Meanwhile, Back at the Salt Mines

Finishing Chapter 18 should be simple. I've got it half there. I know what happens. I know where it leaves off and all the juicy stuff that's coming in Chapter 19. But every time I pull up the file I am filled with what I can only call a sense of dread. WTF, Book? Really, shouldn't we be sliding down the hill toward the finish line squealling "WHEEEEEE!" at this point?

Children. I swear.

Mild Ethical Quandry

Before the dreadful events in Tucson this weekend, one of the things that was circulating my little corner of the web was a report, and then video, of Congressman Steve King "defending" the mendacity of House leadership.

It's pretty clear that what King meant was "veracity." For those of us who don't associate veracity with the new House leadership, this clip is a goldmine: Look! He's saying what we think, but he doesn't even realize it! Inigo Montoya has been frequently cited in commentary.

For compulsive word users (and I think we know who we are, don't we?) this is the sort of thing that drives us crazy. But as I was watching the clip and feeling my inner meanie begin to gloat, I began also to think, "okay, if I'm one of the majority of people who don't care about word choice, who survived English class and vowed never to worry about grammar or spelling or vocabulary as long as they lived, this is a non-event. And my gloating at them is a little like numerate folks pointing and laughing at my stubborn innumeracy (and worse, my disdain for math except when absolutely required)."

This is where schisms begin. It's fun to laugh at the guy who makes a mistake in vocabulary, or thinks that potato is spelled potatoe. But it also breeds suspicion. "You think you're so smart because you can spell potato and I can't? What does it matter, anyway?" Which generalizes outward to "I don't care how to spell potato, so why the hell should I care if my congressman knows what mendacity means?"

I want smart, well educated, thoughtful people running this country. I do. But it occurred to me this morning that one way to help that happen is not to make other citizens defensive about their education or vocabularies. Because a defensive person might prefer to elect someone who won't look down at them--or make them feel looked down on. So I'm going to try to be a little less snarky about the linguistic failings of others. Bear with me--I expect this to be a serious work in progress.

And in Other News

I broke the back of Chapter 18. With about 350 pages of first draft to go, and some scenes in the next two chapters already sketched out, I begin to think this book will actually get finished.

Then I'll have to go in and make it, like, make sense and have continuity and emotional flow and stuff. But Chapter 18, which had been sitting back on its haunches taunting me, finally yielded to my blandishments.