PARVUM OPUS
Number 8
RELEVANT TO WHAT?
Here’s a bit of completely irrelevant trivia: John F. Kennedy, Aldous Huxley, and C. S. Lewis all died on November 22, 1963. So did a lot of people, but the coincidence struck me because we all were affected by Kennedy’s death, of course; I was a fan of Huxley, and knew his death was little noted by the media because of the assassination; and recently I’ve been reading some of Lewis and just discovered he died the same day as the others.
But that is not the subject of this week’s Parvum Opus. The subject is relevance, or rather, the word. As I said, that obituary factoid is irrelevant ~ but to what? Clearly, to questions of English usage.
“Relevant” is often used, however, to mean something other or more than what it can mean. Like “lifestyle,” it has no referent ~ what “style” other than the undead is meant by “lifestyle”? One thing has to relate to another before it can be relevant.
I’m looking for examples everywhere now and they’re not hard to find.
In a brochure on an instructional opera education ensemble: “Color sets and costumes with charming music and a relevant storyline make this a sure hit with families!” What could that storyline consist of and what is it relevant to? No, I’m not going to call to ask. Perhaps they just want to tease and I’m willing to be teased. But do they mean opera selections for and about families? Storylines that fit the charming music, sets, and costumes? Just about everyone is part of a family, and ill-begotten love and untimely death, murder, and suicide happen in lots of families.
Two newspaper ads for different churches promise relevant sermons. Are there irrelevant sermons, and if so, irrelevant to what? Remember the old story about the famously terse Calvin Coolidge who went to church without his wife one day, and when she asked what the minister preached about, he said, “Sin.” “What did he say about it?” “He’s against it.” I’m guessing a relevant sermon today would be about fresh, new twenty-first century sins, or at least new twists on the old ones.
I knew a college girl who said she’d never had to read Shakespeare in the whole course of her undergraduate studies. My eyebrows reached for my hairline. She said she’d been assigned more relevant books, such as the autobiography of a successful TV anchorwoman. This girl got a bachelor’s degree without learning that Shakespeare was unmatched in writing beautifully and brilliantly about ~ i.e., relevant to ~ every human being, even in the twentieth century (as it was then). Perhaps in her twilight years, she’ll gratefully call to mind insights and poetry from the anchorwoman’s book, to light her way to dusty death, but I doubt it.
I think relevant used this way grew out of the sixties (which someone said mostly happened in the seventies). I’m not taking sides in any fight about “politically correct” language, which is sometimes stupid and sometimes simply courteous. But it was then, I think, that relevant started being tossed around to imply “pertaining to current events” or “shedding light on contemporary social issues in the news” or something like that. Now it vaguely suggests a sincere person who is aware politically, socially, spiritually, and in every other way. Maybe it means something else to you ~ which is why it’s not being used well.
And there’s another one ~ “aware.” An old boyfriend told me he was looking for a girl who was “aware,” and unluckily for me, he thought I was. Apparently it wasn’t, and isn’t, necessary to specify what one is aware of, though it implies more than mere brain wave activity. An “aware” person is conscious of what’s relevant, I suppose.
FOUND ART
Let us hope that we are all aware of what’s relevant, and that we are all relevant, as I’m sure the dentist is who named his business “Dental Health Concepts.” Thanks to an astute reader for this example of what he calls “found art” (a term he also generously offered to Parvum Opus); he assures me that his dentist is excellent in every important way. (My own favorite, unfortunately now retired, dentist thought Novocain was risky so he filled teeth without anesthetic ~ and without pain. Now that was a concept.)
Lately the notorious Mark Fuhrman of the LAPD has been saying that a potential murder suspect got “lawyered up right away,” one reason the man is looking suspicious. This wonderfully succinct turn of phrase perfectly conveys the sense of a guilty man busily barricading himself with lawyers.
Copyright Rhonda Keith 2003. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but it is permissible to forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.
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