Rational Insanity
Dictionary hypocrites
Back when I was in high school and during my first few years in college I had classmates who came to school carrying with them a huge dictionary, one everyone would not mistake for some other book. What do they do with these etymological and vocabulary bibles? They sit in one corner of the canteen or hang out in spots frequented by lots of students and open the dictionaries. Then as if everything was going "right", they would peer into the holy compendium and seem like they are reading a pocket book! Obviously, these people don't know what the dictionary is for, and perhaps, they probably also don't know that no matter how well one has memorized the dictionary, one's vocabulary will not improve unless the words in the dictionary are put into practical use.
I believe no student would answer a teacher's question with an "obsequious" and a "neurasthenia", unless of course that particular student used more of his or her brain than is necessary for normal, average humans. I call these "dictionary-tugging-students-who-don't-know-a-thing-about-the-proper-use-of-the-sacred-book" dictionary hypocrites students or people in general who want to use the dictionary as a fashion accessory. Taking the phenomenon a bit further, I also hate it when people write essays or literary pieces using cryptic words in their pieces. I find these pieces disconcerting not because I don't understand the words, (because if I don't understand a word, I check the dictionary-which is one of the proper ways to use the dictionary), but because when we write, we want to share our opinions or thoughts with other people and we cannot get the message across by concealing it in impressive, complex sounding words (that the writer probably doesn't even understand either).Writing to impress will get us nowhere. Furthermore, tugging along a dictionary for purposes of looking intelligent and making other people think that you have no other objective in life but to intoxicate yourself with words you don't even understand will get you to a state called word-lassitude (check your dictionary!).
Anyway, there was this lass that Marcel (my best friend, remember?) and I once met who wrote poetry. The poetry she wrote were almost impossible to understand (according to one of our mentors). Eventually, our mentor told the lass to try and re-write her poetry and make her ideas and topics "graspable". In defense of her writing, the lass ignored what our mentor suggested and called her poetry psychedelic. Well, as far as my vocabulary would extend, I do know that "psychedelic"
usually refers to an intensified state of sensory perception or referring to any drug that produces this particular state of perception. Now, if poetry were psychedelic, as this lass claims her work to be, then perhaps she would be a millionaire by now selling her poetry to shabu and marijuana junkies! Let us not find a scapegoat for our literary shortcomings. Trust me, I've been there and I totally regret it. There is no such thing as a bad poem, because if it is not a good poem, then it's something other than a poem; it cannot be a poem. The same applies for all other literary pieces. The best thing to do in such cases is to consider the suggestion of people who are more technically equipped in terms of the subject tackled. Now, before we stray just because of the word psychedelic, let me redirect you.
The dictionary is a very useful tool if we just know how to unlock its secrets. Example: Most of us usually come across a word or two that we do not understand when reading a book or a story. Our immediate tendency is to check the dictionary for the meaning of the word. This tendency makes us overly dependent on the dictionary; why not try deciphering the word using the sentence CONTEXT first? When this does not work, then it's time to open the dictionary. Sometimes we also wonder how a word is pronounced correctly; well, the solution is simple -- open the dictionary and look for the diacritical marks of the word in question. Then there's the issue of word origin or etymology "this could also be found in the dictionary. Definition is just one of the myriad of things the dictionary is used for, and mind you, if you really know what you are doing, the definition is the last thing you will want from it.
It all boils down to one thing "when we want to write, use words that would not require us (the writers) or our readers to rift through a dictionary for definitions unless we want to confuse our audience, unless there is no other word that would best express what we want to express. The secret to effective communication is understandability. Remember, in the paradigm (model) of communication, you have the sender, the message, the media, and the receiver, all connected with an unbroken line, now if we attempt to complicate matters by introducing complex jargon into the "media", then we have failed to communicate effectively.
Use the dictionary the way it should be used. Dictionary hypocrites deserve to have this great book on ear loops and hung by the lobes of their ears.
Be rational; be insane! every once in a while!TTFN!
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