A Purge Or

I loathe the word purge. It evokes unpleasantness regardless of its location.

Yet, I can’t think of another one that adequately describes today’s increasing climate of acute sensitivity.

Like every other person who succumbed to the magic of putting pen to paper early in youth, I, too, once owned a dream of creating a magical, wonderful story. Something akin to one of the great ones that I devoured daily after retrieving them from the vast shelves of the New York Public Library on 50th Street and Tenth Avenue in NYC

Now, of course, I worry about a young stranger on the horizon who may have shared such a similar dream. How could anyone possibly write about the vast wonders of life with its amazing assortment of humanity without the descriptive joys of the adjective.

However, now most, if not all, such language must be {to use that dreadful but accurate word} purged.

No longer could I describe a heroine as voluptuous. Oh, no, indeed that would be casting shade on her vital statistics.

Nor could the young hero be swarthy. Never could that be considered politically appropriate despite the fact that in the author’s opinion it made him incredibly attractive. Sex identification of course, could also have a negative impact, and therin, a major plot line is eliminated.

The older generation in the epic tale could certainly not have hair of gray. Ageism is a problem with that description. Yet, so would any mention of physical disabilities incurred by their time on this earth. How to distinguish the generations would then become a distinct chronological problem.

Nor could there be descriptive verbs describing hostility or anger or obviously, cruelty. Obviously, they would be too judgmental to be included in a sensitively written tome.

I am at a loss when I try to imagine how a young author will proceed in this new highly sensitive world. Will imaginations be (forgive me, but again that word) purged to eliminate old offensive descriptions, or will the magic of a beautifully descriptive story survive?

I don’t know how, but I do hope so.

If not, I will miss them dreadfully.