Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Loving Language

November is over, but since I started my month of blogging on November 6, it won't end until December 5.

In addition to Wendell Berry, I am also looking forward to reading Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, whose book I just heard about recently. It's Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, and it sounds great. Here is the information from the publisher's webpage:

Like any other life-sustaining resource," says Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, "language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants." Today more than ever, language needs to be rescued and restored.

McEntyre opens Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies with a sobering chapter on the current state of American public discourse. Pointing to the commercial and political forces that affect language use in American culture, McEntyre counters with twelve constructive "strategies of stewardship" — such activities as challenging lies (even widely tolerated forms of deception and spin), practicing the art of conversation, and encouraging playfulness and prayerfulness in tending to the word.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, both critical and literary, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is an engaging address to all thoughtful users of language concerned with preserving the vitality and precision of the spoken and written word.

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