A wise person once told me that any good writer should only use the word, "literally" less than four times in a lifetime, making it like the "I love you" of the grammar world. It is too often used to emphasize, like a zombie version of "really" or "so", instead of its intended purpose of proving you aren't being figurative or remotely metaphorical. Making it the "love" of the grammar world. Considering that
Long Walks On The Beach qualifies as good writing - and here we would footnote earlier
slam-dunk single, "I Didn't Want To Make Out" - we assume on "Literally Crazy For You", he is talking about the one woman who can make you actually, clinically, insane. This is powerful no doubt, as mastermind Fritz Kramer mumbles asides about being put into a straight jacket and taken away. Now the use of, "literally" rings rye, an unblinking, "no seriously, I'm crazy for her," as friends shuffle their feet and change the subject to local sports or something dubious that happened during college. The shabby guitars turn out another glimmering piece of pop, a story in three parts: loud, quiet, and loud. The details are exact, one of the few times where it's worth saying what actually happened. Make this count or count how many you have left.
2 comments:
the one exception is rob lowe on parks and red. he can say "literally" as much as he wants. and he does.
I once ran with a fellow from South Africa who was prohibited by his teachers from using the words "literally" and "actually". They considered them overused, redundant.
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