Classic English literature shows us how ‘weird’ is the ultimate dig at Republicans | Opinion

“Weird” has been having a moment. In a spate of recent articles, left-leaning observers mainly have applauded its rise as the attack word du jour for the Kamala Harris campaign. As a lifelong Democrat, I love this development, which clearly is organic to our collective galvanic mood swing after Joe Biden’s withdrawal.

Weird on, cat brothers and sisters!

But as a retired English professor, I feel obliged to offer something of a footnote here: In the course of its long history, “weird” has been a much bigger and darker concept than its contemporary usage would suggest. As far as I know, in recent commentary, only John McWhorter’s article in The New York Times has acknowledged this, pointing to an etymology that might complicate its use as a political weapon.

At the same time, a bigger, darker sense of “weird” might be just the ticket for sorting out our thoughts about Donald Trump.

Opinion

Originally, the primary meaning of weird was fate. A less metaphysical, more impressionistic meaning — the quality of being strange, eerie, creepy or unusual — was always there, but it was secondary, deriving from the sense that fate, as it manifests itself in our lives, may well strike us as being strange, eerie, creepy or unusual. What has happened over time is that the first meaning has dropped out, leaving only an attenuated version of the second meaning.

In William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” the “Weird Sisters” show how the two meanings were meant to go together: Enticing Macbeth with misleading prophecies, they truly are the fate sisters. But they are also weird stylistically in the modern sense — women with beards who appear unexpectedly and portentously, crackling with the aura of power.

“Beowulf” is another classic literary text that nails the two-sided definition of weird as spooky fate.

That the association with destiny is absent when Democrats describe Republicans as weird is crucial to the attack’s success. That is, as many commentators agree, the term makes such a good taunt precisely because of its lightness compared to past attempts to spotlight the dangers of Trumpian policies and practices. It “others” MAGA in a concise, relatable and humorous way, employing a George Lakoff-approved bit of rhetorical jiu-jitsu that flips the script on right-wing stereotyping.

Saying that people “are weird, man,” is consistent with the way “real” people speak, and the vagueness of the term only makes it harder to refute, as J.D. Vance and the gang get tangled up in protestations and counter-accusations. A weightier definition might ruin everything.

Still, in the privacy of our own minds, we might cherish the perspectives that are opened by the older, heavier sense of “weird.” For in “Macbeth” and “Beowulf,” the feeling that a predetermined destiny is impending does not mean that characters can discern its nature in advance. Moreover, the “weird” in these old stories spring from unexpected reversals and ironic twists. In the form of the weird sisters, Macbeth “literally” seems to have fate on his side. Beowulf confronts three different monsters, never knowing what the outcome will be. Only in retrospect does it become clear that he is fated to defeat Grendel and Grendel’s mother, but to fall to the dragon’s talons.

The sense of fatefulness, then, is something largely attained in retrospect, when we are struck by the intricacy of circumstances that have shaped events. Meanwhile, as we approach an ominous fork in the road, the sense of fate is an intensifier that brings urgency to our wonder: What will happen?

In The New York Times, McWhorter delicately resuscitates the older definition of “weird” when he praises the Harris campaign’s employment of the term as “deft, articulate and possibly prophetic.”

Prophetic, foreseeing an inevitability! Our fate is coming, but what will it be?

Here, we can only note that the head-spinning events that have brought us to this moment in their own way have been as strange as the opinions of Mr. Vance: The disastrous debate, the bullet that clipped Trump’s ear, Biden’s renunciation, Harris’ meteoric rise. These real-life occurrences have brought us to the threshold of victory or of defeat.

Is Trump Grendel or the dragon? Either way, it will be weird.

Barry Stampfl is a retired English professor from San Diego State University, Imperial Valley.