Dictionary
Ever felt a violence from a dictionary? Nope
Well.. Ever been in an exchange about words, say difference between rocks and stones, when someone had an idea to the tune of: “Hey. Let see how the dictionary defines rocks, shall we?” ..and following the dictionary idea – the conversation became Beholden by a particular interpretation-come-dictated-definition of the discussed words.
Well.. That's just a definition, not violence.
Sure, some people may not feel Beholden, or even Compelled by one definition or another, and perhaps for them the notion of a Dictionary is smooth and fab. However, what with people that might feel unease? An uncomfortable sense from the obvious link between the terms “Dictionary” and “Dictator” – indeed by the usage of dictionaries to dictate – litterly and metaphorically – how words are. Perhaps language is, as Roland Barthes mentioned – Fascistic: “Language is neither reactionary nor progressive; it is quite simply fascist; for fascism does not prevent speech, it compels speech.â€
However, it could also be that, one way to overcome this fascism, as Catherine Malabou concludes – is through being free while in prison. https://youtu.be/hcSAp-nBwR8
One of the concerns here, IMHO, is that once compulsion is accepted, practised and culturally refined – we are, in fact, approve of fascism at every turn, fold and beat of life.
Such is life. What would you say if it was proved that fascism or some other way of authoritarianism – is just how Life is? Will you be against the sun?
Yes. Sometimes it is hard to perceive beyond certain rhythm, repetitions arrest as well. However, the beings that might be alive by the time the sun's inevitable doom is tangible – will they not attempt to somehow disorient their lives around the sun's daily show? In other words -even if authoritarianism is the way life is, does it not worth while making other ways to live?
Why?
Would you like to be slapped?
LOL.. Mostly not.. ;)
Would you like to feel controlled?
Still.. Mostly not :)
Well.. Is it not curious how – somehow in a similar auto emergent kind of action – living beings seem to attempt resisting capture?
However, they are captured!
Yes.. And perhaps then spend lives attempting to experience their inevitable release – something that, in itself feeds back to violence as a person finds themselves attempting to compel their prisons' masters to let go.
In my mind, even words, with their own kind of lives – while being captured by tools like dictionaries, tend to escape. At times, the scape is a dead term. Other ways include forms of evolution like:
regeneration (Check terms popularity tools), changing meanings (eg, Gay, as in Happy – gaining that extra way of referencing not so sex binary bound people) and becoming new words (eg, geoluread, aka yellow-red, evolving into Orange).
Other approaches to Dictionary?
A few terms that, at the time of writing, while being used – were not in an english dictionary? https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-arent-in-the-dictionary-yet/
A list of words that were interpreted wrongly – yet became dictionary approved. (Curious to note that the discussion prior to the said list, contains an attempt to lay off concerns about language being anarchic.) https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/02/08/when-does-wrong-become-right/
One pre-dictionary, as a term, dictionary* is: Amarakosha Perhaps apt to note that the term invokes the idea of words being alive yet somehow immortal – out of the evolutionary flow. (My interpretation of immortality, ofcourse..)
https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_amarakosha.html
* The word “dictionary” was invented by an Englishman called John of Garland in 1220 — he had written a book Dictionarius to help with Latin “diction” (from wikipedia)