Irony Becomes Her

Reigning in the tongue

Headline for the day: "Senate OKs bill to reign in credit card practices"

The only thing that would make misreading this headline more enjoyable would be a capital B in "bill." Still, it's pretty good as is, implying that the Senate intends to be the best credit-card practicer there is. I'd say it has already been so for some time. No Social Security checks in my future!

Someone as fond of word play as I am cannot help being a bit of a deconstructionist. I love the little foibles of meaning that inevitably sneak into our words, though my livelihood at this point comes from keeping those foibles out. Perhaps it is because I love them that I spot them more readily than most.

But doing this is playing with fire. It's dangerous to have mockery come so easily.

The more I've studied language, the less I trust it as a reliable vehicle for communicating truth. The simplest of misspellings, the slightest oddity of syntax, the most distant homonym (in English -- even more factors can come into play in other languages), can render the user a laughingstock or anathema.

Yet everyone makes one -- or two or 100 -- at some point. And the next day they pounce like hyenas on the next guy who makes one. Deconstruction and all its cousins can be quite cruel.

"When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ... Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark" (James 3:3,5).

Here's to reining and reigning in tongues -- making them obey us.

posted by Lynn @ 3:49 PM