Words Matter
The boy (it’s always a boy; girls know better the value of words) prodded at the thick object in front of him. Nothing happened. In the year 2350, this just wasn’t right. Where was the floating three dimensional view screen? He prodded some more. Then swiped up, then down, then sideways. Nothing! Stupid thing! He stood up and began to leave just as his girlfriend turned up.
“What ya doin’, Biff?” (There’s always a dumbass ‘Biff’, isn’t there?)
Biff sneered towards the stupid and unresponsive object on the desk. ‘Jus’ wondrin’ what this thing’s for. It don’t work anyhow.”
“Don’t work? What you mean it don’t work? It’s a book, dummy!”
I really hope we don’t get to this point, but the way I struggle to get my grandson to sit and read is frustrating. At the same time, and in stark contrast, I can’t get him off his mobile phone. The attention span is decreasing alarmingly, mainly in response to the algorithms of social media streams bullet-point focus on triviality and instant gratification. I believe five seconds is as long as it takes for the ‘normal’ content consumer to get bored before moving on. How can a book compete?
It competes, of course, with words. In particular, fiction that is filled with words that reach into your heart and transport you to a place beyond your own reality. As writers, this is what we strive for. When it works, it’s our special power. To create a world that can fire the emotions and absorb the reader to the point the words that are read become invisible.
As a writer, if the words get in the way of a story, it’s the end. Is the story more important, or is it the words? As I started off this muse with a little Sci-Fi fantasy, I’ll end with an old Sci-Fi book. HG Wells and his War of the Worlds. If you haven’t done so, try and read just the opening paragraphs of that book, and you will see what I mean.
I would talk more, but my social media feed is demanding my attention… something about a cat?
Threads that Bind 
2 responses to “Words Matter”
As suggested, I broke out War of the Worlds to refamiliarize myself with the opening paragraphs, and, oh yes, right you are! Just the opening paragraph alone could be used as a litmus test for imagination. Put that book in front of a twelve-year-old — well, a boy. I can’t speak for girls, having never been one — and tell him that after he reads the first paragraph he can do whatever he wants. If he reads the paragraph then closes the book and reaches for his phone, he should focus the rest of his education on arithmetic, preparing for his career as the bean-counter that occupies his soul.
I think it was Mark Twain who said, “There is no functional difference between a man who cannot read and one who will not read.” I’ve always said, right to their faces in some instances, “I feel only pity for someone who doesn’t read. They only get to live one life.”
Nice work on this. Hopefully it gets some people thinking…
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Thanks Jack, glad you enjoyed reading HGW again. I live close to where his Martians landed, and when walking upon that common, I can’t help but see his descriptions play out in my mids eye, right in front of me. He had a way with words that make me envious.
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