A thin line...

Finally a post that concerns some concrete issues and not lingers in the abstract domain. The whole idea is to put forth an observation of mine. When you do/say something, others can classify it as either behaviour X or behaviour Y. The interesting point to note is that X and Y can be really contrasting in the context of the action. Sounds weird? Well weird it is.

Consider writing style for an example. Forget about books/novels. Many people prefer to write in a style which will force an "average reader" to look up the meanings of the words used, in a dictionary, several times in a line. The justification given by them is that it is a "style" of writing and people are "impressed", when they read it. On the contrary, there are also people who will simply be ridiculed by this because they see it as showing off of your superior vocabulary. We really don't need to go that far in search for an example. We have our own Mr. Shakespeare here to help us. Here are a few of his sonnets taken from here:

• The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
  Is lust in action: and till action, lust
  Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
  Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
  Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
  Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
  Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
  On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
  Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
  Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
  A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
  Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
  All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
  To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell..
• Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
  And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
  Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
  And burn the long-liv'd phoenix, in her blood;
  Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
  And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
  To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
  But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
  O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
  Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
  Him in thy course untainted do allow
  For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
  Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
  My love shall in my verse ever live young.

Now imagine that being sent to you and assess, how much of that entered in your mind. So lets get back where we were. People may attach labels like fake, meretricious or in an extreme case, disgusting, ridiculous, superficial. The reason is that they pay more attention to what a thing/entity actually contains, what the gravity of the situation is, rather than the presentation. They see language as a means of communication of thoughts. There really is no need to make it complex. All Shakespeare wanted to say in these lines could easily be translated to a more decipherable/intelligible form, without compromising on the content and yet produce the same impact.

On the other hand, not using these words/styles or "ornamentations" as I call them could even earn you labels like "inferior literary standards", "boring", etc.

This is just a small example that demonstrates how something as simple as writing style could be looked upon as disgusting at one extreme end and not up to the mark with literary standards on the other. There are many more, all being a victim of this particular perceptional biasing. The problem becomes even more grave when such things are internalized into your personality and they show up every now and then. This is where a realization has to come that there is a very thin line that seperates the classes X and Y we talked about.

Next Post: A thin line - II.