Writer’s Corner: Word Virus

Language is a virus from outer space.

—William S. Burroughs

Burroughs, who would have turned 100 yesterday, liked to repeat this quote and variations on its theme in his speaking and writing. Like with much else that he put out there, it’s not meant to be taken with complete seriousness, but he certainly believed in the metaphor of words and ideas as a virus that can spread with disease-like rapdity.

Along those lines, check out China Mieville’s science-fiction novel Embassytown, in which (among...