Paying Attention to Language

I've always thought of writing as a way of expressing myself.  I've always thought of writers and fairly deep people, who engage in writing as a way to reach out to themselves and to others.  For me, I find that often my pen and paper produce words or thoughts that I didn't even know I had; it's almost like magic to me. I write, I feel better, and often I figure out something about myself I never knew before writing.  Writing helps me focus on me; it helps me sit quietly and appreciate the moment of thought and scribbling on paper.

But writing (like music from our discussion yesterday), is more than just about the writer herself.  It's about language.  It's about word choice.  It's about preserving the beauty of words as they are put into sentences to form language.  Language is a way of communicating -- and really, what would writing be without language? Nonexistent?

Robert Bly, a farmer and Norwegian American immigrant wrote in his essay "Norwegian Roots on an American Tree":

"Some people believe that to be a writer is to engage in a moral project.  I think writing has to do primarily with language - with using language precisely and accurately.  And we're all involved with that project.  One of the worst results of the Vietnam war was that it damaged the American language.  The administration began it by insisting that their motives were noble.  Johnson would always quote Lincoln when he was doing something especially despicable.  This double life became national policy.  But if the government insists that it has no shadow at all, then the opposition will accuse them of being nothing but shadow.  I belonged to the left and still do, but our group wasn't any better in its use of language.  Our language for public discussion still has not recovered.  Poetry has to do with paying attention to language."

Poetry has to do with paying attention to language.  Great writing has to do with paying attention to language.  I think of My Antonia, and how beautifully written it is. I think that this is because Cather paid attention to language; she recognized the impact of beautiful language and took advantage of it in her writing.  

Language can be beautiful. Writing can be beautiful.  But only both can be beautiful as long as we pay attention to them. To disregard writing means to disregard language; they work together.  Maybe Bly is getting at a deeper American issue when he says talks about paying attention to language -- maybe we need to pay attention to the language of everyone around us, instead of only the language we know.  Different languages mean different cultures; so if we respect and pay attention to all languages, I believe that we in turn, can respect and pay attention to all cultures.