Wordy-Nerdy

We do a lot of reading in Anthropology and this week we are diving into Historical Archaeology with the book called In Small Things Forgotten. While the endless mundane details of this book were putting me to sleep, a little gem popped out at me. At the end of chapter one, the writer is describing how artifacts are not just limited to visibly material items, but also include things like fountains, hot air balloons and get this - WORDS.  What? How can words be artifacts? Is he saying that I could stack them on a shelf, come back and dust them, bequeath them, use them as kindling? If so I've got to get more shelves! 

The authors definition of words:

air masses shaped by the speech apparatus according to culturally acquired rules.

Hmmmm, okay, so if spoken air masses are an object, I go to thinking imaginatively. What could we do with these masses to make life more interesting?

That got me thinking about art class and our theme "rainbows" we are using in music. You know, good ol' word association words/make me think of rainbows/etc. I dare to put on my muse mask from last week and think creatively. What if, your words took a more visible form? Like when your breath freezes in winter? What if your words came out in colors, patterns, sheens? What if you said "Apple Pie" and your words came out light green sprinkled with cinnamon and smelling of pie? Now imagine an entire community - walking down the farmer's market seeing, and smelling words. What if they came out warm or cold. 

Thinking creatively yet? What do you see these air masses shaped by speech as?

Update on Feb 19:Just a sidenote to a fabulous author of an ARC I am reading right now (Operative) - I just now got to Chapter 5 so any similarities related to colors and abstract ideas is purely coincidence. (I love the way you think!)