Language: worlds to be discovered

Pure genius
If I ever wanted to write a book about philosophy, I have found the book I would have wanted to write!! Plato and a Platypus walk into a Bar...Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes sold me when I read the book's dedication to Groucho Marx who consolidated an ideology in the phrase: "These are my principles; if you don't like them, I have others." I crack up every time I read it. There is something supremely and sublimely
delightfully, hysterically funny in that quote because of its use of language. BTW: The book on the whole is well-done (perhaps not excellent--some of the jokes do not correspond to the concepts as well as others) and the idea of the book is, in any case, perfect. I would recommend it with the warning that some of the jokes might be considered in poor taste.

"Being bewitched by language"
This quote comes from Wittgenstein and is primarily what this book got me thinking about because I delighted so readily in the ability to summarize entire worlds of philosophical thought in a well-crafted one-liner. What is language such that it commands the power to confuse and clarify? To universalize and specify? To include and exclude? These are fundamental questions that I believe all readers and authors need to address for themselves as well as: What is my relationship to language itself? Do I play with it? Do I build with it? Am I sufficiently awed by it? I am sorely tempted to give you my beginnings of thoughts regarding all these questions, but I have to keep reminding myself: It's a blog, not a treatise!!

As for the one God, tongue-talking, holy rollers
Is part of the reason Kent can toss out questions regarding the absence of an "important" Apostolic work because we have not honed our ability to use language? If I talk to Joe Schmo about being a one God, tongue-talking, holy roller does he understand me or does he then believe I am 1.) not polytheistic but possibly Trinitarian 2.) not a user of sign language and 3.) part of some Christian roller dancing team? These are obvious examples and even somewhat cliched as examples. However, on a more subtle level have we thought through the ramifications and nuances of the language we use? Have we learned when to allow our words room for interpretation and when to be very clear? Have we found the balance of remaining true to an identity while remaining accessible to the audience we are addressing in the language we use? Or have we fallen into a discussion with ourselves because we no longer know the language the rest of the world is speaking? Have we mistakenly allowed the language we use to define us when we should be striving to find the language that best expresses how we are defined by God? Maybe we just need to spend more time listening and more time thinking about what we are really trying to say (this last goes double for me!).

How can we find this balance of identity and accessibility?
I will offer a partial answer to this last question in that this is an integral part of why I read. I want to find the authors who strike this balance and see if I can figure out how they did it. One author who I think does this very well is Flannery O'Connor. There's something about her language which stays true to her roots while inviting the reader in and elevating everyone. I finish reading one of her stories believing I have learned as much about her characters as I have about her as I have about me. Who are other authors who accomplish this?

Always leave them laughing
In the aforementioned book there's a great joke regarding the power of language and its ability to be received by an audience (p. 141):

"A 911 dispatcher receives a panicky call from a hunter. 'I've just come across a bloodstained body in the woods! It's a man and I think he's dead! What should I do?'
The dispatcher calmly replies, 'It's going to be all right, sir. Just follow my instructions. The first thing is to put the phone down and make sure he's dead.'
There's a silence on the phone, followed by the sound of a shot. The man's voice returns, 'Okay. Now what do I do?'"