7/18/2021 07:18

Greek and Other Letter Societies

I was never a "Greek". This is an absence in my life which was desired and orchestrated with atypical vigor by my 17 and 18 year old self.

The college I left home to attend had few functioning organizations at all (including, alas, the college) and the nearest to a Letter Society was the local branch of Tappa Kegga which was not, to mix metaphors as thoroughly as feasible, my cup of tea.

I have nothing against Greek letters in themselves. I simply feel that they are better used to create words than to denominate drunken white privilege. I woke up this morning imagining new Greek Letter Societies such Delta Omega Gamma or possibly Kappa Alpha Tau. (Fluffy Κατ may be white and privileged but she is never drunk.)

With literacy on the wane again, according to unreliable reports, is there any reason to limit ourselves to Greek Letters? Is the time ripe for the founding of Latin Letter Societies such as SIC and NON? I find myself drawn to the thought of a SED Society but not so strongly as to be the one to establish it but it is intriguing. I remain ambivalent on this idea.

Chinese Letter Societies would not be possible and I wonder if Chinese Logogram Society names might say too much. Part of the mystique of the Greek Letter tradition is that one is enticed to wonder what the three letters might denote beyond the current immature membership. Nothing is the traditional response.

Runic Letter Societies would certainly be possible. The founders might need to deal with residual connotations of runes in general and also with fluid associations with the individual letters. A name like Cen Rada Wyn might be conceived as an allusion to a group of friends (crew, KReW) but an intrepid reader of the World Wide Web might translate the individual letter names to Torch Riding Mirth and draw from that a completely different connection.

For a fuller expression of Letter Society solipsism we might create a Cyrillic Letter Society which is all about "me me me". Its name would be inspired by the famous Beatles song: "She Loves You, яяя".


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