Etude 1 - Of Vocabularies

Preliminary expectoration:
I dislike jargon because it is counter-intuitive, confusing, and sounds clumsy, particularly in the fields of politics, law, psychology, and feminism. Gratuitous profanity used for the sake of itself sounds unintelligent. It reminds me of the way I spoke in sixth grade, which unfortunately is the way a lot of adults still speak, and I think it would be nice if they grew up. I am in favor of an effective, well-placed profane word used in the right context.

I like simple and clean words that evoke vivid images. I should use more of them. I like philosophy and religion (so far, Dante, Kierkegaard, and Augustine), literature (Ray Bradbury and C.S. Lewis first come to mind), and the poetry of W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Charles Bukowski, Pablo Neruda, George Oppen, Louise Glück, Fanny Howe, Susan Howe, and Lisa Robertson.

I also like more complex vocabulary that is not jargon. Maybe what is most unappealing about jargon is its use. Jargon uses words in a way that make them seem meaningless and dead. It carries the unpleasant associations of know-it-alls, useless paperwork, and long "Terms of Service" agreements that no one ever reads. I am sure it is possible to redeem words and reinfuse them with life by placing them in different contexts, but I don't know if I can do it.

Process:
Playing with some vocabulary frames. Using Peter Brown's biography on Augustine as a source text, because it happened to be closest, and I like it. Flipping through random pages and using whatever phrases jump out -- unfortunately, my paper-writing process is similar.

five to nine

Some profound and ominous changes had taken place
A slight note of embarrassment lingers
An illustrious precedent described as a country idyll
sudden and unexpected show of independence
culminated in the conversion

paradoxically
the deep hurt of charity
prohibitively complicated
elaborate circumlocutions--
appeal, not to reason, but to the rooted feelings

posing of the unfathomable
she may have been guilty
deliberately defracted
preoccupied by
the existing bonds: so much raw material
to be subservient will fall out of favour
carefully sift fruitful intellectual confusion

----

An aside: After I finished that one, I realized how heavily it was influenced by my feelings about imminent graduation, so I titled it after my undergraduate years ('05-'09).