Liberation from the here and now is recognized as the true mark of the escapist as well as the ascetic and is, by no means, a common experience. That there might be a different sort of mystery about the collocation of there and now is seldom realized

Sharma, Mohan Lal

Digital Commons @ Butler University

11 60 MAGIC WORDS MOHAN LAL SHARMA Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania Liberation from the here and now is recognized as the true mark of the escapist as well as the ascetic and is, by no means, a common experience. That there might be a different sort of mystery about the collocation of there and now is seldom realized. There is a curious magic in these two monosyllables when they shake off the shackles of place and time, speaking phenomonological­ly. The utterance of Now, now, now l ' is taken to be an admonition,11 a gentle reminder that someone has blundered or been indecorous. Why there should be this weight of meaning in the simple ~ is a mystery. Equally strange is the potency of the word there, which is also employed in repetition. Just as there is no apparent reason why ~ should discourage ill- doing, so it is hard to grasp why the announce­ment of location, especially in the double form of II There, there ll should provide comfort. The tear s welling up after a fall on the pavement or after the de­parture of a train or plane (evidently carrying a dear one) are mys­teriously checked by a soothing murmur of this kind which need not necessarily be followed by a longer assurance of no harm done. These two words are almost incantations. Other s have their own constant favorite s in prefatory noise s. Few when asked a que stion can do without the word well before they even begin to r epl y. The opinion to be expre s sed may be ill indeed, as when a critic starts to slate a book or play which is the subject of en­quiry: 11 WeB, I thought The Entertainer dreadful 11 or 11 IAtell, I am not going to mince words about Who 1 s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?ll. Also, and equally inexplicable I is the acceptance of Well, well,II well 11 as an indication of surprise or disbelief instead of the assent which it might be taken to convey. Often when one is perplexed by a que stion and needs time I the thing to do is to play for it with some such prefix to an answer as actually or basically. If th or basic selve s n more ire Lear by Wo he found ever, in then pro was unU1 Arabian casion Vv And ing. Iud of all thE of the ri is a que! mark )mmon )out they )gical­nition, JUS. a LIsa lY~ ·unce­e" e de­mys­not Few even as of en­am well, .ent by a ne 61 If the listener s to an unfriendly broadcast think that some actual or basic nonsense is being put acros s the air, they may find them­selves muttering " Well, well" or even 11 Now, nowll • Only in their more irate moments are they likely to say never and then emulate Lear by repeating the word five time s. II Words, words, words" , Hamlet thought poorly of words, though he found a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. Othello, how­ever, in hi s valedictory speech wanted to have a word or two, and then provided a spate. This was in true keeping, for as he said he was unused to the melting mood, and yet his tears came as fast as the Arabian trees dropping their medicinal gum. His words on this oc­casion were as plentiful as his tear s. And why not? Words have a magic in them, apart from the mean­ing. Indeed, some words are a distillation of magic - - all the charm of all the Muses flowering in a lonely word. Hence it is that a quest of the right word, or the mot juste, is not finicky fastidiousne s s. It is a quest of ineffable magic, of glory and lovelines s. II 

Magic Words

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Magic Words

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