Theoretical
Here's something I wrote for still_grrr, when they reached the "Fred" prompt in the Month of Madness...
Theoretical
Words are magic.
There are words in spells, and words in stories, and words in textbooks, and words in speeches.
Words matter.
Words affect things.
Pick the right set of words, and you can inspire people - or crush them - or maybe change the world.
Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can… go down in history.
Like “I have a dream”, or “Four score and seven years”, or “Veni, Vidi, Vici” - which actually is all the more memorable because it rhymes. Two syllables, times three words, begin with V, end with I.
(Is it the words, or the syllables, that matter? Syllables can open portals to other worlds.)
“Force equals mass times acceleration” said Newton. And those were the words that mattered - until Einstein came along, with his “E equals MC squared”. A fact that didn’t really exist, until it did.
It’s basic quantum: objects are changed by the observing of them. Saying something is, makes it so.
Words make sense of what previously meant nothing. And scientific formulae don’t just observe the world - observation changes the observed - they define what the world is, and what it can be.
Rewrite the math, and remake reality.
(In spells, is it that the magic makes the words change the shape of things? Or do the words generate the magic? Is “magic” just a word for what words do? And if it’s a word about words, does that make it more effective?)
If it is the word itself that matters, the platonic form of Word-ness, and not merely the expression of it, then the word does not need to be spoken - it just needs to exist, in and of itself.
Which means that writing should work just as well as speaking.
Better, even, because it’s permanent.
Speaking a word merely moves the air (which, given butterfly wings in chaos theory, might be more than just “merely” - this should be investigated further), but writing - permanently staining reality with the ink of words - can stay forever.
If writing down an equation helps you to remember it, if it can communicate thought, in solid form, and lead others to follow on with their own equations, building on yours…
(Words lead to more words. Can they self-propagate?)
Writing something makes it so.
Rewrite the math, you rewrite the world.
Write “safety” enough times, and you will be safe.
Or a story? Yes - write a story where you never got lost, and maybe you didn’t.
Write about yourself, and you can become.
Write about the bedroom walls - the observation changes the observed - and you can make them strong, and right, and secure, and portals will not penetrate them.
One word is a weapon, strong as steel.
Thousands, forged together, written across the walls… they are exponentially multiplied to be a million - a billion - weapons, all weaved into the perfect cage, keeping you safe in this bedroom, protected from the untamed reality outside that hasn’t yet been written.
Write long enough, well enough, and everything will turn out alright.
Because words are magic.
Theoretical
Words are magic.
There are words in spells, and words in stories, and words in textbooks, and words in speeches.
Words matter.
Words affect things.
Pick the right set of words, and you can inspire people - or crush them - or maybe change the world.
Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can… go down in history.
Like “I have a dream”, or “Four score and seven years”, or “Veni, Vidi, Vici” - which actually is all the more memorable because it rhymes. Two syllables, times three words, begin with V, end with I.
(Is it the words, or the syllables, that matter? Syllables can open portals to other worlds.)
“Force equals mass times acceleration” said Newton. And those were the words that mattered - until Einstein came along, with his “E equals MC squared”. A fact that didn’t really exist, until it did.
It’s basic quantum: objects are changed by the observing of them. Saying something is, makes it so.
Words make sense of what previously meant nothing. And scientific formulae don’t just observe the world - observation changes the observed - they define what the world is, and what it can be.
Rewrite the math, and remake reality.
(In spells, is it that the magic makes the words change the shape of things? Or do the words generate the magic? Is “magic” just a word for what words do? And if it’s a word about words, does that make it more effective?)
If it is the word itself that matters, the platonic form of Word-ness, and not merely the expression of it, then the word does not need to be spoken - it just needs to exist, in and of itself.
Which means that writing should work just as well as speaking.
Better, even, because it’s permanent.
Speaking a word merely moves the air (which, given butterfly wings in chaos theory, might be more than just “merely” - this should be investigated further), but writing - permanently staining reality with the ink of words - can stay forever.
If writing down an equation helps you to remember it, if it can communicate thought, in solid form, and lead others to follow on with their own equations, building on yours…
(Words lead to more words. Can they self-propagate?)
Writing something makes it so.
Rewrite the math, you rewrite the world.
Write “safety” enough times, and you will be safe.
Or a story? Yes - write a story where you never got lost, and maybe you didn’t.
Write about yourself, and you can become.
Write about the bedroom walls - the observation changes the observed - and you can make them strong, and right, and secure, and portals will not penetrate them.
One word is a weapon, strong as steel.
Thousands, forged together, written across the walls… they are exponentially multiplied to be a million - a billion - weapons, all weaved into the perfect cage, keeping you safe in this bedroom, protected from the untamed reality outside that hasn’t yet been written.
Write long enough, well enough, and everything will turn out alright.
Because words are magic.