It's My Style

I've been in a kind of a reverse nirvana here. Have so many things that I would like to write or blog about. Just get lazy. I know. . . others usually refer to it as "writer's block." Call it what you will; guess I got it for now. I usually don't like writing off the cuff or just "throwing" something out there just to get something out there. I'm usually thinking quality, not quantity. When I do write, I like to present my thoughts in a well thought-out manner. Usually like to have a certain topic as my goal. Don't like to ramble. Avoiding redundancy to the best of my ability.

I like and virtually insist on using good grammar. Correct spelling is a must. I just learned that in all my training during my school years. I do my best to use the correct phrasing and punctuation. I'm sure I don't always get everything correct (particularly in my syntax and diction), mainly because I never really took the time to memorize all those complicated grammar rules (only one I can really recall for now is "i" before "e" except after "c" and maybe some other minor ones); but I'm still learning. . . constantly learning. Proofread. Proofread is always the word before I publish. Checking facts when I can. It's tedious for a fact, but I just respect my reader too much not to.

Slang can often be a sore subject. I can see its use when trying to get across a humorous point, and its particular use in a spoof or a lampoon. As one can see I don't mind injecting the occasional colloquialism. Probably use it more than I think; but I can't understand it being overused. I believe that's just a lazy mind at work. I certainly cannot understand vulgarity, particularly when one feels it is needed to make a topic humorous or to shock the reader. That's far worse than being dull of mind. An occasional curse word interjected from time to time doesn't bother me, but vulgarity. . . bawdiness. . . Won't find them at my door.

In elaboration of that point, why do comedians or so-called comedians find it necessary to employ so much vulgarity just to get an audience to laugh at their jokes, particularly the "f" word. I remember awhile back watching George Lopez doing one of his routines on television. Every other word he uttered had to be bleeped out. Every other word. Safe to say, I didn't listen very long. Of course, Mr. Lopez is not the only one using such coarse lingo. Why do these people feel they have to shock their audience with that junk? For some reason they feel they have to drag us down to the type of world or life that they grew up in. That because they grew up in a barrio or ghetto that they feel that we the audience need to hear the gutter language that they used hear and speak. "Oh, but that's what makes it so real or relevant. It's the culture." Still does't make sense to me.

Such language takes away from other sorts of entertainment. For instance, my favorite type of movie is the one based on real life events. Recount starring Kevin Spacey, for an example, which is the story of the 2000 presidential election between Gore and Bush, used so much of the "f" word and other vulgar words that it was mind-numbing. I'm sure that's the way the actual people spoke or communicated; but, man, the constant use of such language particularly in a rapid-fire motion simply takes away from the drama. In my view, it simply diminishes the story line. My finger gets calloused from having to push the mute button so many times when having to watch movies employing such language.

Well, going back to slang and recollecting back to my younger years, particularly my senior year in high school. I recall when some fellow students in my English class would come up to me before turning in their writing assignments to the teacher, so I could check their work for errors. For some reason, they trusted my writing or proofreading skills fairly enough so that they could turn in their own work with enough confidence that their corrected efforts would afford them a passing grade. (Wish I could say I got a lot of dates that way from meeting a lot of girls, but that didn't happen).

In one assignment, the class was supposed to write about some sort of travel or adventure that they would be interested in doing. This one girl came up to me with her paper, and I proceeded to check it. Now, she had written about going to some far off land where could meet new people from a different culture. Among her various errors in spelling and syntax, I still remember a specific phrase she used. In meeting people of another culture in another land, she stated that she would really like to "check them out;" meaning, I suppose, that she would've been very interested in finding out more about them and what they do.

In actuality, I knew what she meant because that was the type of slang that was being used back then in referring to searching out just about any type of matter. "Hey. . . check it out," was the prevalent jargon in that day. That's just the way this particular girl and others like her were used to talking. Wasn't anything really wrong with that except it probably wasn't proper to use in a English assignment for a grade. I don't think I told her that because I was just mainly looking for misspellings and basic syntax errors. I didn't have time to get intricate and rewrite the whole paper for her. So whatever grade she received, I don't remember. I just wanted to take the time to let you know the style of writing I usually like to employ.