Mark Twain was right, as I’m sure he often was. “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” A word can be powerful. Just the right word can be much more powerful.
And just the “wrong” word can be quite powerful also.
But then, with some words, when it is right and when it is wrong is entirely a subjective thing. The writer of a letter to a certain magazine referred to “a myth of a Creator.” Presumably he considered “myth” to be the correct word to convey his own meaning. However, to many readers it was most definitely the wrong word. They fired back (letters to the editor, in following issue), protesting the use of a word that was — to them so obviously — inaccurate, incorrect, insulting, infuriating (can I think of some more “in-” words? ...) and in all ways wrong. They were steamed because they don’t just believe, they know that the existence of a Creator is fact, and most definitely not myth.
The magazine responded. Its founder took those objecting to task for being uptight: most civilizations and religions have and have had a “myth” concerning creation; so what’s the big deal with the wording in that earlier letter?
He’s missing the point that for those who wrote protesting, they have a sure and certain knowledge of a particular Creator. A truth. And obviously a truth can’t be a myth. For them, “myth” in this case was a powerfully wrong word. That’s what the big deal is.
I’m looking forward to the next issue, for the responses from those who will certainly not only take offense at the magazine’s support and defensive of that “wrong” word but also at having the magazine essentially tell them that they should cool it and not take their religion so seriously!
If almost the right word is a lightning bug and the right word is lightning...is the wrong word a lightning strike?
2 comments:
Interesting point, Susan. To me, the popular use of the word "myth" has always been frustrating because no one seems to agree on what it means. Traditionally it means a kind of story, especially a story that explains something, as in "a myth of a Creator." We can BELIEVE in such stories while still calling them myths.
But then the Enlightenment came along and we're no longer supposed to believe in "stories." In fact, the words "stories" and "myths" have come to mean "fictions" and "lies." And to "believe" in such things implies that you do so despite the fact that they are not true.
That's unfortunate, I think, because it erases important distinctions and with them the value of myths. What is important about such stories -- to me -- is not whether they are true or not true, but why they are told and what their telling means.
Thanks for your comment.
The word "myth" can certainly be an emotionally charged word, especially when used in connection with particular other words--like those having to do with a religion, for example!
Your mention of the word "stories" reminded me of how much trouble I have when trying to concisely describe a certain thing about my father. I don't like saying that he told "stories" because I feel like I'm sending quite the wrong message. And "telling tales" doesn't work any better than "telling stories." "Tales" and "stories" both sound like "fiction" or "lies," as you said, when what he was doing was passing on oral history!
Thanks for reading!
Post a Comment