Boy oh boy, the internet may be a great leveler, in terms of opening up the world to more voices, but my oh my, how journalistic standards have fallen.

How many barely literate articles have I tried to wade through in the past week? I don’t know if any of them would have earned a C had they been submitted to any of my high school English teachers. The quality of the movie criticism, similarly, has plummeted. There’s something to be said for pushing past the gatekeepers and making the world a more democratic place, but I have to tell you, I kind of miss the gatekeepers. At least the standards were higher.

On a related note, I notice an alarming trend, even among publishers (see the recent blowup about editing the works of Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, and others, for perceived insensitivity issues, but also to bring the language “current”), to weed out obscure words, or words that have taken on other meanings in contemporary usage (gay and queer, for example). Are we to the point now where it’s felt to be necessary to weed-whack the English language so that even the most brutish among us can be trusted to understand what they are reading? Have people forgotten about the existence of dictionaries?

In the meantime, “words” like LOL and OMG (and even the heart symbol?) have found their way into the Oxford English Dictionary.
I wonder if anyone reads – or is capable of reading – Poe or Conan Doyle for pleasure anymore.

“But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel.”

― Edgar Allan Poe, “Masque of the Red Death”

“‘It was a confession,’ I ejaculated.”

― Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League”

Both bound to draw titters in the classroom. (Will I be misconstrued if I write titters?) But this in itself should be a learning opportunity.

Unfortunately, everyone is operating in such a climate of fear – fear of over-protective parents, fear of employers guided by zero-tolerance policies designed to head off the next controversy or frivolous lawsuit. Surely, Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo would have a field day with the abuse of “justice.”

How does anyone learn about anything if, as a society, it becomes the norm for us to obliterate anything that offends us, without a deeper understanding of what it is we are even reading? In winnowing the language down to a few thousand of the most frequently used words we sacrifice nuance and color. Many words may have similar or even the same meanings, but employing them in specific contexts lends richness and savor to well-written prose.

We should be able to use a word like “queer” without it stirring controversy in certain parts of the country. And at the risk of being accused of “othersidism,” we should also be able to confront what is now considered offensive language in a mature, enlightened manner. The past is the past. Learn from it, and try to do better.

As someone who cares deeply about literature and “culture,” I am tired of being squeezed between angry mobs on the so-called Left and Right. You want change? Do what you can to contribute to your own culture, in the present, but leave the past the hell alone.

Also, please write better.