The Power of Babel is a 2001 book by John McWhorter that I’m still reading after 3 weeks.
It’s filled with so many examples and comparisons I couldn’t help but get derailed every few pages looking for the comparisons mentioned, especially with regards to the many language similarities. Now, over two decades later, I’m able to readily access videos comparing speakers of different but similar languages on the internet, easily elucidating his point about languages in much more tangible and detailed manner.
Very distracting, but very enlightening. A part of me doesn’t want to part with this book—I’ve even given it a pet name: “Babby” when reminding myself I still have many chapters to read. Reading an interesting book is always a quandary, because as much as I want to read it, I know that the more I read, the faster I reach the end of it. Perhaps this doesn’t apply to those who read books more than once, but I, even when it comes to movies and shows, only go through things once.
It’s complicated to explain, but to put it simply, I usually end up scrambling my knowledge when going through something twice as I lose focus—the lack of novelty dramatically decreases my motivation to read. Much of my motivation comes from novelty—it’s hard to be curious about something I already know unless it’s about whether I really know.
I remember a line where “My Best Friend’s Wedding” was mentioned—or rather, a song from it called “I Say a Little Prayer”—and I ended up distracted for 90 minutes watching the Chinese remake (I couldn’t find the original). It had the song, but I don’t know if it was from the original movie. Either way, the point was about the different interpretations of any particular song, so this version, even if not the original, still serves as an example albeit still very unnecessary and a questionable use of my time. It was a decent movie, but if we’re talking about similar stories, I liked the Korean “On Your Wedding Day” more.
That’s about all I have to say for now. Though I’m only at Chapter 4, I’ve already learned a tremendous amount (supplemented by my own research) and I’m very optimistic about the rest of the book, even if it will take me an inordinate amount of time to finish.
