health and hilarity to all. Make it a great day, guys ! --JH
One force grinding Mother English down is the glib acronymic code of texting, as in "LOL" -- or "Lame Over-Used Loitering." Cell-phone-speak is the lingua franca of feed-me teens and (we) the hovering parents who conditioned them with delusions of entitlement, until legions of these young ones devolved into a trance-eyed Selfie Generation. When in human history have so many allegedly well-educated people been so devoid of discernment? All the folks who are glued to mobiles -- Sad Surfing Serfs of the First World -- seem oblivious to how methodically they're being groomed for fiscal harvest by the parasites of Madison Avenue, whose marching orders flow from social media Goliaths -- such as FleeceBook and Twaddle. Limp diction is a lubricant for their machinery of mindlessness. It gathers and enchants the loafing masses, then anesthetizes them with sheer convenience. So the key First World Paradox is this: depending on how much we care, we might be both empowered and enslaved at the same time by the Web's sickly sweet seductions -- that instant gratification so intrinsic to G7 pop culture. Let's just call it ... "Insta-Grat."
The British poet William Butler Yeats, in a burst of prophetic brilliance a century ago, unleashed this melodramatic howl in "The Second Coming" ... "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity..." Seems Yeats had a clairvoyant window on the pallid soul of this decade, eh?
That's why The DICTION AERIE ™ has one core goal -- to encourage all literate souls to reject the Device-Age Mediocracy that has trapped us waaay down deep inside the Vapid Zone. This means resisting the soul parchers who rule TV, news and movies -- by wielding words that buzz and glide and often heal -- with health, humor and luminous common sense. Our hope is that folks, sick of being beaten down by the banality of pop culture, will feel re-energized -- to stand up and live free again -- not in the dim light of some screen, but the living light of day. We must concede that fresh diction alone cannot cure an ailing ethos; but hey, it's a start. And as poet T.S. Eliot warned in Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock -- these are mission-critical "decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse." Fleeting as diction decisions may seem at first, when declared with passion and precision, words carry astonishing power, and can move hearts and minds to boldly advance humanity. The right words used in the noblest way -- benediction -- can fire up a fading love, create a candidate, build a brilliant business, launch a Renaissance or spark a revolution that inspires millions; while the wrong words -- malediction -- can tear it all down in a thundering moment. Consider the vicious rancor permeating America's political arena today. If we rehab our diction with rigor, vigor and light -- maybe, just maybe -- our moribund culture might find a way to rebound with fresh new life. Now on to the theme of reform... We promise that our default setting here will never revert to cheapo hipster trends nor to milking those flash-in-the-pan Web memes. We'll work to offer an impassioned standard but never pander; to delight and never dull the mind's eye. When seamless diction is the goal, oh man, there are countless risks. No communicator is flawless and no strategy is perfect -- given the vanity of human wishes and the Internet -- which today make nearly everyone a half-baked critic of nearly everything.
Clearly the hour has come ... for a Bold New Literacy. Time to gather our wits and reject the mass media brain blur, created and controlled by cable conglomerates, the New Vulgarians posing as a cultural elite. Their raw billions, backed by close to zero wisdom, propelled them into an arrogant, manipulative new cyber-aristocracy. But no New Order lasts forever. There's always room for something new under the sun -- something hipper, fresher, brighter. So... get it on, word wranglers -- pound your keys, keep reading, writing and ranting like you mean it. Each literate e-mail, text or (ah, remember when) hand-written letter you create, is another salvo in the war on cultural crudity inherent in "Insta-Grat." We aim to storm the fall-back lairs of lazy brains.
OK now, breathe in... The rant is done and on to the fun... Thank you for spending some of your precious time with us, here at The DICTION AERIE ™ -- a hub for healing the language we all love -- and need to live. Readers are encouraged to comment as they wish or to contact the editor with new ideas, any time. Please feel free to subscribe to as many Lit-Blogs as you wish. No charge. They are accessed below via the nine teal-colored buttons. We'll be adding new posts randomly, frequently, so check back often, sunseekers... I hope you enjoy reading these literary blogs, as much as we have enjoyed writing them. I feel honored to share this time with you and promise this: I will try to reply personally to every comment you send in. Blessings of health and hilarity to all. Make it a great day, guys ! --JH
© Copyright 2016-2024, John Hessburg & DictionAerie.com. All Rights Reserved.
NEW LIT-BLOGS:
Home Page photos: Top image is a knife-edge ridge in the Alps
of Chamonix, France, courtesy of Simon Steinberger, Germany.
Our special thanks to Pixabay, a brilliant photo-sharing website.
Middle pic shows our founder atop Mt. Chachacomani (19,902')
-- among the tallest peaks in Bolivia's Cordillera Real' (Royal Range).
Bottom photo: Bonz & Andy overlooking the Rio Grande Canyon
in Taos, New Mexico. © Copyright 2016-2024 / John Hessburg.™