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abethel's review
5.0
Full of valuable insights about our relationship to and use of words, as humans, artists, writers, teachers, students. I would say that it applies to everyone. You know it's a good book when you finish it and immediately want to start reading again from the beginning!
jenmkin's review
4.0
McEntyre has a lot of beautiful thoughts & good points of reflection about the value of taking time to slow down and reflect and see the value and beauty of language in today's world--maybe it's telling that it took me almost two full years to finish reading this book
The actual reading experience wasn't my favorite, but it was worth it for the content
The actual reading experience wasn't my favorite, but it was worth it for the content
timhoiland's review
5.0
From “fake news” to “alternative facts,” we’re facing a crisis when it comes to the value and believability of words. I’m troubled by this on a number of levels. I’m troubled as a writer and editor who handles words for a living. I’m troubled as a reader and subscriber of various publications, running the gamut from news to opinion, right to left, “religious” to “secular,” high-brow to low. And, perhaps most of all, I’m troubled as a citizen, who is seeing confidence in the possibility of truthfulness vanishing from the public square before our very eyes.
A few years ago, on the recommendation of a friend who stewards words as well as anyone I know, I read Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, who with remarkable prescience seemed to anticipate the coming storm before most of us did. The book was timely then. It’s even more so now.
McEntyre calls upon us to think a little more deeply than our typical reflexive selves normally do. She invites us to slow down, take a deep breath, and honestly assess the ways we make sense of the world around us – and particularly the ways in which we decide what we believe to be “true” in any given area of life.
In one especially poignant passage, McEntyre posits a series of questions – not about the other, but about ourselves – that I think would serve us well at this pivotal cultural moment:
What are my responsibilities as a citizen?
As a person of faith?
As a consumer?
As a leader?
As a parent?
As an educator?
What am I avoiding knowing?
Why?
What point of view am I protecting?
Why?
How have I arrived at my assumptions about what sources of information to rely on?
What limits my angle of vision?
Have I tried to imagine how one might arrive at a different conclusion?
How much evidence do I need to be convinced?
What kind of persuasion works most effectively for me?
How do I accredit or challenge authority?
She goes on to conclude: “The answers to these questions are not simply personal. Some of them involve serious theological reflection on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the state, what it means to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, and whether and how to participate in the conduct of worldly affairs. If you’re Mennonite or Amish, that boundary is drawn pretty clearly. But most of us, I think, are navigating the murky middle ground marked out between not-so-separate church and state, trying to resist manipulation, seek truth, and act on it justly in the ways that remain open to us.”
Resisting manipulation. Seeking truth. Acting justly. These pursuits, it seems to me, are unassailable for those of us who are troubled by “post-truth” developments in any sector of society – not least for those of us who claim to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
A few years ago, on the recommendation of a friend who stewards words as well as anyone I know, I read Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, who with remarkable prescience seemed to anticipate the coming storm before most of us did. The book was timely then. It’s even more so now.
McEntyre calls upon us to think a little more deeply than our typical reflexive selves normally do. She invites us to slow down, take a deep breath, and honestly assess the ways we make sense of the world around us – and particularly the ways in which we decide what we believe to be “true” in any given area of life.
In one especially poignant passage, McEntyre posits a series of questions – not about the other, but about ourselves – that I think would serve us well at this pivotal cultural moment:
What are my responsibilities as a citizen?
As a person of faith?
As a consumer?
As a leader?
As a parent?
As an educator?
What am I avoiding knowing?
Why?
What point of view am I protecting?
Why?
How have I arrived at my assumptions about what sources of information to rely on?
What limits my angle of vision?
Have I tried to imagine how one might arrive at a different conclusion?
How much evidence do I need to be convinced?
What kind of persuasion works most effectively for me?
How do I accredit or challenge authority?
She goes on to conclude: “The answers to these questions are not simply personal. Some of them involve serious theological reflection on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the state, what it means to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, and whether and how to participate in the conduct of worldly affairs. If you’re Mennonite or Amish, that boundary is drawn pretty clearly. But most of us, I think, are navigating the murky middle ground marked out between not-so-separate church and state, trying to resist manipulation, seek truth, and act on it justly in the ways that remain open to us.”
Resisting manipulation. Seeking truth. Acting justly. These pursuits, it seems to me, are unassailable for those of us who are troubled by “post-truth” developments in any sector of society – not least for those of us who claim to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
hpuphd's review
5.0
Many reviewers here and at Amazon do not like chapter seven on loving the long sentence, but I appreciated that and all the others. This is my second reading, and I am still finding things to underline (like these comments, p. 68, 71: “Consider, for instance, how good reading involves attitudes and predispositions: consent, permission, forgiveness, relinquishment, empathy, resistance, compromise. What do you have to forgive Hemingway to get the gift that he offers? His machismo? His anti-Semitism? What do you need to consent to in order to read The Sound and the Fury on its terms? . . . to make ready to receive precisely the gift one needs in precisely this moment of reading”). Originally a series of lectures at Princeton Seminary, this is a rewarding book.
elundhansen's review
3.0
I really wanted to love this book. I agreed with so many of her insights and conclusions--but it's amazing how a cultural commentary from 2009 can already sound so, so dated. I can't help but wonder how McEntyre would approach writing these topics in 2020, when we're more media-, information-, lie-saturated than ever before. I also wonder how this book might change if McEntyre were not quite as reliant on the Western literary canon (Wendell Berry and T. S. Eliot in particular) and broadened her bibliography to include more insights from non-American, non-European voices. There are still some gems of truth in this book, though, and I'll certainly be returning to some of my highlighted passages in it.
mherrema's review
5.0
MCME practices the same 'stewardship principles' she proposes, examining both language itself and cultural usage of it with the unflinching precision that stems from love.
bugail's review
4.0
I think I’d need to read this book at least three more times to fully let it sink in & change the way I approach language. Lots of good ideas, a little too much “the younger generation is ruining language” for me.
claudiaswisher's review
5.0
Meditations on words and poems and language...McEntyre gives us 12 strategies to cherish our language, to respect its power, and to pay homage to its grandeur. Published in 2008, it's more timely today than ever...with discourse being coarsened, with lies being brazenly tossed about.
"Caring for language is a moral issue" in our society, and we must stand strong against those who manipulate words and people for their own purposes. She tells us that what passes for public discourse is "ad hominem, argument, accusation, smear campaigns, hyperbole, broken promises, distortions, and lies (of COURSE she uses the Oxford comma!!)."
The strategies for caring for words? Love words, Tell the truth, Don't tolerate lies, Stay in conversation, Share stories, Love the long sentence, Practice poetry, Attend to translation, Play, Pray, and Cherish silence.
What if we all promised, in our private lives and public lives, to use these strategies? What if we expected our policy makers to use these strategies?
McEntyre talks often about her classes, and that made me wish I could just sit in, and listen.
"Caring for language is a moral issue" in our society, and we must stand strong against those who manipulate words and people for their own purposes. She tells us that what passes for public discourse is "ad hominem, argument, accusation, smear campaigns, hyperbole, broken promises, distortions, and lies (of COURSE she uses the Oxford comma!!)."
The strategies for caring for words? Love words, Tell the truth, Don't tolerate lies, Stay in conversation, Share stories, Love the long sentence, Practice poetry, Attend to translation, Play, Pray, and Cherish silence.
What if we all promised, in our private lives and public lives, to use these strategies? What if we expected our policy makers to use these strategies?
McEntyre talks often about her classes, and that made me wish I could just sit in, and listen.
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