09-29-2019, 06:45 AM
(Title from a pm I received concerning a recent comment on a (particularly beautiful) poem in sonnet practice.)
The subject is how we handle the thickets of convention that make up a language, specifically the one in which we're writing our poetry.
For example, consider a choice between
"Anyone can say whatever he wants"
versus
"Anyone can say whatever they want"
The first is correct according to the convention that when forced to use an indeterminate singular in English, the male gender is used. (There are, no doubt, books saying otherwise now, but that's just PC; there are also books about how to recognize and cauterize a witch. Languages change by evolution, not command.) But the second, while apparently the new standard according to some "authorities," has its own problems. Try reading it as
"Anyone can say whatever THEY want"
which implies, "but not whatever HE wants," and we're back on the merry-go-round looking for an indeterminate singular which does not exist. (Artifacts like "xhe" and "xe" don't help - they're just replacements for "he" even if they were real.)
THE QUESTION IS, does the superior poet find a path between by changing the structure - "One can say whatever one wants" - or meditate on the fact that every individual (and separable thing) has a gender in English. In its way, it's worse than German, where gender is arbitrary.
What do you think? Here, at least, anyone can say whatever one wants.
The subject is how we handle the thickets of convention that make up a language, specifically the one in which we're writing our poetry.
For example, consider a choice between
"Anyone can say whatever he wants"
versus
"Anyone can say whatever they want"
The first is correct according to the convention that when forced to use an indeterminate singular in English, the male gender is used. (There are, no doubt, books saying otherwise now, but that's just PC; there are also books about how to recognize and cauterize a witch. Languages change by evolution, not command.) But the second, while apparently the new standard according to some "authorities," has its own problems. Try reading it as
"Anyone can say whatever THEY want"
which implies, "but not whatever HE wants," and we're back on the merry-go-round looking for an indeterminate singular which does not exist. (Artifacts like "xhe" and "xe" don't help - they're just replacements for "he" even if they were real.)
THE QUESTION IS, does the superior poet find a path between by changing the structure - "One can say whatever one wants" - or meditate on the fact that every individual (and separable thing) has a gender in English. In its way, it's worse than German, where gender is arbitrary.
What do you think? Here, at least, anyone can say whatever one wants.
Non-practicing atheist