Seussing My Life Away

I loved and still love Dr. Seuss. Genius. A love of language is something we all should have, engender, grow.

I’ve always had this dream of writing kids’ books for a living. Can’t imagine anything more fulfilling, more creative and fun. Especially playing with language at the same time. I’ve tried my hand at it, inspired by a few who have come before.

(Subscribers - my latest kids’ book at the end of the post - Wacky Words From A Little Bird. Also, find on Amazon.)

First on my list is Dr. Seuss. A COLOSSUS. Need I say more. I think, as a kid, my own sensitivity to sound, my own love of pure language, the freedom it gives to our mind - all this was set into motion by Seuss.

Of course, got to mention that intellectual Seuss - Lewis Carroll. Read his biography if you can - a life that is truly engrossing. Like it or not.

“Why is a raven like a writing desk? Because it can produce a few notes.”
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Caroll.

James Thurber sits on my shelf - a first edition I found in Granada and bought for 50 cents. The Wonderful O. I Love this kind of wordplay, writing, style. The author writes a whole, magical tale without using the letter O.

Earlier this year, I wrote a book for kids to learn about “reduplications” - words that rhyme and have a “baby talk” characteristic. Whirly birdy. Flip flop. Willy nilly. Lovey dovey. I guess it is on my mind, having just written a poem about reduplication while thinking of the great Kurt Gödel and his theories of incompleteness.

“Thought is hidden in verse like nutrition is in fruit. A fruit is nourishment but it seems to be nothing but pure delight.” Paul Valery

Reduplication plays a powerful linguistic role in the formation of pidgins - semi-languages that are created when language groups clash/meet. The two groups try to find a way to speak to each other and often will resort to repetition of sound, and reduplications.

I’ve always dreamed of traveling and experiencing the land we call Papua New Guinea. Most fascinating to me about this part of the world, the S. Pacific (I know a little about it, I wrote my honors Anthropology thesis on the role of infanticide in Trobriand Islanders) is what happens when islanders, mountain valley people, finally encounter other languages. It’s linguistic diversity and creativity.

Listening to members of parliament in PNG speak, you will be amazed at how even now as a developed language, creole (Tok Pisin) - you’ll be amazed by their use of “baby talk” and reduplications in formal communication. A helicopter is - whirly whirly. Bicycle is - wil-wil (wheel - wheel). And so on … Beautiful.