Wednesday 1 April 2009

Words and Naming

"It is a word. Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power,
words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring
tears from the hardest hearts. . . . But a word is nothing but a painting of a
fire. A name is the fire itself."

-Name of the Wind


I think this quietly summed up part of the reason why I love words and languages. And naming everything and everyone.
Naturally, I was very happy when my favourite character (however minor he might seem to be) said this. I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat through that whole passage, and these lines have stuck in my head and refuse to come out. So now I'm sharing them.

4 comments:

  1. I'm now wondering who your favorite character is, as I have not stumbled across this passage yet.
    I have an idea of who would be your fave character, though, judging by the personalities of the characters in the book. Lemme guess . . . . Elodin or whatever his name was, the guy who runs around wearing one sock and stuff??

    ReplyDelete
  2. And I like that quote. A lot. I forgot to mention that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jhaniel, yes, it's Elodin. :) He's just so crazy - I can imagine myself doing a lot of what he does. Just so oblivious to everyone else and normalcy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Heh heh, is it sad that I immediately thought of you when I met his character? I'm pleased to be correct, though ^_^

    And yeah, there's nothing wrong with running around wearing one sock, and long polished corridors are MADE to be danced on/slid on.

    ReplyDelete

What thoughts do you have for me?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...