But more than syllables in air, the word “Master” controls the grammar of mastery, the concept of rulership, power, skill, and craft. “Master,” as English knows it, is a compound of the Latin root magis, major (“greater”) and Teutonic ster, to steer. The word “mistress,” as gendered corollary, does not come up. Noah Webster, entry ten for “master”: “One uncontrolled.”Īfter seventeen entries detailing specific roles defining the word “master,” all seventeen included in both editions, Webster adds: “The word master has numerous applications, in all of which it has the sense of director, chief or superintendent.” In plainer English: there are too many kinds of mastership to name-seventeen is sufficient for Webster. The quietly radical poet in Amherst, Massachusetts who owned two editions of Webster’s, turned their pages, poured over entries and the quotes from literature inside them was touched-as we all are touched-by the language and reality of mastery. economy at this time, from the North to the South, many people in Webster’s New England owning Southern land and plantations, paying overseers and managers to do their work and enact their mastership by proxy. That slavery is present in the word’s first entry is not surprising, as plantations and “king cotton” drove the U.S.
#PAWS OFF MY CANON BRAVE BOOKS FULL#
Webster’s first definition for “master” offers a clipped, succinct summary of the word’s expression of power and the relationship implied by it: “A man who rules, governs or directs either men or business.” The following examples clarify: “A man who owns slaves is their master he who has servants is their master he who has apprentices is their master.” Webster’s is an early 19 th-century American dictionary, and all the editions written during Webster’s life were composed under the full legality of slavery in the United States. These words occur in both editions of Noah Webster’s dictionary found in Emily Dickinson’s library following the word “master.” The reader knows them in relationship to the word “master”-it oversees and drives their definitions, it makes them what they are, governs their function, superintends their compound meaning.
Your event will SHINE when you have an actual variety of voices and writers and experiences present.Īlso as a way of modeling identity transparency: I am a white, queer and genderqueer Southern writer living with mental disabilities (PTSD, anxiety) and chronic pain. There is nothing more boring than homogenous media. I am happy to suggest names and connect organizers.īelieve me when I say that your event will be BETTER by attending to this. Don’t get me wrong, I love being invited! But please give me the opportunity to invite others if this is difficult for you. Please don’t tokenize BIPOC by having ONE on your majority white reading or panel. They are simply not reflective of our great range of contemporary writers, both local and further afield.
I will not be participating in majority-white readings or panels. Readings and Panels: Against the Perceived White Majority Masks, and as much ventilation as possible.
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