Letter from my terrace in Palma 13 New words for old.

New words for old        

Greetings from my terrace. Now the sun has gone down and it is finally cool enough to sit here and to watch the boats making their way back to the port of Palma. It rained heavily this afternoon, a typical summer thunderstorm of twenty minutes, and for a moment the air was fresh.  Then half an hour later the terrace and the garden were dry once more and, apart from a few inches of water in the black dustbin that serves as my water butt, everything was just as hot as before.

Over on the mainland, 8 hours from here by ship, the campaign for and against the independence of Catalonia continues, dividing towns, villages, families and friends. It is a question of deeply held feelings nurtured and passed on from generation to generation. The issue has finally surfaced like a volcano that has been bubbling away under the ground for a long time. Now arguments from both the head and the heart are bandied about with little concern for the basic difference between them, and there is much talking but little listening. But there were recently some words of wisdom from the Mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena. She asked for a sensible discussion between the two sides and said, ‘We need to start using new words’. How right she was.

Orwell in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ has said everything that needs to be said on the way in which politicians misuse words. He said that the word ‘fascist’ had lost any definite meaning and was used simply to criticise the other side. In Catalonia the word ‘democracy’ is used by both sides, by those for independence and by those against it, as a label for what they want to happen. The word democracy has been pulled this way and that like bubble gum until it is so distorted that now it means nothing at all.  The Catalan debate needs ‘new words’ as Manuela Carmena said.

Read Orwell’s essay for sensible advice on how to speak and write clearly.  In fact, take as your example the style of Orwell himself.

How sickened would Orwell have been by about the language coming from the US military, especially expressions such as ‘collateral damage’.  Luckily that phrase could never hide the sinister reality it tried to cover up and became criticised by so many that it was discarded.

Wittgenstein said, ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world.’  Exactly. We cannot think without words, and so we must take good care of them. We cannot debate, we cannot agree and we cannot make any progress if we cling to words that have lost their meaning or degenerated into insults. These words have had their useful life and are so shapeless and battered that, like an old coat full of holes, they should be thrown out.

The magician in the story of Aladdin walked through the streets of Baghdad crying ‘New lamps for old’.  What we need now are some new words for old because the old words no longer do the job.  They have been overused and mistreated and no longer serve.

But, while with words, let’s look on the brighter side.

Just as they have a favourite pair of jeans or a favourite flavour of ice-cream, people have favourite words. 

Question: Who said, ‘the two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘summer afternoon’? 

Answer:  Henry James in an unusually light moment. 

Which brings me to Miranda, who had a very successful comedy series on the BBC. In one episode her amorous boyfriend asked her to tell him her three favourite words. Did she comply with ‘I love you’?  Well, no.  She replied, ‘All Day Breakfast’. Well, we all have our priorities!

What’s in a name?  said Juliet.  Come to that, what’s in a word? A great deal, it seems. Let’s take the word ‘love’.

‘All day breakfast’ is clear.  We know what it means. But the other three words, the ones Miranda did not use, are trickier.

The word ‘love’ does too many jobs in English.  The Greeks had different words for different types of love. ‘Eros’ is one of them. And ‘erotic’ makes clear what type of love that is. Then there is ‘agape’, a selfless concern for everyone including strangers. This is expressed by people who help the refugees coming across the Mediterranean hoping to land on a friendly European shore.  There is ‘philia’ which is loyalty to friends. This may be in your department at work or with members of your football team at the weekend.  There is ‘ludus’, which is a playful relaxed enjoyment as when on holiday with friends.

In English the word ‘love’ is overworked and therefore vague.  Which kind of love are we talking about? There was a joke about a priest giving advice to a young woman.  The priest said, ‘You must love your neighbour’. The woman replied, ‘Well yes, I do love my neighbour.  But he’s married.’ The Greeks would have made the priest’s comment clear, but then, I suppose, there would have been no joke at all.

The words of religion are important too. Gerald Priestland, who in the late 70s was the BBC Religious Affairs correspondent and a great writer to all those interested in the life of the spirit but unable to join any established faith, suggested that instead of saying, ‘I believe in God’ we should say ‘I trust in God’. He adds, ‘You don’t believe in your father but you trust in him.’  Similarly he said, ‘Don’t say that ‘You must love other people’ but ‘You must care for other people’.’  The changes sound clearer. They refresh our understanding. The old phrases, repeated so often, lose their force.

Meanwhile, over on the mainland in Catalonia, eight hours away in the big ferry that I can see leaving now, the debate continues. For the moment at least, I’m afraid that new words are rare and if any are used, they are having little effect.