Grandma Grammar

1. Public Service Announcement: Clamor is not the same as clamber. You do not sit on the floor and then clamor to your feet, you clamber. Good grief. What is the world coming to? The first time I saw this it was in a novel published by a big five publishing house and I rolled my eyes so hard at their carelessness. Then I saw it in another novel today, also published by a big five house. Apparently this is now acceptable linguistic drift.

I know, I know, my shrew is showing. And you've probably read enough here to know that my grammar-- tinged with equal parts East Texas roots and aging brain--is not perfect, either. But still. 

*sighs* *gives up*

This is apparently a decision that copy editors have already made. I wonder what is the age limit for being bothered by this one? Do people under age 60 really think that those two words mean the same thing? And probably people of all ages are thinking, wait, does she really care about this? seriously? because nobody else does. Except the twenty-seven of us who do care, and I bet I'm not the only one who reads here who is one of them.

2. In my previous blog, I used to run a weekly post about words. It's been more than ten years now so the details are hazy, but I think it was called Words on Wednesday, and I would pick words that were frequently confused (like peak/peek/pique) and explain why/how they were different. But I stopped doing it because I figured I was preaching to the choir (cliché). 

3. We are human beings who communicate through language, so we'll never get to the point that words don't matter. But I think we are quickly reaching the point where precision in language doesn't matter. It's easy to get all up on my high horse (cliché) about that, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad change. 

I mean, I will always regret it for myself, because words are My Thing. But it probably doesn't spell doom and gloom (cliché) for our culture. The culture snobs thought that the world was ending back in the 19th century when the novel eclipsed poetry, right? (in English speaking countries, I don't know the timeline in other languages.)

Tastes change, technologies change, and for some time now, the cutting edge of narrative art has been visual, not literary. It's no less art, and it's no less creative or challenging to create. I've seen plenty of movies that blew me away, not to mention well-written TV shows, and even music videos.

But I'm not quite to the point where I've reconciled myself to books and movies that are essentially video games in another format. I know the same argument applies-- it's not bad, it's just a new way of telling stories-- but it's harder to wrap my head around. 

We went to see "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" last week, and about halfway through I leaned over to Doug and said, this is a movie of a video game. They gather a team, and then they walk around shooting people and blowing things up. It was well made, and it wasn't exactly a waste of time, but it didn't do much for me-- at least partly because I don't really find violence to be all that entertaining. And you know what? That probably wouldn't bother Guy Ritchie one bit. Senior citizen word nerds are not his target audience.

Have a good weekend. Go for a hike and clamber over some rocks.