Ology vs Ism

If you've seen the 1999 film The Boondock Saints, you may remember the part when Agent Paul Smecker, played by Willem Dafoe, corrects Detective Dolly's use of the word "symbology." The officer was referring to the practice of placing coins on the eyes of the dead so the departed soul would have the necessary toll to pay Charon, the spirit in the classical Greek and Italian Underworld who mans a boat across the River Styx.

Although Smecker was correct that Dolly was not using the right word, Smecker implied that symbology was not a real word. Surprise! Symbology is a system of symbols that express meaning, much like the way hieroglyphs express meaning through pictorial means. Since Dolly was not talking about something related to an alphabet, he was indeed looking for the word Symbolism, or an artistic device that endows tangible objects with intangible ideas. For example, the idea that pennies on the eyes of a dead man can give him safe passage to the afterlife.

The problem with ebooks

It's no secret that I've long been a supporter of print books. Print books suit my needs better than ebooks for many reasons. I like the feeling of flipping through pages, especially when I reach a plot-critical moment in the story and I want to flip back to another earlier moment to confirm a name or plot point. In the wake of one superstorm and one snowstorm, both of which knocked out the power, I especially love that books don't need batteries. I like that you can read them in sunlight, and at the beach, and not have to worry about them malfunctioning due to water damage or sand in the keys. I like the smell of paper and ink. And there's nothing quite like gazing up at a bookshelf stuffed with the colorful spines of books you've read.

But I also appreciate the many advantages that ebook devices give to many readers: one can carry many books at a time, all in one place (phone, tablet, computer, or dedicated ereader). That's great for people who, like me, often read more than one book at a time. Ebook devices have lit screens so you can read without another light on, you can make the type bigger, and they're lighter than most books, even paperbacks, which is all good for older readers. To me, the best thing about ebooks is that it just gets more people reading, which is always good, regardless of format.

But. My biggest problem with ebooks is that you can never truly own them because they don't exist. 

I have an iPod touch on which I have some ebooks that I downloaded for free, which is great when I'm waiting somewhere without a book and feel like reading something. I also have a lot of great apps on my iPod, from Gmail to Fruit Ninja, all downloaded for free. I never got into the games that require you to buy coins or farm animals or other "virtual merchandise" for real money. I just don't see the point of paying for something that only exists in the virtual world.

And now, ebook readers' tenuous ownership of ebooks that they have purchased turns out to be even less substantial than it was before. 

According to ZD Net, Amazon and other ebooks suppliers were never selling ebooks at all. They were only selling licenses to access their vast repositories of digital books. Licenses that, their user contracts state, they have the right to revoke at any time, regardless of how much the user paid. Read the full article here.


In her closing paragraphs, the author of the article makes a statement that I disagree with in two ways. She says, “With the imminent demise of the printed book, we are going to have to get used to the way we purchase but do not own electronic goods.”

First of all, printed books are not about to go up in flames. There will always be a market for printed books because their advantages are different from those of ebooks. Like traditional movies vs. 3D movies, both formats appeal to consumers with different wants and needs.

Secondly, we do not have “get used to” the idea of not owning the things we pay for. This is another one of the advantages of printed books. I like owning a book tht someone would actually have to physically remove from my physical bookshelf in order to take it away from me. The same goes for music. I also have a good-sized music library on my iPod, and for reasons unknown to me, some of it mysteriously disappears from my iTunes library from time to time. If it weren’t for the physical copies of CDs that I own, that music that existed in my virtual library would have been gone forever.

My books are some of my most valued possessions, and I don’t that to happen to them.

Laughs that never get old

There are a few things in this world that always make me laugh, including corny jokes, Whose Line is it Anyway?, and dramatic typos. 

Currency from the "Republica de Chiie"

This collection of photos from The Guardian includes some of the best worst typos I have ever seen, and gave me some nice deep belly laughs. While seeing such typos as these may make us think that the perpetrators should go back to "shcool," we would do well to remember that we're all only human, and typos happen to everyone. But that doesn't make them any less enjoyable.

Buy a Dictionary

These posters, designed by graphic artist Alison Rowan, are a bold, aesthetic way to speak out against what I think of as language laziness: using a word in an inappropriate way because the speaker is too lazy to search for the right one. These posters show how one can replace a word used in a derogatory manner with a more specific and appropriate one.

They also show one language's great advantages: the ability to say exactly what you mean to say. If you truly feel strongly about what you say, why wouldn't you want such a powerful advantage?