“I grew up in a steelworking community surrounded by stark and beautiful nature that often is forgotten in national sterotypes of my place and exotic words were like lava bubbling under a crust of the kind of language that allows you to survive when your life’s mapped out in shifts”.
That contrast between the richness of a place and the way it is stereotyped, and how that relates to language, made me think of an interview I did with a writer/consultant/lead artist, Denna Jones (www.dennajones.com) for an article about writing and the public realm, which will be published in the next edition of Mslexia. Denna spent some of her childhood in the desert of Southern California; she says: ‘I’m very aware of the language used to erroneously describe the desert – bleak, empty, etc. – and I notice similar pejorative language used about areas designated for regeneration too. But, in reality, the desert is a hugely rich and complex place. I get very concerned about projects which assume places with problems are just blank pages.’
(http://aplaceforwordsuw.blogspot.com/2009/05/blank-pages.html)

Sarah