Abrasion

Every time I try to use Siri I hope it will be liberating and it fails. Siri works on the assumption that we all use a statistically predictable vocabulary. Orwell asserts that lazy selection of words is akin to condoning fascism, that insisting on mindfulness of which words we choose and how they fit together into metaphors or arguments is an act of resistance. Siri hates novelty. Words like ‘irk’ or ‘celerity’ don’t make it through. None of the other dictation systems I have tried succeed either. My response (or what I sincerely hope is my response) is to relish typing, and perhaps to wish for better handwriting recognition. Yet I fear that perhaps the convenience of voice recognition for mundane reminders and other quotidian bits of writing will slowly rub away fresh, lively vocabulary. “Scrieve a rhyming epistle” is pulped, sieved and diluted: write a letter. “Re-seat the trellis upright”: fix the fence. Task by task, vivacious language will be driven into a cage labelled Writing, saved for special occasions such as articles and poetry…and all the other moments of writing will be smoothed into uniform newspeak. My self-understanding will gradually conform to statistically digestible morsels of activity, comparable and commodifiable.