Words, Words, Words

In a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8czs8v6PuI), a recording is given of Woolf’s voice in which she gives her opinion of words. It's quite interesting to see what a writer has to say about the aspect of writing, and with that defining feature I keep going back too, Woolf describes words, not as letters on a page, but rather as one would describe a person.

She talks about how words pose a problem in our language. The problem is that they lost their uniqueness, because some words make people think of a very specific idea.  She notes how words don't like this because it is in everyone's nature to be continuously changing. 

This is a great example of why Woolf stands out to me; the different perspectives she puts in place makes one’s thought process look into these abstract ideas in so many different ways. I hadn't thought of the English language in this way; I hadn't thought of words posing a problem in writing. She seems to be alluding to the fact that because of this, style is needed to transform writing and help use words that have been used to define so many other things, but still give them a unique factor.

One of the things that I heard in the video that really stood out to me was when she said, “words do not live in dictionaries they live in minds” ( From the Woolf video). In a way I feel as though she could have said only this and walked away, leaving us to sit and ponder.

Words are ideas, and ideas aren’t found in dictionaries.