Why the gleaming (s)word?

"Is it even always an advantage to replace an indistinct picture by a sharp one? Isn't the indistinct one often exactly what we need?"

      --Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

"To assert that art can be found in the Metropolitan Opera House but not in a nightclub is a rank snobbery."

     --Helen Traubel, in a letter to Rudolf Bing, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera House

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To begin, a few words about the name of this blog: the gleaming (s)word.

I like the various meanings that words suggest. There isn’t one exact meaning behind this name as there is a cloud of connotations, some rather abstruse, some personal.

First and foremost, it was said that the great opera singer Helen Traubel had a voice like a “gleaming sword”—perfect if you sing Wagner.

As a Wagnerite, I like this phrase, which suggests not only the sharp, rich clarity of Traubel’s voice, but the magic and grandeur of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Also, Traubel was from St. Louis, which isn’t far from where I spent some time growing up, so I feel a special affinity for the home voice, as it were.

But the gleaming sword suggests more than the reworked myths of Wagner’s operas. It also suggests the heroic lyricism of fantasy literature, which I have read since a child and continue to enjoy today.

Finally, as this is a blog, composed of words and celebrating language, this is “the gleaming word.”

All of that may seem high-flying for a mere blog that is likely to wander among random topics both numinous and quotidian, but hopefully, as I log scattered thoughts on my interests and experiences, my words will, if only occasionally, shine.