The Best Superlative Ever!!!

I would really like watching those bonus materials/features on the DVDs we buy if it weren't for the ubiquitous flattery with which they are encased. Every actor, every director is a genius, brilliant, the best they ever worked with--please!

The blurbs for works produced by Christians are sadly not much better. I'm currently reading a book that sounded exciting, especially as it involved pirates (Christian pirates? Do you know, my husband actually saw a booth at one book show called Christian Pirates? Jumping on the bandwagon until it's in splinters is one thing; touting godly stealing is entirely another. Christian keelhauling...). It didn't take but a page or two to sigh over another poorly wordsmithed project but I'm gamely plowing on with an eye on its possibly salvageable story line, though currently it's beginning to sound like National Treasure on steroids.

And how many times have I read a book or movie blurb which included the word "hilarious" and which have subsequently given me perhaps one half-smile throughout, and more likely made me cringe? Like the cheapening of the word "awesome", every superlative has been devalued. Words, which can be so powerful, are no longer used for their meanings but instead for their impact on you.

Maybe I'm among the last to bemoan its pervasiveness; maybe to most others even a gum wrapper is suspect by now. But that's not the real problem those writing them face. The real problem is, when these people come face to face with something truly brilliant, truly genius, what are they going to call it?