what they entail. "Oh My God" connotes a certain ownership we decided, strangely, each time we say "OMG," we are asserting some possessive value on our individual conceptions of "God," whether we believe in one or not. What sparked this reflection was a random listening session, a wonderful band PAVEMENT, and their album "Brighten the Corners." In the second track, "Shady Lane," Stephen Malkmus recites the lyrics "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, Oh my god, oh your god, oh his god, oh her god, It's everybody's god, it's everybody's god," etc. I had to chuckle because he was singing about exactly what we had discussed in class. I am not sure whether Stephen Malkmus is a linguist, but he certainly addressed one of the many quirks of our language that reveals a bizarre cultural phenomenon.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
"Oh My God"
This is totally random, but I remembered that the other day in class we briefly stopped to ponder the nature of the use of the expressions "Oh God" and "Oh My God" in The Road and 
what they entail. "Oh My God" connotes a certain ownership we decided, strangely, each time we say "OMG," we are asserting some possessive value on our individual conceptions of "God," whether we believe in one or not. What sparked this reflection was a random listening session, a wonderful band PAVEMENT, and their album "Brighten the Corners." In the second track, "Shady Lane," Stephen Malkmus recites the lyrics "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, Oh my god, oh your god, oh his god, oh her god, It's everybody's god, it's everybody's god," etc. I had to chuckle because he was singing about exactly what we had discussed in class. I am not sure whether Stephen Malkmus is a linguist, but he certainly addressed one of the many quirks of our language that reveals a bizarre cultural phenomenon.
what they entail. "Oh My God" connotes a certain ownership we decided, strangely, each time we say "OMG," we are asserting some possessive value on our individual conceptions of "God," whether we believe in one or not. What sparked this reflection was a random listening session, a wonderful band PAVEMENT, and their album "Brighten the Corners." In the second track, "Shady Lane," Stephen Malkmus recites the lyrics "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, Oh my god, oh your god, oh his god, oh her god, It's everybody's god, it's everybody's god," etc. I had to chuckle because he was singing about exactly what we had discussed in class. I am not sure whether Stephen Malkmus is a linguist, but he certainly addressed one of the many quirks of our language that reveals a bizarre cultural phenomenon.
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I definitely agree with you that this phrase has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. The references to God in The Road were very interesting; it seems that the man only said "God" whenever there was something horrifying or terrible occurring. During the few times that he talked to his son about death, he never referenced God or any kind of Heaven or Hell afterlife. What I gleaned from all of this is that the man didn't have much faith in God at all. He only used that phrase in order to express an otherwise indescribable emotion that he was feeling. Just because he used the phase "God" doesn't necessitate that he has faith, of course. Still, it is interesting that he chose that phrase over any other.
ReplyDeleteI've had a similar experience with the man in The Road: In high school, I distinctly remember saying "Oh my God" in my Spanish II class and getting reprimanded by a classmate, a staunch Evangelical Christian. He proclaimed that I was breaking the second commandment. Back then, I had no faith in God, so taking his name in "vain" meant pretty close to nothing for me.
Looking past all of that, the fact that this common phrase has become so diluted to mean something along the lines of "I can't believe this is happening" rather than literally "You are my God" is something to consider. Perhaps this is what McCarthy is trying to point out: the further dilution of meaning of some of our common phrases.
I believe that McCarthy's use of "Oh God" was more to be seen as an idiom of the past that the man did not lose. The man uses the term "Oh God" as we often do today: to mean "I can't believe this is happening." How many people today actually use the phrase in a way to direct a thought to God out loud?
ReplyDeleteThe only time the man says, "Oh my God" is when he and the son come across the people in the basement waiting to be eaten. This, I believe was the man's fathomable only reaction to the absolute horror he was witnessing as well as a sort of "Oh my God, what have You done? How could You do this?"
However, I did notice that when the man was saying "Oh God," he was often in a tight spot. Like when they were hiding in the forest from the diesel truck. This seems more like the sort of impromptu prayer that we don't really expect to be said. A sort of unfinished, "Oh God please don't let this happen/be happening." These moments could be seen as the man reverting to his upbringing where when you need something, you simply have to ask God. Each "Oh God" was at a moment of extreme need for no bad things to happen.