lowercase

i'm going through an e.e. cummings phase in my life right now. i don't know what has brought it on, but lately i have acknowledged and embraced the virtues of lowercase writing. capitalization has gone out the window completely, or (in rare cases), has provided me with an opportunity to give a word its due in the event that it deserves abnormal emphasis or respect.

there's something very reserved and noninvasive about lowercase letters to which capitalized letters cannot lay claim. they are understated in a sense, but make a stronger statement as such. perhaps i find it more 'clever' to produce my witticisms (especially one-liners) with a complete disregard for capitalization. it seems almost spur-of-the-moment. "look, i couldn't even take the time to capitalize this sentence i came up with this quip so fast."

what's more, capitalization promotes inequality among letters. why should it be that one letter takes precedence over another? simply because it begins the sentence? no one letter is more valuable than another, and a period provides a sufficient indicator for when the previous sentence ended and the new one begins. i don't need two markers. give me a break.

one might argue that there is a fundamental inequality among lowercase letters, as the t, l, and f (for example), stand tall above the e, a, and s, which fail to droop below the writing line like their brothers, g, y, and p. alas, what the short letters lose in terms of height, they gain in efficiency and breadth. though the taller letters seem to tower over their smaller alphabetical neighbors, in fact they lose a great deal in density, which is made up for with their height. different characteristics do not mean superior characteristics. even the i, my personal favorite (for obvious reasons), has the smallest material imaginiable, but makes up for it with the quirky dot that accentuates its existence.

one might anticipate that along with the absence of large words comes the disregard for grammar and punctuation. this is not something i condone. no statement is more poingnant, in my mind, than a short sentence that pays no service to the convention of capitalization, but punctuates itself with a definitive period: "make no mistake. this sentence is finished." i have even begun to embrace the punctuation at the end of a single word, as though allowing no room for maneuvering. nothing is more plain, simple, and to the point, than a one word answer that leaves no room for anything else. period.

or perhaps i just like the way that my name looks in lowercase. at any rate, this is a blog i've been meaning to write for a long time. think about it.

-ian fisher