From: Elizabeth Bluemle <ehbluemle>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:04:20 -0400

Janet, I like your point about language.

It always raises the hairs on the back of my neck (that's a little strong, but very close to my feeling) when someone refers to another person -- especially racially, but not exclusively -- with an adjective-turned-noun: a Chinese, a black, an epileptic, a homeless. Gaah. Throws everything important about the person away and uses one detail to encapsulate an entire human being.

Maybe I'm overvaluing the effect of language, but that simple yet significant reductive word choice strikes me as a symptom, a step toward dehumanizing or distancing ourselves from other people.

It's possible, even using very broad strokes by using the adjective AS an adjective -- "a Chinese guy" or "a homeless woman" -- to recognize and acknowledge the humanity, if not the individuality, of people.

To relate this post to children's books, I'm happy to say that I can't think of a single children's book author who is so careless as to define people by their adjectives.

Back to lurking now,

Elizabeth Bluemle Bookseller & writer, Shelburne, VT





**** Elizabeth Bluemle Author, MY FATHER THE DOG
"Tail-wagging hilarity that's simply doggone funny...." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Appealingly flippant. . . . Young dog lovers will lap this up."
(Publishers Weekly)
Received on Fri 13 Oct 2006 10:04:20 AM CDT