Did I Really Say That?

I’ve been thinking about language lately. Maybe because we’ve just celebrated Pentecost, maybe because I’m at the point in the revision of my book where I’m word-smithing. Every. Single. Word. Maybe because with all the social justice marches taking place, I realize more than ever how much language matters.

When I taught high school literature classes there was always the inevitable lesson on conflict, and I would write on the chalkboard (yes, I’m that old) the following:

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Supernatural

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Self

Man vs. Technology

It was a standard basis for exploration of a novel. One year, I rebelled, so instead I wrote:

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. …

That’s where my student Paul interrupted me.

Paul: Mrs. Meyette, you wrote that wrong. It’s not “Person” it’s “Man.”

Me: But Paul, that excludes all the woman who are characters in books.

Paul: (rolling his eyes and exhaling loudly.) Oh, that women’s equality stuff. It doesn’t matter if you say “Man” it means everybody. Everybody knows that.

Me: Everybody?

Paul: Yeah. Like mankind—it means everybody.

Me: So even though I use a word that excludes half the population, it doesn’t matter. I can use any word as long has half the population understands it’s all inclusive?

Paul: Right.

Me: Great

I turned to the board and wrote:

Woman vs. Woman

Woman vs …

All the boys in class loudly objected.

One girl said, “Welcome to our world.”

I noted that at least woman contained the word man. But the boys said that didn’t matter. It didn’t include them.

That’s why when I revise, I word-smith. Walk becomes strode or ambled or tiptoed. Language matters to my readers and the more precise I can be, the better the story for them.

Currently, we’re experiencing Person vs. Society. I feel like we’re in the backstory of a dystopian novel. As my daughter Kate said, “It’s all the stuff that’s happened before the novel begins.”

I’m very carefully observing how I use language as I open myself to learn how others’ experiences differ from my own. I’m trying to understand. I want to be “woke.” Now there’s a word of weighty consequence. So much more precise than informed or taught because it’s beyond an intellectual understanding; it’s immersion into change. And change is hard. tough. no fun. difficult. arduous. challenging.