index publications about ordering
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index publications about ordering |
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Dan Featherston |
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A lush exploration of language, both the native tongue of an island people rich with their own heritage, and the enforced language of missionaries demanding the "civilized" letters of w, I, m. This text ponders not only foreignness but also the intricacies of living on an island surrounded by sea, wind, and foreboding. Abecedarius or primer: a
small prayer book, a work of elementary instruction, key in the door of
language. Master code of language. And sacred. Aside from children's primers
(those storied alphabets with letters twined & twinned to illustrations),
the abecedarius has all but disappeared. Its Western roots extend back
into Semitic & ancient Hebrew texts. Forward as a mnemonic device
for children, way of fleshing out the abstract alphabet in order to remember.
Remembering -- a kind of order. Like gematria & numerology, letters
are potent with values & contain power in "right sequence."
Not much distance between the child learning her ABC's & the Kabbalist
memorizing texts by the numerical value of the Hebrew letters. Nomadic
cultures &/or cultures threatened with rapid change often preserve
their languages within such codes. Memory as an act of survival: whole
narratives embedded within the seeds of acrostics, acronyms, grotesque
alphabets, pictographs. |