Language is a queer thing (pun intended). Homosexuality has, historically in Western cultures, been something that one does versus what one is. If you've ever seen Angels in America, you may remember a scene where the judge is talking with his doctor. The judge is a very powerful man, has pictures of his meetings with the Regans on the wall, etc. and he goes into a long bit about how he does not have AIDs because he is not a homosexual. You see, homosexuals are powerless, effeminant, meaningless people who have no social or political power. He is not one of those people. No, he is a man who has sex with other men.
Identity politics, largely from the 60s onward, has morphed the notion of "what I do" to "who I am" in a number of subcultures. That has had some positive effects and, I think, some negative as well. But without a doubt, it represents a fascinating change of language. Love and intimacy has been an active area of language for a long long time. I'm not familiar with the early Hebrew, but take the early Greek for example, where you had a clear distinction between Agape, a fraternal, familial, not-so-sexual love versus Eros, a much more romantic and sexual love. Those two words represented a major linguistic distinction in the ancient Greek notion of "love" but it was really just a starting point if you start delving more deeply into what the ancient Greeks thought about love, family, honor and duty. Cheers, Judah On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 6:57 PM, Michael Dinowitz <[email protected]> wrote: > > Judith is by far better than I am. :) > > The wonder of language is concept, distance and time. A concept in one > language changes when it is translated to another and when the second > language changes, that translated concept gets moved a step further > away from it's original meaning. > > I LMAO when I hear people say what a word or phrase in the Torah > "actually means" when they're looking at it through modern eyes and a > half dozen languages. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:328968 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
