The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.<\/p>\n
If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?<\/p>\n
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.<\/p>\n
So said Gloria Steinem<\/p>\n
Then again there is Lewis Caroll and I have always remained endeared with Humpty Dumpty… Because language can be a slippery slope of misunderstanding and who really pulls the bit and kicks in the spurs…<\/p>\n
`When I<\/em> use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’<\/p>\n `The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can<\/em> make words mean so many different things.’<\/p>\n `The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master — that’s all.’<\/p>\n Most of you know that line above, but the rest of the conversation is a different hinge entirely…<\/p>\n Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. `They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I<\/em> can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I<\/em> say!’<\/p>\n `Would you tell me please,’ said Alice, `what that means?’<\/p>\n `Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. `I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’<\/p>\n `That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.<\/p>\n `When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.’<\/p>\n Be wary of those verbers…<\/p>\n And of course, through translation, Italo Calvino,<\/p>\n “The ideal place for me is one in which it is most natural to live as a foreigner.”<\/p>\n Then Margaret Atwood,<\/p>\n “Put yourself in a different room, that’s what the mind is for.”<\/p>\n The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot? The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. So said Gloria Steinem Then again there is Lewis Caroll and I have always remained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-older-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuppagemma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
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