Considering the word "spell" and how it means putting the right letters in the right order and also means putting ideas in a particular order which can be comprehended by another party as in, "Let me spell it out for you."
Alternatively, one could have a spell, which is either a flexible segment of time- "Let us sit for a spell." or something like a condition which overtakes a person, also for a flexible segment of time-"She had another headache spell."
It is also possible to be put in a spell by a specific thing or experience- either in nature or art thereby rendering a person " a spell-recipient," a condition in which one is captivated or enchanted beyond everyday experience.
There are also of course spells in the realm of the occult; the utterance of some words, which perhaps rhyme or are musical in some other distinctive way that make them magical and call out unseen forces as intercessors for the purpose of causing another to experience, feel, or do something that is the will of the spell-caster.
I think that whenever one is inside one of these meanings the other meanings are there too, but in a subtle way, a little like backup singers. When one of my kids asks me how to spell "phenomenal" they are asking for the correct order of letters, but there is also, inside that, the desire for the whole idea of of the word to be felt and the desire to communicate it to another in a meaningful way. The urge to have the right order of letters is also the desire to have whatever magic or power contained in the word, live up to its full potential; the odds of which are improved if the letters are in the right order, perhaps this is something like the fung shui of words. I think that is why an intentional new spelling of a word, if effective, can add meaning to a word or call attention to the fact that a word is a word and not simply automatic or invisible. Abbreviations and phonetic spellings can do this too. Sometimes intentionally spelling a word in a non-conventional way can be a way to claim ownership of that word and to reveal that you own it, to expose the plasticity of language, to play with the materials of language, and also as a way to attach one word to another word to expose or attach more layers of meaning.
If I spell the word daughter, dawter in a piece about oceans, dawter becomes connected with water beyond the rhyme. A daughter is a daughter and is also water when a daughter is a dawter. Similarly, if I write my son a letter and begin with, "Dear Sun," I communicate to him that he is bigger to me than "son."
Speaking of letters, I have always loved that the kind of letters that are sent in the mail are called such because they are made from the letters of the alphabet. And I love how pieces of paper can be called sheets or leaves. I do not like the word email very much, so usually I say letters when I refer to emails, even though a great majority of the emails I both write and receive are not really letters in the way that letters are traditionally thought of, but more like notes.
And now I am thinking of music and how notes comprise music and also have the names of letters and how one can hit a wrong note, which in a way is a misspelling and doing this intentionally can do precisely what I was getting at before, only with music instead. Strange how one cannot send a chord which could be something between a note and a letter, but one can strike a chord. I like how people say, "drop me a line". It took me years and years to realize that that expression originated from fishing and did not mean to drop a sentence vertically from a high-up place like clouds do with rain."
Alternatively, one could have a spell, which is either a flexible segment of time- "Let us sit for a spell." or something like a condition which overtakes a person, also for a flexible segment of time-"She had another headache spell."
It is also possible to be put in a spell by a specific thing or experience- either in nature or art thereby rendering a person " a spell-recipient," a condition in which one is captivated or enchanted beyond everyday experience.
There are also of course spells in the realm of the occult; the utterance of some words, which perhaps rhyme or are musical in some other distinctive way that make them magical and call out unseen forces as intercessors for the purpose of causing another to experience, feel, or do something that is the will of the spell-caster.
I think that whenever one is inside one of these meanings the other meanings are there too, but in a subtle way, a little like backup singers. When one of my kids asks me how to spell "phenomenal" they are asking for the correct order of letters, but there is also, inside that, the desire for the whole idea of of the word to be felt and the desire to communicate it to another in a meaningful way. The urge to have the right order of letters is also the desire to have whatever magic or power contained in the word, live up to its full potential; the odds of which are improved if the letters are in the right order, perhaps this is something like the fung shui of words. I think that is why an intentional new spelling of a word, if effective, can add meaning to a word or call attention to the fact that a word is a word and not simply automatic or invisible. Abbreviations and phonetic spellings can do this too. Sometimes intentionally spelling a word in a non-conventional way can be a way to claim ownership of that word and to reveal that you own it, to expose the plasticity of language, to play with the materials of language, and also as a way to attach one word to another word to expose or attach more layers of meaning.
If I spell the word daughter, dawter in a piece about oceans, dawter becomes connected with water beyond the rhyme. A daughter is a daughter and is also water when a daughter is a dawter. Similarly, if I write my son a letter and begin with, "Dear Sun," I communicate to him that he is bigger to me than "son."
Speaking of letters, I have always loved that the kind of letters that are sent in the mail are called such because they are made from the letters of the alphabet. And I love how pieces of paper can be called sheets or leaves. I do not like the word email very much, so usually I say letters when I refer to emails, even though a great majority of the emails I both write and receive are not really letters in the way that letters are traditionally thought of, but more like notes.
And now I am thinking of music and how notes comprise music and also have the names of letters and how one can hit a wrong note, which in a way is a misspelling and doing this intentionally can do precisely what I was getting at before, only with music instead. Strange how one cannot send a chord which could be something between a note and a letter, but one can strike a chord. I like how people say, "drop me a line". It took me years and years to realize that that expression originated from fishing and did not mean to drop a sentence vertically from a high-up place like clouds do with rain."
RSS Feed
