The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “language”

Mary Oliver on the Magic of Punctuation and a Reading of Her Soul-Stretching Poem “Seven White Butterflies”
Mary Oliver on the Magic of Punctuation and a Reading of Her Soul-Stretching Poem “Seven White Butterflies”

“All eternity is in the moment.”

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Jeanette Winterson on Time, Language, Reading, and How Art Creates a Sanctified Space for the Human Spirit
Jeanette Winterson on Time, Language, Reading, and How Art Creates a Sanctified Space for the Human Spirit

“Art can make a difference because it pulls people up short. It says, don’t accept things for their face value; you don’t have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself.”

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How the Invention of the Alphabet Usurped Female Power in Society and Sparked the Rise of Patriarchy in Human Culture
How the Invention of the Alphabet Usurped Female Power in Society and Sparked the Rise of Patriarchy in Human Culture

A brief history of gender dynamics from page to screen.

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How Richard Dawkins Coined the Word Meme: The Legendary Atheist’s Surprising Religious Inspiration
How Richard Dawkins Coined the Word Meme: The Legendary Atheist’s Surprising Religious Inspiration

“Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain.”

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What Elvish, Klingon, and Dothraki Reveal about Real Language & the Essence of Human Communication
What Elvish, Klingon, and Dothraki Reveal about Real Language & the Essence of Human Communication

Why a good language, like a good life, requires both rules and messiness.

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The Best-Kept Secret of Clichés: How to Upgrade Our Uses and Abolish Our Abuses of Language
The Best-Kept Secret of Clichés: How to Upgrade Our Uses and Abolish Our Abuses of Language

A manifesto against mindless language, or how to get off autopilot in the art of communication.

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Susan Sontag on the Crucial Difference Between Being in the Middle and Being at the Center
Susan Sontag on the Crucial Difference Between Being in the Middle and Being at the Center

Why true neutrality is not an abstinence from taking sides of but an act of compassion.

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The History of the English Language, Animated
The History of the English Language, Animated

“The Sun never sets on the English language.”

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Ironic Serif: A Brief History of Typographic Snark and the Failed Crusade for an Irony Mark
Ironic Serif: A Brief History of Typographic Snark and the Failed Crusade for an Irony Mark

From 17th-century France to digital emoticons, by way of kooky characters and spectacular failures.

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The Shape of Spectacular Speech: An Infographic Analysis of What Made MLK’s “I Have a Dream” So Powerful
The Shape of Spectacular Speech: An Infographic Analysis of What Made MLK’s “I Have a Dream” So Powerful

The poetics of presenting, or why beautiful metaphors are better than beautiful slides.

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