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Author Archives: Gavin Ford
Revolving around runes…
A ground-breaking new book… Runecentric is the debut book birthed by my new publishing entity Lockdown Boox — which was born when a trip to Buenos Aires was nipped in the bud by the closure of international airports and borders … Continue reading
Lockdown Boox
The illustrious Rand Club in downtown Johannesburg held a Book Day on 1 May in collaboration with their resident bookstore and gallery. Visitors were taken on a guided tour of the historical premises and authors engaged with the public during … Continue reading
World Book Day
“A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dictators and tyrants: demagogues can persecute writers and tell them what to write as much as they like, but they cannot vanish … Continue reading
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Ode to Conversation
Ideas unleash a neural dance. They twirl and tango on the dancefloor of your mind. Tame the ego. Tuck in the intellect. Fling open wide – Imagination. Counterpoint and pirouette opinions. Revel in the blaze that lights the crevices of … Continue reading
Linguistic ecology
There are 6 900 languages spoken world-wide, grouped according to 26 independent families. Over 400 languages – of which English is one – descended from the Indo-European family, a proto-language dating back some 8 000 to 9 500 years. What’s … Continue reading
Le shopping
To be ensconced in Paris by accident is never a bad thing. Particularly in Summer. I found myself there for consular assistance when my passport unexpectedly went missing while in the south of France. The inconvenience of bureaucratic red tape … Continue reading
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Design: Quo Vadis?
Marketing campaigns are strategised to stimulate our quest for perfection and peer approval. Yet their success is largely a function of the strength of the USPs (unique selling propositions), among which product design is an integral part of the equation. … Continue reading
Temples of books
A library is a sacred space indeed. It’s a sanctuary where you lower your voice and let your mind soar. Whether modest or sublime, a library is the ideal haven from the busyness of everyday life. A shrine where you … Continue reading
Truth be told…
As a writer I’m interested in phonosemantics – the branch of linguistics that investigates how vocal sounds (phonemes) have archetypal meaning as well as emotional signatures that are perceived cross-culturally. Phonemes provide the building blocks of meaning for a word. … Continue reading
Tautologies & superfluities
The “keep it simple” (KISS) approach to writing is not all that new. Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca advised that in expressing oneself, “We do not need many words, only effective ones”. Thomas Jefferson, principal author of … Continue reading
Posted in Language Use, Words
Tagged crisp communication, oxymorons, quotes, superfluities, tautologies
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