Robert Fisk on the decline of English
My favourite is “space”. I belong to a generation in which space
usually related to Outer Space, in which my British comic hero Dan Dare
forever battled the Mekon, the over-brained monster who sought world
dictatorship over all science from a levitating chair. More mundanely,
“space” was the rather dull word my mum and dad used in furnishing a
room. Is there enough “space” for the wardrobe in the upstairs bedroom?
But no more.
Here, from my personal collection of clippings over 15 years –
all can be referenced to the culprits if readers desire – are new uses
for “space”:
“A spectacular space in which exploration in depth can take
place” (Tony Blair describing a London house in which “interfaith
interaction” can occur); “a socially relevant space” (film director
Katherine Bigelow talking of her movie work environment); the “spaces
created by imperial rule” (Edinburgh University Press on British rule in
Aden); “to create a space for alternative thinking and writing” (Denis
MacShane on Polish leader Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s cooperation with
communist rule); “a functioning commercial space”, “bar-restaurant
space”, “non-commercial space”, “public house space”, “two-storey space”
and lots of other “spaces” (an English-language Lebanese paper
reviewing a cafe in a 19th century Beirut building); “air exhibition
space”, “performance space”, and “well-curated space” (all from a
Vancouver art gallery brochure); “a reclaiming of space” (an
FT reviewer on women in Paris); “a space for different arguments” (an
Irish Times feature
on a Northern Ireland human rights festival); “to retain a space”
(Cambridge historian Hugh Drocon on Nietzsche); and “a radical step
change in our development of leaders who can shape and articulate a
compelling vision and who are skilled and robust enough to create spaces
of safe uncertainty [sic] in which the Kingdom grows” (the Church of
England on training bishops).
