Habits Appear So Quickly.

It seems I turn to this before I start working on "The Weight of Rain." At least, that's its working title of the moment. When it was going to be a screenplay it was called "becoming." And the little "b" was used purposefully. I've just recieved a book written by Robert Harwell Fiske about overused words and turns of phrase. Flipping through, I can see that it's opinionated to the point of possible militancy, but having definitely feelings about something is definitely prefarable to wan, flaccid mealy-mouthing.

However, I wonder if I do read the whole thing, it will be another example of one angry white man telling the world what to do and think. It smacks a bit of that committee that meets in France to stabilize the French language, or at least attempt to. One of the joys of the English language as a work of interactive mental technology is its inherent ability to adapt and change. Quickly. Most certainly I am not proposing the inclusion of new words into the lexicon only on the basis of newness or faddishness - my previous rants here about businesspeak illustrate that - but our mother tongue's ability to consume and incorporate foreign terms and new ideas make it the Borg of languages. I like that.