Letters - 23 September 2011

From meanings to mental health

by The Friend 23rd September 2011

The letter killeth

In the thirty years that I have been reading letters in the Friend there have been many occasions when one person has taken exception to the words of another.

Some words, when used in legal contexts or in science, have very precise meanings. Others, in less formal speech, especially poetry, are similes, metaphors, or other kinds of analogies. The dispute begins when one Friend uses an analogy which, in its way, might throw useful and sometimes surprising light on a topic. Analogies never fit perfectly, and another Friend criticises the part of the analogy which doesn’t fit, as if it invalidates the whole perception, and sometimes even accuses the first Friend of bad faith.