In this second edition of #ThursdayQuotes, I will share a quote from one of my favorite books since childhood.
"I like good strong words that mean something".
from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The quote is one from Jo, the tomboyish, hot-tempered, geeky fifteen-year-old girl we find when we are introduced. You can hear the trouble in her name – she's called Josephine, a feminine name, but she goes by the more masculine-sounding Jo. Jo also loves literature, both reading and writing it. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes stories that she eventually gets published.
Jo hopes to do something extraordinary when she grows up, although she's not sure what that might be – perhaps writing a great novel. Whatever it is, it won't involve getting married; Jo hates the idea of romance because marriage might break up her family and separate her from the sisters she adores.
As we can guess, Jo is sure to be a semi-autobiographical stand-in for the author, Louisa May Alcott. Like Jo, Alcott was one of four sisters, with a philosophically-minded father, strong religious principles, and a penchant for writing.
What about the quote?
In this day of Twitter and Facebook, are "good, strong words" a good idea? Have we lost the joy and delight of children's books? Are newspapers a thing of the past? Have we lost good grammar in signature shortcuts like LOL, or OMG?
Like all these Thursday posts, please tell me your thoughts in the comment section below this post.