Rhetoric
rhetoric is a metalanguage that describes and explains how language works.
Robin Reames • The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself
linguistic concept called the theory of performativity says that language does not simply describe or reflect who we are, it creates who we are.
Amanda Montell • Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
Word magic
"Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear." — Hannah Arendt
language can do so much to squash independent thinking, obscure truths, encourage confirmation bias, and emotionally charge experiences such that no other way of life seems possible.
Amanda Montell • Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
And stories make place.24 This means the metaphoric, allegorical, symbolic, and other devices that shape stories also move us and make place.
Katherine McKittrick • Dear Science and Other Stories
Ideas related to this collection