My roommate teaches first graders, so she does a lot of letters research in the form of hunting down YouTube clips touting the uses and benefits of G, A, T, P, and N in song form.
It occurred to me that N overwhelmingly leads words with negative connotations. The narcissistic Nazi neutered the nymphomaniac while the nihilist negated his nothingness with narcotics. It doesn't help that N forms No, Not, Non- either.
Nice is probably the best thing you could say about N. It's better than naughty, but someone Nice could also conceal a soul as nefarious and necrotic as night. Niceties are formalities- don't forget there is none of the genuine and grounded goodness that G offers. N is the nadir, nothingness, never.
N is also for naming- a process by which control and limitation is applied. We gave N names to animals we didn't like, much to the misfortune of newts, nematodes, nymphs, nags, nightingales, narwhals, and gnats. Gnarled letter purists are gnashing their teeth, but the same goes for the Gn combination as well, gnawing like gnostic gnomes. I doesn't matter that it starts with the letter G since it carries the N sound.
Nnnnnnnnnnn- the sound of non-commitment and nausea.
How many terms of endearment begin with N? My little nonentity? My darling gnu? My sweet nugget?
N is for neo- novelty and newness, a nascent nebulousness which could turn out to be as noisome and noxious as needles and nails.
(People names are excepted for some reason- I like the names Nancy, Norma, Nadine, Nadal)
Science's neutrality has found a more welcoming home for N. Networks of normative neurons in nine neutrino-nonagons. But even the naming of body parts reflect a certain queasiness- knees and the nape of the neck, nipples, nictating reflexes and nephritis.
What good can come of N? There is a nougat to the nastiness- nature and its natural nephews and nieces: nurturing, nesting, and nursing and nectarine nectar.
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