Random thoughts
Mar. 29th, 2004 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanju...on the evolution of language, phrases and customs.
Isaac Asimov once wrote that the descriptors "clockwise" and "counterclockwise" might become obsolete with the introduction of digital watches. Doesn't appear to be happening, so far.
On the other hand, "fishnet stockings" is a phrase used, I suspect, in 99.9% of cases by people who've never actually seen a fishnet in person and think of "fishnet" as a fashion-related adjective rather than a comparison to some other common and very real object. So maybe "clockwise" will hang on long after analog clocks are history.
Tie a yellow ribbon started off as a pop song about a guy getting out of prison. Now I see yellow ribbons tied around trees (or fence posts or whatnot) both in person and in the media as welcoming symbol for returning family. Are we witnessing the creation of a tradition? Will people a century from now continue this tradition, most of them with no idea whatsoever that it was created out of whole cloth based on a pop song?
And "Drink the Kool-Aid" as a metaphor for swallowing something uncritically. Aside from the probable unhappiness of the makers of Kool-Aid, who proably aren't thrilled by this association with Jim Jones and the Guyana cultists' mass suicide, is this one going to last? Or will it be discarded eventually?
"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" -- you've heard that song, I'm sure. Maybe you like it (I find it amusing, personally). Maybe you hate it. But what's the last new Christmas song you remember hearing every Christmas season for years now besides that one?
Isaac Asimov once wrote that the descriptors "clockwise" and "counterclockwise" might become obsolete with the introduction of digital watches. Doesn't appear to be happening, so far.
On the other hand, "fishnet stockings" is a phrase used, I suspect, in 99.9% of cases by people who've never actually seen a fishnet in person and think of "fishnet" as a fashion-related adjective rather than a comparison to some other common and very real object. So maybe "clockwise" will hang on long after analog clocks are history.
Tie a yellow ribbon started off as a pop song about a guy getting out of prison. Now I see yellow ribbons tied around trees (or fence posts or whatnot) both in person and in the media as welcoming symbol for returning family. Are we witnessing the creation of a tradition? Will people a century from now continue this tradition, most of them with no idea whatsoever that it was created out of whole cloth based on a pop song?
And "Drink the Kool-Aid" as a metaphor for swallowing something uncritically. Aside from the probable unhappiness of the makers of Kool-Aid, who proably aren't thrilled by this association with Jim Jones and the Guyana cultists' mass suicide, is this one going to last? Or will it be discarded eventually?
"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" -- you've heard that song, I'm sure. Maybe you like it (I find it amusing, personally). Maybe you hate it. But what's the last new Christmas song you remember hearing every Christmas season for years now besides that one?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-29 04:14 pm (UTC)