🧵 View Thread
🧵 Thread (13 tweets)
I have strong feelings about words https://t.co/rC4dqiBJ0l
2. words have families and histories https://t.co/bshu7osWsv
There’s a lesson in here about breaking down big things into their constituent parts. I love words, but rather than learn lots of new words as independent things I like to understand how words work and come together. Words have families and histories, they’re all related https://t.co/YlwaFTKEo1
3. big words can be easy to read if the delivery is clear https://t.co/B1nUrCt85f
having passionately dicked around with words for many years, i've come to find that big words don't flummox people nearly as much as convoluted structure. it's actually possible to use some gargantuan words and still be easy to read. you just need clear sentences to deliver them
4. a handful of well-chosen words can change your life https://t.co/ONbqgwbn7U
it is really remarkable, on retrospect, to consider how it's ultimately a very small set of words, presented as tweets and/or blogposts, that have been responsible for so much of the goodness in my life (people, opportunities). Just a few thousand really
5. words are made up of other words https://t.co/JsVop0a1BC
6. the rules are mostly intersubjective guidelines https://t.co/smvOSF7X5f
me: anybody can write, everybody should be writing all the time also me: what is a word, actually. how do we even words. there are no rules, the meanings are all made up. one day the whole house of cards will fall and we will stare at the squiggles and they will make no sense
7. to investigate words is to investigate meaning https://t.co/l7wmOIkgYW
@TwiddaZaddy the cool thing about digging into the etymology of words is that you get to get more meaning out of them. every word has a history, every word has more nuance and potential than the average user realizes. to investigate words is to investigate meaning
8. it’s often more fruitful to focus on better appreciating the words you already use https://t.co/hRqeuvQkLO
Music isn’t actually my primary interest - the thing I’m probably most into is the art of words. But/and I’ve always had a distaste for the idea of forcing yourself to learn esoteric vocabulary - it’s so much more interesting imo to better understand the words you already use
9. every word is a roughly-hewn representation of an idea https://t.co/q7RdNy33yW
10. an ordered set of words can imply a way of seeing https://t.co/owSyZmea3O
a book is a set of ordered words, yes – and those words represent a series of propositions, a series of invitations – and what is said sits not just on its own, but in contrast and complement to everything else that has been said. a book is a way of seeing https://t.co/QkFvcj8N8C
11. a good writer is (among other things) someone who cares deeply about the meaning of words, and through artful usage, persuades others to be more thoughtful and nuanced https://t.co/JVVPmc7RS5
12. jailbreak https://t.co/o2WYe5QMOu
A writer is a maniac who toils laboriously to assemble a sequence of squiggles that generate a parlor of hallucinations in an attempt to jailbreak her own mind out of the prison of her subvocalizations. The wild thing is this actually works sometimes https://t.co/4hiwePFZLq
@visakanv d-_-b https://t.co/ZLqf8prx1o