Once you’ve navigated through this quote laden cluster of very inaccessible and dense, almost rant like essays you can finally begin the arduous task of attempting to decipher Wendell Berry’s main points are. Appearing to be written solely from his personal belief systems based on how often he felt the need to state “My” or “What I find...”, Wendell Berry’s Standing by Words attempts to interpret why modern language is collapsing. This clearly opinionated and didactic collection of interlocking essays is Berry’s way of trying to facilitate a restoration of standards that he deems essential to successful writing. The goal of this onslaught was to revive literary and personal values, such as clarity, accuracy, accountability, and a promise…show more content… Individuals who isolate themselves from their communities have a direct correlation to the failure of language. It is not however solely on individuals that languages that directly correlates to languages collapse, but also generalization of language. “The generality of the language does not objectify it, but seals it in its subjectivity.” (5) This oversimplification makes it impossible to create a successful correlation between a reader’s idiosyncratic experiences and author’s idiosyncratic experiences, thus rendering a connection or understanding between the two – impossible. In order to battle this generalization, we must utilize precision. Proclaiming that there are two kinds of precision, particular and polarizing. Berry proceeds to elaborate on how particular precision is in the speech of people with similar knowledge of place, history, or profession. This is akin to jargon, making reference to direct subjects, descriptions, or professional language. After Berry’s tirade of how this form of precision is also “community speech.” This “mysterious” and ultimately undefined term is in reference to the unconsciously taught and learned manner of speaking that points to things visible by eyesight or in one’s memory. Because of its designative nature, community speech must be precise. (5) The second precision is the “precision that comes of tension”, this tension exists between statements and prepared contexts, or within a single statement, between conflicting feelings or ideas. Berry uses Robert Herrick’s line “Out of the world he must, who once came in…” as the ideal example of such tensions. (6) This final form of precision is not only accessible to public speech, but community speech as
