So today’s headlines included the following: “Powerful Ivan Targets Florida.”
Which made me want to respond: It’s a hurricane. It can’t target anyone; that requires sapience. Or at least will.
And not only does the headline imply Ivan has chosen Florida, but also that it’s a bully for doing so. Ivan being powerful, after all.
As opposed to poor defenseless (but no more sapient) Florida, I suppose.
But maybe the headline writer lives in the sort of universe where land and wind have will and spirit and intention.
Maybe I should take that headline and write another story set in that sort of universe.
Of course, about half the time I do believe the land has a certain sort of spirit to it. The rest of the time I believe it has something to it that can be metaphorically expressed as spirit.
But I’m not sure I ever thought about weather having spirit and will, not without some sort of sentient outsider manipulating it.
There may be a story there. One I’m sure the poor headline writer didn’t have in mind, at all.
Language is strange stuff.
And language can shape story, as much as story can shape language.