Pandexicon, by Wayne Grady. Pub 2023
I don’t recall where I first heard of this book, but I know it was in the last month or so, likely on a podcast of some kind. Needing a book to fill the language category, this seemed like a timely fit, and promised (according to the cover) to describe “how the language of the pandemic defined our new cultural reality.” Sadly, it did not fulfill that promise.
Although published in 2023, the book appears to stop in early 2022, in a world still partially or mostly living with restrictions (i.e. vaccine passports, travel bans, occupancy limits) – before the Freedom Convoy events of early 2022, the multiple booster programs, and more recent analysis and revelations. This made for some difficulty in reconciling some of the conclusions and perspectives, as much has changed in that subsequent period. Worse was the reliance throughout on popular “information” as the basis for what is known about the pandemic, with primary sources such as magazines, websites, newspapers, and blogs providing the majority of the sources (there is no list of sources or citations in the book, perhaps to mask the fact that these are less than robust). The result is a mash-up of facts, perceptions, and opinions (some very strident) that make this less a look at pandemic language and more about one person’s observations, experiences, and political opinions. While there is lots of room in the book world for memoir and reminiscence about the pandemic experience, I felt a bit ripped off – having expecting (and been promised) a book about language and culture, I instead got one person’s own self-satisfied ramblings.
The author clearly sees themselves as quite clever, witty, and astute. I didn’t agree with them on those points and found so many specific points of dispute and question that I almost ran out of sticky flags. For example, in discussing the impact of lockdowns (i.e. any situation where people are encouraged or ordered to stay at home) on intimate partner violence (IPV) – a topic for which there is LOTS of legitimate information available – the author quotes an article from Lawyer Daily magazine from March 2020 (before any serious restrictions had even been contemplated or begun) as well as some survey data (with no citation) for May-July 2020, as the basis for several pages of discussion about the issue of IPV more generally, never really linking (or even showing) any increase as related to the pandemic. So why have this chapter at all? Similarly, the section on lockdown waxes on about the difficulties with using military or war language when dealing with a disease and suggests that the stay-at-home requirements and access and gathering restrictions imposed and enforced in many countries weren’t really that bad, just temporary and short-term (and because of that were ineffective). This whole section was confusing and ambivalent, with still no clear understanding of what the term “lockdown” meant to people during the pandemic and afterwards. I won’t deign to discuss the pseudoscience of the pandemic origins or statistics.
Needless to say, I did not like this book. While I wanted it for the language category, it will more likely end up as my drivel book.
Fate: given how strongly I feel about it, I feel bad giving it to charity, but that’s likely where it will go.
4 – published in 2023
5 – a book about language
20 – one-word title
25 – new author to me
31 – history/politics
33 – Canadian author
38 – Drivel
rclr 