A brief blog post for last week :)

There is no word for it.  Maybe it never happened before and so there is not yet a word for it.  What is the word for a state which is not life and not death, a death in life?"
"I don't know."
"I wonder if it ever happened in history before?"
"I don't know."  Where is the word, the girl in the greenhouse would say, and look around." (126 The Second Coming)

If I could pinpoint one thing this semester has taught me, it is the power of words.  No character culminates this more than Allie, I think, particularly in the way she questions everything.  If there is a thing that has no word to describe it, can it exist?  If there is no found word or naming, is there the essence of that thing at all?  That's why I love this particular passage of questioning, happening right after Will's questioning of the secret is only revealed with death and dying.  If there is no word for something, perhaps it is not a thing at all.  It's leaving me asking the questions I had after the thesis defense board: How tied to true life is language, particularly naming?