Customer Reviews

The Language War

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lakoff, a Berkeley linguist, examines several recent controversies from a linguistic point of view. She has chapters on speech codes, Anita Hill, Hillary Rodham Clinton, O. J. Simpson, Ebonics, and Monicagate, but she doesn't discuss the events themselves (although her viewpoint is usually quite clear); rather, she concentrates on the national discourse on the events. Her overarching thesis is that each of these controversies is part of a language war, in which previously downtrodden groups (especially blacks and women) are trying to seize the right to define themselves away from the traditional holders of power over language (i.e., white middle-class men).

She speaks from a post-modern point of view, but much more rationally than I normally associate with the po-mo crowd. Through this book, I have developed much more sympathy for some of the underlying tenets of post-modern thought, if not for the more extreme examples that have turned post-modernism into self-parody (e.g., believing an article claiming that gravity is a social construct). Although Lakoff is somewhat out there at times, she's not too far out, and not all that often; and even when I don't agree with her, I still find myself understanding better the different sides of these very divisive issues, which in itself is a noble goal. And the book is a pure delight to read; Lakoff's style is breezy and pleasant, and she usually remembers to define linguistics jargon for her general audience. She is, however, a self-confessed unrepentant liberal, and more conservative readers may find her point-of-view somewhat hard to take.

My only quibble is that her publisher has fallen prey to the evil of endnotes; they are especially criminal in this case, where the notes are few in number but highly useful. They should have been placed at the bottom of the page, where they belong.

Some events you experience directly. Most events you learn about, usually by listening to someone or by reading an account. Because of this, who tells you the story and how that person tells it is important. If you interrupt a fight between two children, you usually expect them to tell different stories about who started the fight and why. In the terms Robin Lakoff uses, multiple narrators frame the story in different ways.

Lakoff's central thesis is that many of our most recent political and social conflicts involve the use and ownership of language and discourse, often as the central point of the "war." This is immediately obvious in the chapters concerned with the history and usage of "politically correct" and speech codes and on the role of Ebonics in education. As Lakoff herself admits, her thesis is more controversial when she discusses the other topics in the book: Clarence Thomas & Anita Hill; public perception of Hillary Rodham Clinton; the O.J. Simpson Trial; and the Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr imbroglio.

Lakoff embraces a post-modernist view of language and its use: the speaker's use of language can shape perceptual reality. Words have power and who defines a word is important. As Lakoff argues, many of the assumptions underlying Standard American English derive from the views and experience of a particular constellation of economic, social and ethnic groups, primarily white and led by men. As various minority groups have become more influential or have greater access to center-stage, standing assumptions are challenged. And when the status quo changes, those who liked it react strongly.

Lakoff also reminds us that who gets to talk and ask questions and what are allowable questions and answers is an important practical concern in linguistics. Thus, when considering Hill and Thomas, she is less immediately concerned with the facts than with what questions were asked of whom and how the media and the Senate Judiciary Committee depicted those involved. The depiction of Anita Hill depended in part on a set of definitions of who women are and how they may behave, i.e., on a common understanding of English and its meaning, whether or not this matched reality.

Lakoff writes in a very clear and pleasant style. While she uses linguistic terms throughout the work, she does so in a way that does not overwhelm the non-specialist reader, but also assumes a level of intelligence and ability to learn. Her chapters form coherent wholes, incorporating sufficient background to supplement what knowledge we already have of each incident. Most readers should find something of value in Lakoff's work, even if they don't find it as compelling an argument as others.

The Language War is particularly apropos for those who read or write reviews on Amazon. Lakoff briefly discusses the reviews of It Takes a Village and the techniques used by those who didn't care for Rodham Clinton, regardless of the merit of the book.

Erika Lopez is a true Equal Opportunity Offender, in the ranks of Howard Stern and the Farrelly brothers (There's Something About Mary). Her humor is shriekingly, gross-out funny. I found myself screaming "EW! NO WAY!" out loud (and by myself) as I read Mad Dog. Aside from the incredible sound-bite imagery, the storyline makes you eat this whole book in one sitting. Mad Dog is a more fully realized narrative than Flaming Iguanas, showing Lopez' growth and confidence as a writer. Her artwork, as always, is gorgeous, this time geared more towards line drawings than stamp art, drawings of bodacious, Chiquita fruit bearing, thigh-weilding, pastie-wearing babes! A jilted Tomato aka Mad Dog Rodriguez is the antiheroine for anyone of any sexual proclivity who's ever indulged a revenge fantasy.

This book covers in capsulated form the methods Tennesseans used to get to the California Gold Rush, naming names and parties as well as routes, but not the entire diaries. It would be very helpful for anyone doing genealogy whose ancestors came from Tennessee to California. Of particular interest to me was how many of them went into politics including Peter Burnett, the First American Governor, plus Wm. Gwin, the first 6 year Senator and many others. It is meticulously researched.

A friend in San Francisco mailed this to me last year just prior to the start of combat in Iraq. I sat up late at night with mortars and artillery booming, and laughed my ass off. To make matters worse, there was a guy in my platoon who is from the Castro who's mom and grandmother used to enjoy making cocktails and watching Matlock topless. He was talking about it one day (he's 18, and hadn't heard of the book), and when I showed it to him, he just had a strange look on his face and said he would call home when he could...

Language matters a lot. If you want to know how the rightwing media and government seduce the American people by playing the victimization game even while robbing the hard working class and want to win the real war against fascism, this book is for you. There is no question that be it OJ Simpson, Robert Blake, Laci and Scott Peterson, Chandra Levy and Gary Condit, Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, Terri Schiavo, and other frivolous stories in the media, this book pretty much nails why this kind of unimportant bs beats the dangerous reality such as Iraq war failure and national debts. Time to reframe and smack out the distractors in the media and face reality.

Anyone familiar with deconstructionist literary theories could easily tell you that the reviewer named "A reader" (the one who went on the anti-feminist rant and used the word "spokesbitches") is:

(a) Definitely not female (as s/he claims)
(b) Writing a review that is of and about this book in ways the reviewer, quite comically, will never understand.

Read this book, "The Language of War"--along with some Derrida, Lacan, Fineman, Greenblatt, and Bretzius--and you'll be able to see through such mis-uses of language too.

Lopez translates all the dirty human emotions that absolutely no one cares to discuss into text in 'Mad Dog.' The result is hilarious and a completely enjoyable read.

Another plus is that it's a relatively easy and painless read. The illustrations are an added bonus.

Everything Erica Lopez writes is tragically funny and will make you feel like the kind of fierce woman who will not stand meekly by when she is wronged, but instead will obsess about it and make poor, vengeful decisions - but they wil be decisive decisions! And when it all goes wrong, she'll love you anyway, and she'll be there to smoke too many cigarettes with you and laugh bitterly about everything. Read all her books, and then call me; I'm starting my own all-girl biker gang.

This book is hilarious...I was literally laughing out loud...My friend recommended it to me, and I couldn't put it down...I suppose reading it in Sophomore Algebra wasn't the best plan, but at least I had enough sense to hide it from my mom, but I guess if you are a legal adult you won't have these problems...ENJOY!