A morning's browsing, mainly in the J-Walk Blog and Bifurcated Rivets (great name) has left me immersed in words.
Or not, in the case of the One Word Movie which did the rounds of art festivals last year. This reveals a glimpse into the "collective psychology" of online cultures by showing patterns of word-image associations, as created by millions of people around the world.
Word-image associations?
Try Terence Trent D'Arby, he of the whatever-happened-to variety. If you really want to know, here is part of his recent biography.
Once upon a time, an artist, a fish, woke up to find himself in an era swimming in various kinds of music, the best of which touched him as a fish swimming in water feels everything that the water contains. He decided to take elements of all that moved him, wrap it around his vision and call it: 'POST MILLENIUM ROCK' (PMR!).
Oh, and he now calls himself Sananda Francesco Maitreya.
Now think of 'Jesus'.
Most of us will picture a long-haired, bearded sandle-wearing Caucasian hippie, possibly based on a Pre-Raphaelite painting.
However, for some not-very-literate marketeers it's this puppet.
This Jesus puppet was made with great care and love and was designed to depict Christ in a loving, kind approachable. We wanted a Jesus that children would want to know love and cherish. All of this big mouth puppets clothes are completely removable including his shoes. He has accentuated fingers, feet with toes (to wear sandals) and sewn elbow and knee joints. You can enter this lovely puppet from either the back in a ventriloquist puppet style or from the bottom like a standard half body puppet.
Take His clothes off and enter "from the bottom"? Sounds rude to me, which leads me to say that even though my ability to swear is relatively unfettered, there are some words I just can't say, and I rarely use foul language in writing - something to do with seeming permanence perhaps, plus the sense that, on paper, 'you irremediably imperious bunyip' will be more effective than 'you fucking knob'.
Indeed, and someone else with a surprising way with words was William Topaz McGonagall (died 1902), widely hailed as the writer of the worst poetry in the English language.
I particularly like his hitherto unpublished epic of The Faithful Dog Fido, which is, unfortunately, too long to reproduce here.
So instead, read out loud this wonderful ode written especially for Indonesian pembantus (charladies).
Sunlight Soap
You can use it with great pleasure and ease
Without wasting any elbow grease;
And when washing the most dirty clothes
The sweat won't be dripping off your nose
You can wash your clothes with little rubbing
And without scarcely any scrubbing;
And I tell you once again without any joke
There's no soap can surpass Sunlight Soap;
And believe me, charwomen one and all,
I remain yours truly, the Poet McGonagall.
You can use it with great pleasure and ease
Without wasting any elbow grease;
And when washing the most dirty clothes
The sweat won't be dripping off your nose
You can wash your clothes with little rubbing
And without scarcely any scrubbing;
And I tell you once again without any joke
There's no soap can surpass Sunlight Soap;
And believe me, charwomen one and all,
I remain yours truly, the Poet McGonagall.
If you want more,
Here's some stores.
If you think they're quaint,
Then become a saint.
So there you have it.
Now you can shove it.
At least and without sorrow,
until tomorrow.
