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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write. Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground. Kiya's gift. I love it!
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"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
CHARLIE CHAPLIN


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Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

David Whyte


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This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts.

August 17, 2015 at 12:36pm
August 17, 2015 at 12:36pm
#857667
Prompt: “Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.” Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey
How do you think vulgarity and wit affect speech?


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Some vulgar stuff delivered by a competent stand-up comic can be witty; however, the same idea can be presented without being vulgar, which means that the comedian has to work harder and think deeper. It is easier to make people laugh by shocking them.

I think what is considered vulgar and what is not changes from time to time and from culture to culture. For example, a deeply religious person may believe that uttering the Lord’s name in vain to be vulgar and is very much offended by it. For another person, asking him or her personal questions may sound vulgar. Then, yet another person concentrates on specific words as being vulgar. Like beauty, therefore, vulgarity can also be in the eyes of the beholder.

Wit, on the other hand, is universal as intelligent humor. No wonder that in its archaic form, wit means to know or come to know, in other words to learn; with that in mind, who among us doesn’t appreciate knowledge? To show wit, a person has to understand a subject or a situation in its totality.

We consider Mark Twain’s wit to be universal and timeless because he knows and understands human nature very well. He also pays attention to the usage as far as words go, and I certainly agree with him when he says: ““The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

Then, in speech or writing, depending upon what is considered vulgar and what is not, why not use the right word, instead of using the shocking effect even if the shocking effect may have its significance in rare situations?


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