Wordsmithing

Remember how Seinfeld was about "nothing"?

I am not sure when I fell in love with words but my earliest memory of tackling a book that should have been beyond my intellectual pay grade was the science fiction novel Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I was in the fifth grade. It was more than 400 pages and more than 200,000 words (Thanks Wikipedia!) and the only thing I remember about it is the main character was a Christ-like figure and the word ‘grok’ was used copiously.

I believe it is why, every now and then, even though I was better known for being an athlete, some of my class mates would refer to me as “four eyes” or “bookworm”.

I didn’t care. I loved being immersed in other worlds and, at the time, books were the cheapest method of traveling there.

I was a huge fan of the science fiction/fantasy writer Ray Bradbury. His magical descriptions and creative use of words never failed to captivate me. What I truly admired was the way he made ordinary life, lives and settings fantastical.

He had two short stories that imbedded themselves in my memory banks. One was called “There Will Come Soft Rains” (you can read it here). It was about a house that, decades after its inhabitants had ceased to exist, after some sort of apocalypse, the house droned on. Cleaning the floors. Announcing birthdays and holidays and daily reminders. Taking out the trash.

I think entropy eventually finishes it off.

As for the other, I’ve forgotten its title, but the gist involved another house. This house was still inhabited. The walls of the kid’s room was designed to reflect their mood. Literally. When the kids were feeling moody and uncooperative with their parental units, the walls would reflect a savannah in Africa. In the distance, you could see a pride of lions.

Occasionally, the parents would come into the room when it was depicting the savannah and feel ill at ease. They’d demand that the kids change the setting at risk of being grounded. My memory is that, at some point, after the kids continue to be uncooperative, the parents go into the room, discover the savannah setting can’t be changed and then find out the door has locked behind them.

The kids are nowhere to be found.

The final scene in the story describes the veldt (listen to the story here) with the pride of lions in the distance and, this time, they appear to be guarding a fresh kill. Now, it’s the parental units that are nowhere to be found.

Bradbury was quoted as saying once, “People want me to predict the future. When all I want to do is prevent it.” At the end of his life he was also quoted as saying. “We’ve got too many cell phones. Too many internets. We’ve got to get rid of those machines.” I knew there was a reason I liked him so much!

Later, I started reading Harlan Ellison, who wrote science fiction and fantasy as well, but his stories were more cynical and darker. At least, that’s how I remember them. I see Wikipedia describing his work as “New Wave speculative fiction”. I had no idea of that at the time. He was a contributor to the original Twilight Zone television series.

One of his stories was made into a movie with 20-something Don Johnson, of ‘80s Miami Vice fame, in the starring role and a shaggy sheep dog called Blood that he could communicate with telepathically. The title of the post-apocalyptic movie was “A Boy and His Dog” and it’s one of my favorites of all time.

The link above is a 4 minute trailer that really captures the heart of the story in a nutshell. And - yes - I did tear up toward the end.

It begins with the dog ‘home-schooling’ his human protector as they wander through the wastelands. The dog is more intelligent than the human, but, not having opposable thumbs, he depends on the human to open the old cans of dog food they find. It’s a symbiotic relationship and, as always, it boils down to sex and food.

I started my love of words journey with these writers and these stories and that particular genre but I branched out in every direction.

My sister, Pam, introduced me to Willa Cather who could not be more different than Heinlein, Bradbury and Ellison. I loved being immersed in the worlds she conjured from the past just as much as I loved the fantastic futuristic settings. O, Pioneer! and Death Comes For the Archbishop top my list of Cather books. Perusing this website will give you a good indication of how much she was beloved by everyone who was familiar with her writing.

Nowadays, my taste in books, like my taste in movies, is eclectic. I do not favor fiction over non-fiction. I’ll read biographies. I’ll read historical fiction. I’ll read mysteries. I’ll read true crime. My love of words is boundless, a turn of phrase, priceless, in my mind.

Which reminds me. Ivan Doig’s This House of Sky, for turns of phrase, is a must-read.

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I realize this is an odd little meander from my usual political, social or educational writing peregrination. But, as I sat down to the computer to write, this word showed up (tintinnabulation) and, it just went downhill from there…..

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Alert reader Nancy Enz Lill sent me this cool video of two superb songwriters - Jack Johnson and Ryan Bingham. One had dreams of being a surfer of note, one had dreams of being a rodeo sensation. Good music and a good message.

Also, here is some good news from around the world of how five countries have addressed the pandemic in a far less chaotic fashion than the good ol’USA. Personally, I think Washington has hit it out of the park, considering we were Ground Zero in the beginning. If Washington were a country unto itself, we might be on this list.

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Hippotigrine - of or related to zebras. Hippo is horse of the river. Tigrine has to do with stripes and tigers and such.