On Language
It is always a pleasure to read Stephen Fry’s musings:
“Language is the universal whore that I must make into a virgin,” wrote Karl Kraus or somebody so like him that it makes no odds. One of my favourite remarks. T. S. Eliot said much the same thing in a different way: “to purify the dialect of the tribe”. But is there a “higher language”, a purer language, a proper language, a right language? Is language a whore, used, bruised and abused by every john in the street… is the idea of purifying the dialect of the tribe a poetic ideal or nonsensical snobbery?
The full piece, ‘Don’t Mind Your Language…’, is over on The New Adventures of Stephen Fry. And if you’re a fan of Fry, or even if you’re not, I highly recommend his recent documentary about Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press.