The Bitting Words

As a type of art, language is about expression and liberty. While there are some rules that writing must follow, these change over time and are just a  guidance for writers to communicate themselves. Even so, the modern way of living, as has any change in history done, limited the path of language. Technology, like the printing press, has strictly regulated language and globalization and mass communication has made the way we communicate uniform and controlled. Education hasn't remained untouched, and, therefore, students like me have been influenced by these rigid rules of writing into believing that it is structured, predictable and otherwise wrong. In "Survival of the Fittest," by Nicholson Baker and "Q as in Quotation," by Durs Grünbein, the authors show how language shouldn't be limited but rather encouraged to flourish in each person's way. These two essays themselves show that an essay is not a five paragraph passage with the thesis located in a defined sentence, but rather a free way of communication that should look to express ideas as an art. As I read these two essays, I remembered reading an online article for my English class in ninth grade. Titled "The Age of the Essay," the article exposed that writing is a way for us to communicate. If language is limited and firmly structured, we would be deprived of expression. I honestly recognize that my writing lately has been dull and driven by the five paragraph essay idea, but the essays I mentioned above have made me see what I could improve.

Although good writing requires a freedom of expression and means of expression, we must also keep in mind that some ways of writing and taking too much liberty make it bad. Last year in class, we worked on removing clichés from our short stories, something I could relate to "Q as in Quotation." This essay talked about the use of quotations in writing and expressed that it can be both a blessing for the writers as well as a clear example of lack of ideas and originality. I fell that sometimes I use quotations because of a lack in analysis. I don't do it in purpose but looking back it shows as if I was a lazy thinker or simple couldn't analyze things. Writing, as this essay made me see, should be about the best way of communicating ideas. Both, the quotations as explained by Grünbein and the evolution of language that "Survival of the Fittest" describes, show that a good writer needs to use language to express good ideas and expand on them. In Baker's essay, he explains the development of punctuation in language through the last centuries, to show the overall progression of language. Perhaps it's the standardized global education, as seen in the SAT deeply regulate essay, or the way the mass-oriented present society works that has made people like me write essays as if they were filling in a checklist. Both essays made me think about the lack of originality my writing has come to, especially in formal writing.
Words and language shouldn't limit writers, since if they did there would be no language. The reason the early-homosapiens squeaks evolved into such complex languages like English, Spanish or Chinese was that people dared to go further.

Rayuela written by the Argentine writer Cortázar, explores and analyzes the meaning of language and regulated language when expressing oneself. The deeply metaphysical main character, Horacio Oliveira, explores what he refers to as the black bitches, or words. Oliveira often changes the spelling of words, as the narration shows his inner metacognition, and expresses his disgust towards words as he shows that they are deceptive and harmful for the free flow of ideas.
Cortázar starts describing words as black bitches that bite him and terrify him. They have their own lives, and as furious ants, eat the world. According to what the character thinks, people use each phrase of words as a virgin brothel, showing how he believes words limit us to non existing ideas that control our minds. Angry at his metaphysical observations, Oliveira gets frustrated by thinking of the spelling of words. In some chapters, as he can't bear thinking that the words he thinks have specific spellings, he imagines them being different. His philosophical thinking is made up of "el hego y el hotro" (pg. 541), which translates to the self and the other, as his descriptions include words like hasuto, hercrucijada, hactivo or hespectador, all which are wrongly spelled in Spanish. Cortázar, using the character to do so, suggests that language should be free and unregulated. Other chapters change the spelling of every single word and make up others, as the author maintains the idea understandable. He shows the reader, through a constant dialogue between the reader and the author, that writing is about ideas and conveying them. Cortázar also uses a lot of allusions and quotations for his dialogue and plot. About half of the chapters consist of merely citations from other authors, in several languages. Nevertheless, he is not lacking means to express himself or unable to analyze texts, and he is definitely not a lazy thinker, he is using language in the way that best did what he wanted to do. Just as Oliveira criticizes the way his girlfriend speaks her made up language, glíglico, rigid language rules limit us. Perhaps it is something unavoidable, those like Oliveira who want more freedom understand the fact that some guidelines must be keeps and others obsessed with the rules once in a while go beyond them, something that works quite well. A balanced yet free language that lets people put their ideas into words is what seems to me ideal. I'm not an expert at all in language or writing, but these ideas have motivated me to improve the way I write.