L.J. Granered on Genre and gender
You describe Genre as a comedy lecture about gender and linguistics. What inspired you use the word “lecture?”
My goal is that you learn something from it. You’re gonna laugh and I want you to laugh, but I kind of play a wacky professor character on stage who hopefully teaches you something.
As a lecturer, you’re not exactly scoldy. And yet Genre is about gender, a topic about which some people really resent being “lectured,” while others feel confident they know all the right words to use. What maybe nobody’s expecting is that your piece is funnily, seriously and almost nerdily about language.
Yeah! And I’m not saying language has to be full of inherent rules! The language we speak and the words we use don’t limit the kinds of thoughts we are able to have, but they can shift our attention on what kinds of thought we focus on. The point is just to notice that. Language feels less sticky that way, less absolute. Not so wrapped up in American politics. I think in this particular piece, taking a close linguistic read on how we talk about gender takes the sting out of a complex conversation.cs.
How did you get interested in the roots of words?
My dad is Swedish and he speaks several languages. He used to talk about how when he learned English, he felt more, because English has a more varied vocabulary for your internal life than Swedish and that really stuck with me. My Mom grew up in New Jersey and Queens, and I grew up in the South, so I was always interested in the way people talk, and the differences. I took latin in 8th grade and loved it, which is maybe not usual, but I had an amazing teacher Ben Ellis. There’s something magical about studying Latin and ancient languages, like casting spells. The more you learn, the more layers of meaning you unlock.