{"id":2354,"date":"2023-10-02T17:54:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2354"},"modified":"2023-10-02T17:54:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:54:16","slug":"dissecting-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2023\/10\/02\/dissecting-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissecting Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the reading, \u201cLosing Home,\u201d Eli Clare treats words the same way he treats people\u2014 with incredible patience and a need to understand their nuance. It seems at times as if Clare\u2019s unrelenting curiosity about a world that has betrayed him is almost un-human\u2014 that one should not want to analyze an environment that abused them. Yet, Clare\u2019s words have a healing power in the way that they are treated with such grace. I think Clare dissects words in this chapter to show how words, and the bodies to which they are ascribed, are deeply multi-faceted. This is significant as it shows how the ever-evolving nature of language can allow for reflection, acceptance, and healing\u2014 especially in queer spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

This chapter in particular centers around the exploration of three words that all relate to Clare\u2019s experience of \u201closing home.\u201d They are: \u201cQueer. Exile. Class\u201d (Clare 31). Clare\u2019s description of \u201cexile\u201d is poignant: \u201cLet me return now to <\/span>exile<\/span><\/i>. It is a big word, a hard word. It implies not only loss, but a sense of allegiance and connection– however ambivalent– to the place left behind, an attitude of mourning rather than of good riddance\u201d (Clare 35). Too often, words are thrown around without paying attention to their meaning. People often assume that everyone knows a word to carry the same definition. Clare takes the time to break down and show that \u201cexile,\u201d something that often has a larger-than-life, sometimes \u201cmythical\u201d feel of casting out the \u201cbad guy,\u201d can actually imply allegiance and grief. To say that a person has been exiled may not just imply anger and wrongdoing, but also a profound sense of loss. Language is a way of attempting to convey unique experiences in a universally comprehensible way\u2014 so it is no surprise that one word can have various connotations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humanity has a tendency to categorize words, people\u2014 bodies. If a word like \u201cexile\u201d can have a whole host of implications, what does that say about race, class, or queerness? This ambiguity allows space for healing. This way, \u201cqueer\u201d does not imply solely joy or pain. It is evolving, encompassing the experiences of each person to which it applies, in the same way \u201cexile\u201d does. There is altogether universality and individuality in language. Clare\u2019s analysis of language allows people to subvert their categories and accept that their bodies exist at once in many different spaces. This chapter pushes us to allow ourselves grace\u2014 if language has copious complex meanings and descriptions, and we define ourselves with language, then so do we. Accepting this can be a comforting, healing thing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the reading, \u201cLosing Home,\u201d Eli Clare treats words the same way he treats people\u2014 with incredible patience and a need to understand their nuance. It seems at times as if Clare\u2019s unrelenting curiosity about a world that has betrayed him is almost un-human\u2014 that one should not want to analyze an environment that abused … Continue reading Dissecting Words<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346798],"tags":[10933],"class_list":["post-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}