| > Unless you mean to imply that formulating an original poem in your mind counts as "writing" You're close. I'm making the point that, in modern English, no other verb is available for the act of creating a poem. Here's a quote from the fantasy novel The Way of Kings that always appealed to me: >> "Many of our nuatoma -- this thing, it is the same as your lighteyes, only their eyes are not light--" >> "How can you be a lighteyes without light eyes?" Teft said with a scowl. >> "By having dark eyes," Rock said, as if it were obvious. "We do not pick our leaders this way. Is complicated. But do not interrupt story." For an example from reality, I am forced to tell people who ask me that the English translation of 姓 is "last name", despite the fact that the 姓 comes first. Similarly, the word for writing a poem is "write", whether this creates a written artifact or not. And the poem is literature whether a written artifact currently exists, used to exist, or never existed. (Though you've made me curious: if the Iliad wasn't literature until someone wrote it down, do you symmetrically believe that Sophocles' Sisyphus is no longer literature because it is no longer written down?) |
Make, Create, Formulate.
> I am forced to tell people who ask me that the English translation of 姓 is "last name", despite the fact that the 姓 comes first.
"Family name" is availabe, commonly used and a better traslation than "last name" here, no?
> Similarly...
You're probably pretty alone in this thinking.
I don't think the metaphysical argument about Sisyhus is interestng or relevant.
I don't consider all movies to be literature. Do you consider all movies to be literature by definition?
I also write computer programs and banking checks. Does that make them literature to you?