I’m done with my thesis. Finally. 2 years of work, and 3 people (plus my parents and partner) will read it. Unless you, happy denizens, would like to experience me in all my Faulknerian glory….anyone? I thought not. 
Anyway, since I just poured over 16,000 words on Faulkner out, I’m thinking about the meaning of those words. Does language matter? I hope so, because if it doesn’t, my language analyzing Faulkner’s language is going to be exceedingly irrelevant. But I think words do matter. Most of the controversies in the Democratic Primary have been linguistic in nature (rather than policy), particularly the recent, legitimate, I think, arguments over the use of the word “boy” to describe Barack Obama as well as Obama’s use of the words “bitter” and “cling”.
Another interesting example of the significance of language: Allah vs. God
Should we be debating policy instead of language? Is this semantics at its worst? Is this a ruse to hide the real issues, or are the words we use the real issues?
