Wanna Talk About It? No, Let’s Write.

                        “How many casualties, Johnson?” “375 and a half, sir,” Johnson responded, cleaning his six legs.  Johnson flicked his mandibles towards his commanding officer and wiped off a sweat.   “Damn it, Johnson, that’s thirty percent higher than an hour ago.”   “We need food, sir!” “I know, we’re working on it,” Staff Sergeant Andy Florian said, shouting at the ant behind him and then back at Johnson.   Jim Ross, an ant peering around a wooden building corner, was listening to this conversation deeply; he was the highest informant there was in the city.  His missions were sporadic, but they were important.  Jim wore a torn piece of cloth around his thorax and a piece of straw with a hole in it as a hat; he appeared to be a gaudy private dick.  His eyes were blacker than most; his legs were shorter and his body was portly.  Jim got his micr...

When the English language was created, the word “literally/literal” had a straight definition of “actually” or “exactly.”  In the more recent years, the word “literally” has been turned into a dry metaphor that is appearing to be gaudier than intended.  Literally has such a deadpan feeling when it’s said, that it has no meaning as of late.  When using literally in a sense that would make good context, you could say “I literally only got six hours of sleep last night,” which could be true in a sense.  But, if someone says “I literally almost died,” while swimming in the deep end of a pool, that’s a dry exaggeration that isn’t appealing or wholesome in any way.  In an ironic way, nothing means anything when someone places the word “literally” in front of it anymore.  If the truth is covered up by a metaphor that was never introduced in the English language as a metaphor, then the whole idea of properly using words is irrelevant.  Saying words matter-of-f...