Leah, I’m heartbroken. I am most of the way through “Stranger in a Strange Land”, have discovered it’s the origin of “grok” and I HATE IT. I listened to “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” a while back and found it interesting in spite of the overwhelming misogyny and didactic libertarian claptrap. But SiaSL kicks it up to 11. Seriously. So thoroughly and entirely drenched in male, heterosexual, Judeo-Christian, white, financial privilege it’s like … looking up a new slang term with safe search turned off. Horrifying but fascinating and you kind of want to keep looking to see just how bad it can get but know you’re going to sorry that you can’t bleach the experience out of your brain.
Anyway. I have liked the word “grok”. It’s handy to have a word to goes beyond “know” and “understand” to summarize a deeper understanding of the essence of things. Sometimes it’s a word that just perfectly captures the things I want. Granted, it’s a little bit exclusionary in essence since it’s rather nerd slang, but it’s easy to let people in on the jargon.
But that was before. It maybe poisoned forever now. If I catch myself saying it I will think of this ridiculous book and wonder if using it makes other people think of this dickwad philosophy. And then I will be sad and sorry for the associations unleashed thereby.
I don’t suppose there’s an alternative word? “Internalized” is close but sounds so serious. Maybe it’s been separated from its roots?
-Anna
Boreal Designs 