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i was going to make something but after baraka's post above, it seems hopeless.
what you seem to be stuck on, zeraph, is that the distinction between proper and common nouns seems to be a matter of a strict rule of some kind, but when you start thinking about it, the appearance of a strict rules gets erased and convention replaces it. this is a matter of convention. english is full of them--it's not a terribly systematic language.
in a way, it's like the lunacy of trying to draw a straight line on land over an extended distance--something like what mason & dixon did. it makes sense on a map, but to trace it on the ground...? it's a very strange thing to do, if you think about it. boundaries look like they result from the application of a rule, but that rule only holds together as a rule if you assume a remove.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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