The Word

F.R. Leavis, a pioneer critic in the study of Popular Culture, once famously castigated Advertising not just for the debasement of language but also for the debasement of the emotional life of the language community as a whole. Leavis might be a little or way off the mark depending on which side of the ideological fence you are on. But what cannot be denied is that language today is certainly overused, if not dramatically debased. You see the written word wherever you throw a glance - sliding along news scrolls, blown up to screaming proportions on hoardings, shrunken below eye-power on how-to-use manuals, even stretching calligraphically around/across your hips, arms and chest if you happen to be a tattoo freak. That's just about everywhere. So is functional writing taking over the creative side? The answer is a reluctant 'yes' perhaps. The highpoint of any system comes when it transcends its utilitarian goal and soars towards something higher. Similarly, though the inceptive intent of Language itself was functional, its highpoint came when it was put to the end of Creative Writing.

Today, a small band of people who believe the written word truly belongs to this stage of its evolution want to take it back there without negating any other. We, here, do not stake any grand claims to such a band. We're here because we love the Word. Simply put, we want to celebrate the Word in all its creative impulse. Selfishly put, I'm here because every aspiring writer needs a periodical reassurance (a fortnightly, perhaps?) that he's still got it in him, that he has not, as yet, stumbled onto the other side of the Leavisian fence. Finally, the Word is certainly incomplete without the Reader. You read us today; hope you read us again.



- Siddhesh Inamdar
siddhesh.inamdar@gmail.com