SO not
worth a pen!
In any event, having purchased and worked with so many
different species of exotic wood, my mind started to wander and scrutinize the definition
of “exotic”. I’ve done this many times over the years, and the conclusion that
I reached recently is no different from the conclusion that I’ve reached so
often over time.
That is, what is exotic to me is mundane to someone else, and
what is mundane to me is exotic to others.
Merriam-Webster tells me that “exotic” has a few different
definitions: I’m going to ignore the one that talks about striptease, and focus
on the other three, all of which say pretty much the same thing for my
purposes: 1) not native to the place where found, 2) foreign, 3) strikingly,
excitingly, or mysteriously unusual.
Essentially: not from here.
Consider snakewood, for instance, which is a wood species
that has what I think are unbelievable grain patterns that can create some very
stunning objects. Snakewood is from South America.
Do you think that the average Brazilian looks at snakewood
and thinks, ‘Golly! That’s a lovely piece of wood! How exotic!’?
I wonder what the Portuguese word for “golly” is?
Or is that Brazilian more likely to say ‘Crap, another piece
of snakewood. Why can’t I ever get any white birch???’?
White birch, of course, grows pretty abundantly right next
to my house here in New England. Nothing exotic about it.
To me.
So this leads me to wonder: let’s say that I was living in
South America, and I ordered a box of exotic wood “blanks”, how pissed off
would I be if I got snakewood in that box?
What if I went out for “exotic” food and was given a baked
potato?
“Exotic”, at the end of the day, is just something that’s
not from where you are. It’s what made trade routes so damn long back in the
day. The longer, the more profitable. The more exoticer.
That should be a word, right?
