"Words are all I have..."

I think that among all the inanimate things this world, what I love most are words. I love the way different words in the English language can actually be synonyms, but mean subtly different things.

I love what great authors can do with words. PG Wodehouse, obviously, is the master of that art. Jeeves does not enter a room, he 'shimmers' in. Aunts do not shout at each other, they 'bellow' like 'mastadons calling out to each other across a swamp' or something to that effect. A scared gentleman is 'white and shaken, like a dry martini'. And obviously, 'I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled'.

I keep on searching for the perfect use of the English language, for words used just so. The right word at the right time is a miracle.

So, yesterday, when I saw this absolutely beautiful peice of art of a letter from copywriter-turned-screenwriter, Robert Pirosh, it gave me enough happiness to last me till the weekend.

Read on, not once but many times, and see what I mean:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/i-like-words.html

Reproducing the letter below:

When copywriter Robert Pirosh landed in Hollywood in 1934, eager to become a screenwriter, he wrote and sent the following letter to all the directors, producers, and studio executives he could think of. The approach worked, and after securing three interviews he took a job as a junior writer with MGM.

Pirosh went on to write for the Marx Brothers, and in 1949 won an Academy Award for his Battleground script.

(Source: Dear Wit.)

Dear Sir:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.

I have just returned and I still like words.

May I have a few with you?

Robert Pirosh
385 Madison Avenue
Room 610
New York
Eldorado 5-6024