The word "technology" actually means
"writings about technique".
Now, that makes it fairly obvious
that language itself is our first technology.
Not only that, it's the one that all of the other technologies
are built upon.
So, it is the fundamental foundation stone
of the whole human experience.
Now, Count Alfred Korzybski
who was like the Einstein of language
the Einstein of semantics
he came to the conclusion that...
everything in human consciousness
everything in human reality, therefore
is made of nothing but language.
Therefore, by using the right language
you can utterly transform someone's consciousness
and therefore, you can utterly transform their reality.
What Korzybski is actually saying
by stating that the entire human consciousness
and the entire human reality is made of nothing but words
is, when you think about it
that if we do not have a word for a thing
we cannot experience it.
We do not have a concept for a thing
until we have a word for it.
Something that illustrates this quite dramatically
is the story that I heard
about the conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Apparently, one day...
some members of the Aztec population
were down on the seashore
and remarking to each other
that there seemed to be something funny about the sea.
They couldn't quite put their finger upon it
but there was something odd about the sea
something wrong with the sea.
What was wrong with the sea
and why they couldn't put a word to it
is because they did not have a word
for a number of Spanish galleons.
That was what was wrong with the sea.
There were Spanish warships which they had no concept of
and so, could not see.
Or, if they couldn't see them
they couldn't see them as anything more
than something wrong with the sea.
This is an indication, I think, and a pretty fierce one
of just how much we rely upon words
to see what is in front of our faces.
Now, it is important, obviously
if you're going to achieve these effects
upon altering human consciousness
it is good to have as wide a vocabulary as possible.
And to do that, to actually acquire that kind of vocabulary
you're going to need a dictionary
I would suggest an etymological dictionary
which tells you where all the words come from
and precisely what they mean. That is invaluable.
But, more than that, you are going to need a love of language
you're going to need a love of new and unusual words.
I can remember my dear old mother.
When I was growing up
you know, language, there wasn't a lot of it around
in the working-class neighbourhoods
that I grew up in.
We didn't have a lot of books in the house, hardly any.
Nevertheless, my mother, particularly
really, really enjoyed unusual words.
It was as if these were words
that were actually for better off people
but that somehow she had come across them by accident
or stolen them, and even though she wasn't the sort of person
who was actually supposed to use these words
she would take a kind of a real glee in saying
"Oh, our Alan, why do you have to be so obstreperous?"
And that, I think, was contagious.
I began to love gathering unusual words.
And there are some fantastic words out there.
Craquelure. That means the web of fissures
in the varnish on a painting.
Or xanthic which means... Basically, it means yellow.
But it's a much nicer way of saying it.
There are all of these absolutely fabulous words.
My favourite in recent times, that I used
and you can only use this word once in a lifetime if that
and it's the word quaquaversal.
Quaquaversal means
spreading out evenly in all directions.
I used it in a description
of a massive pile of pornography
which I referred to as
"a quaquaversal strumpet cascade."
So, you might only ever use these words once, if that
but it's great to know them.
So, if our entire reality, if our entire consciousness
is made of language
that means that with only a couple of dozen characters
say 26, and with a peppering of punctuation
that we can recreate anything that is conceivable
within the universe.
Now, that to my mind
is a really elegant technology.
To be able to do everything with so little.
And what that does
is actually to enable us
to create a genuine virtual reality.
A reality which completely captivates the reader's mind
so that they are there in the book
if the writing is good enough.
And, I would say, that the virtual reality
that can be created by a good book
is a lot more pervasive, a lot more powerful
than anything that will ever be within the reach
of electronic technology.
For example, imagine that you have got the perfect VR headset.
The complete full body haptic clothing
that will enable you to feel things.
Imagine that you've got something
that will actually give you a virtual sense of smell.
Now, then you're going to don all of this equipment
and you're going to have an experience
of being in the middle of one of the major battles
of the Crimean War.
You can actually feel the judder of the recoil of the cannons
shaking the earth beneath your feet.
You can hear the screams of the horses.
You can smell the cordite and the smoke in the air.
Or, you could read a copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace
which would actually give you a meaningful account
of what was happening.
Because there's a lot more to experience
than just simple sensation.
Simply being able to feel things.
What is more important is being able to understand things.
And that is something that only the virtual reality of a book
can actually give you.
Now, with that scattering of punctuation
with those letters...
you can create things of dangerous power.
This is... Yes, you can create trivial short stories
or mild entertainment.
But, you must be careful
because you can also create things that are so explosive
that could change the world.
You could...
Well, imagine books like say, the Bible.
Imagine books like the Koran.
Books like Kapital.
Books like Mein Kampf.
All of these books
how many people did they condemn to death?
How many people did they, possibly, liberate?
But, whatever they did
they changed the world beyond recognition.
So, I suppose...
that one of the take away messages from this is that
remember the power you have as a writer.
And use it wisely.
And, whatever you do
don't write Mein Kampf.