WORD POWER by Penny Dolan

Today is the first day of Spring, which always feel hopeful. The crocus are already out, and the other spring bulbs are appearing in the tubs and pots in the garden, though I’m not sure what or which they are, and winter has destroyed any labels. The leaves will soon tell tell me which will be bright blue grape hyacinth and which will be King Alfred’s golden trumpets. As long as I am not too distracted.

For - lo! - a new distraction has come to my devices. I can now almost ignore Facebook, with its images and variable information. I can, on Instagram, skip through favourite people’s posts, while Threads and Bluesky were quick pop-in visits. All, mostly, under control.

However, Substack has now appeared on my screens and it is a far worse temptation. Why? Because Substack is made of words, and words have power. Their hypnotic symbols offer such a range of thoughts, ideas, facts, interest, emotions. Words can have the power to simply say anything and everything. When words appear, it’s impossible for me to ignore them!

I began as an early reader. My eyes spied out words everywhere, scouring that familiar litany of domestic texts: the HP sauce bottle, the Weetabix box, the News of the World headlines, the cover of Womans’ Realm, the envelopes on the sideboard, a rare batch of comics from my cousin, and so on. A whole circus of interesting mass communication surrounded me. And, there was school too.

However, along the way I learned there were two kinds of reading. The everyday words around me were Lesser Reading, and, according to home and school, there was Better Reading: real reading, the words set out on a page. Real reading came from books and was definitely more important, and if this kind of reading was good, and if I was reading, I was being good.

So, for a while, the words on the page – any page – gave me permission to escape from the rages and silences going on above my head. Reading was a protection; the words on the page became a security blanket. Nothing bad could happen to you when you were doing something so enjoyable and also so intrinsically good and socially valued – and quiet! - as reading, could it?

All this was a lie, of course, but by then the child was wired to read. I was, and am, drawn to words, totally fixed in the habit and power of print and the printed page. I can't not read a word.

In many ways, this is fine: reading is good and wonderful. The reading process is fascinating from all sides and angles, and a thing of emotion too. I, like others, rage at the lack of understanding within the latest KS2 English tests, at the Govoid curriculum. I am delighted by children responding to a particularly lovely phrase in a picture book read out during Library Storytimes. Reading is never neutral.

Besides, what about the magic way that words work within the brain itself? In bed, here, each morning, we do a pen-and-page puzzle from The Guardian Quick Crossword book. A simple, non-cryptic and often witty one, not a big puzzle from the Times or Telegraph. 

However, I have noticed, in my fresh-from-sleep state, that somehow, the slightest, smallest pattern of the word – the one or two letter symbols visible, their position in the arrangement of the empty ‘boxes’ – often gives me the answer before my bigger brain has grasped it. I find myself saying the word almost before I can think it.

How amazing – in a totally non-personal way – is that? I’m not describing this moment to be all ‘special me’, but in astonishment at the way the alphabet pulls off this trick in our human brains. Reading is a miracle - and this is before we even get to the myriads of meaning, the cultural patterns, the history of the language, the pleasure of fonts and so on. Words are truly magical, irresistible, enticing things, with power for good, and for its opposite, and all between . . .

So back to the start of my post, and my problem: Substack, this orange-label-thingy, is appearing on my screens and the medium is almost nothing but Words and Writing! Pages and pages of words, and often so brilliant!

Remember, a small voice reminds me, words are for reading and reading is good, right? Words are an opportunity not to be missed, right? ‘Real reading’ words too, like pages full of interesting writing by people doing interesting things, brought by algorithmic power.

Just read this, says Substack. What about this person? You remember they used to write for this or that newspaper? Wouldn’t you like to read so and so’s expert and experienced viewpoint? To learn something quickly? Ah, you will, go on, you will, you will . . .

Substack. All of it wrought in words, words, more words. And words are good things, aren’t they? Especially that word I need to remember . . .

Which one? Ah, got it. Willpower! Yes, that’s the one. Good luck with it yourself!


Penny Dolan.