Category Archives: Literary & Linguistics

Fin de siècle Anxieties and Self-doubts: The Second Anglo-Boer War, British Manhood and “National Degeneracy”

February 26, 2025Literary & Linguistics, Military history, Regional History, Social History, Society & Culture, Sport‘New Britons’, ‘Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’, Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, Cricket and Empire, Fin de siècle, Imperial anxieties, Moral degeneration & racial deterioration fears, Victorian Britain, Victorian degeneration fictionBonza Rottwheeler

MORAL and physical decay was a preoccupation consuming the minds of Victorians in the late 19th century. Many Britons harboured nagging doubts that the world’s foremost empire might be in decline? The fear manifested itself in the art and literature of the day, especially in Gothic novels such as Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde. Contemporary commentators, social campaigners, liberal imperialists and advocates of ”national efficiency” proffered a raft of varied explanations for the alleged condition of society. Blame was attributed to the rising crime rate, insanity, poverty, unemployment, immigration, radicalism, sexual deviance, feminism, VD, the transformation away from rural life to the disease-ridden towns and the very stresses of modern civilisation (labelled “the dark side of progress”) (‘Deviance, disorder and the self’, www7.bbk.ac.uk).

The Second Boer War in South Africa, breaking out in 1899, did nothing to ease concerns that, maybe, British manhood was not made of “the right stuff” after all…Imperial Britain’s early sub-par performance in the conflict against a “rag-tag” army of Afrikaner farmers fed into the rising tide of British fears of the degeneration of its racial stock. The first portends emerged even before the hostilities began – in the recruitment halls of Britain. The early Boer victories required British reinforcements from home leading to a manpower dilemma – the unhealthy British cities and slums churned out recruits from the working class who were “narrow-chested, knock-kneed, wheezing, rickety specimens” of men. At the time of the Boer War the average British soldier was of diminished stature, shorter than that of 1845…40% of those volunteering in Manchester recruitment halls were rejected as unfit for military service. By 1901 the percentage had increased even moreⓐ.

Once the fighting began, the lacklustre efforts of the British soldiers struggling to gain the upper hand left their Australian and New Zealand counterparts with a negative impression of the home country’s martial capability. While British soldiery laboured, the Australasian contingents of soldiers equipped themselves quite well. Colonial troops from Australia and New Zealand possessed natural ability to shoot and ride, equipping them to perform well in the open war on the veldt…this plus their ‘bushman’ capacity to live off the land, meant that they clearly adapted to the South African conditions better than the British soldiersⓑ.

The Australian and NZ dominion soldiers’ take-home message from the South Africa affair was that the “old Britons” were in decline, and that they, the “new Britons”, represented the “coming man”. This view fed into earlier established myths and assumptions – Australia benefitted, it was said, from a climate infinitely better than Britain, a lavish land … making for a vigorous and healthy ‘race’. WK Hancock described the Australian ‘type’ of man as a harmonious blending of all the British types, nourished by a “generous sufficiency of food (good diet) …breathing space (vast countryside) and sunshine”. At the same time British voices were ominously warning of “racial suicide” and the waning of the nation’s “racial energy”, the self-styled “Better Britons” of Australia and New Zealand were talking up their own supposed “racial vigour”.

Reassuring symbolism: Britannia saving the world from barbarism (Source: teachmiddleeast.lib.uchicago.edu/)

Footnote: “Degeneracy” out of vogue As Victorian Britain evolved into Edwardian Britain, the fears of racial deterioration didn’t diminish, birth-rates which were already in decline going back decades had plummeted dramatically since the Victorians. However, by the time of World War I degeneration theory had lost favour, advances in the understanding of genetics and the vogue for psychoanalytic thinking had prompted its obsolescence (‘Degeneration theory’, www.artandpopularculture.com).

Postscript: Decadence and decay
“Decay” is closely related to the word “decadence” (Latin, decadentia, meaning ‘fall”. In 19th century imperialist thinking decadence and decay was a characteristic associated with the colonial anxieties of empire. The phenomenal success of the imperial powers, it was thought as in the case of past examples like Rome, made the elite complacent and weak, thus the seed of its downfall. The response of contemporary Europeans was a preoccupation with the morality and cultural values of their own societies (‘Decline and Fall’, William Rees, History Today, January 2023).

ⓐ one contemporary commentator, cricket writer Albert E Knight, thought the remedy for the physical and moral degeneration of Englishmen lay in cricket – advocating for the creation of more playing fields as an antidote to the decline of young working class men, so that they could be the beneficiaries of the ”cricket way of making honest and healthy Englishmen”

ⓑ a UK report conducted in 1904 with the title “Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration” confirmed that Britons were even more physically unfit than the war had suggested

꧁꧂ ꧁꧂꧁꧂

Moby-Dick and the Peculiar Pecuniary System of 19th Century Whaling

February 11, 2025Commerce & Business, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics‘Moby Dick’, 19th century whaling, Herman Melville, Nantucketfunambulator@live.com

ONE of the many memorable paragraphs of Herman Melville’s classic allegorical work of American fiction, Moby-Dick, is when the narrator/character Ismael speculates on what remuneration he might receive for signing on to the voyage of the whaler Pequod:

❝ I was already aware that in the whaling business they pay no wages; but all hands, including the captain, receive certain shares of the profits called lays, and that these lays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company… I made no doubt that from all I had heard I should be offered at least the 275th lay—that is, the 275th part of the clear net proceeds of the voyage…what they call a rather long lay, yet it was better than nothing ❞.

As Elmo P Hofman elaborated in a 1926 essay, “the whaleman was not paid by day, week or month, nor was he allowed a certain sum of every barrel of oil or for every pound of bone captured” …his earnings came from a “specified fractional share” (a lay) of the net profits of the trip (cited in ‘How Profit Sharing Sent Captain Ahab in Search of Moby Dick, Joseph Thorndike, Forbes, 15-Dec-2015, www.forbes.com). Rather than being wage-earners the entire crew including the skipper were sort of joint shareholders in the commercial venture.

The 1956 film (with Gregory Peck as Ahab)

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The experiences of real-life whaling boats of the era of Melville’s novel offers insights into the synchronic system of divvying up the profits – if we look at the profits of the 1843 whaling voyage of the Abigail of New Bedford⚀, it reveals a 70/30 split of the dividends, 70% to the owners and partners and 30% sub-divided between the captain and crew (Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, Karen Gleiter, In Pursuit of Leviathan (1997)). This was pretty typical for the period of what has been described as “an oddly denominated profit-sharing scheme” (‘The Whaleman’s Lay’, Ahab Beckons, 04-Feb-2018, www.ahab-beckons.blogspot.com). A captain might score a lay of ⅛th whereas a ‘green’ hand might only net a ¹⁄₃₅₀th lay or worse, so the novice sea-hand Ismael was perhaps over-optimistic about his likely share (in the novel Ismael is offered an exceptionally long lay which after haggling hard he manages to have reduced to a more acceptable lay of ¹⁄₃₀₀th). So, like the unknowables or “known unknowns” of the stock exchange, a crew member of a whaling vessel engaging in this pelagic industrial arena, even if he knows what lay he had scored, still won’t have any idea of how much he’ll earn for his months and months of hard ship work. Everything hinged on the voyage’s profitability.

Then on top of all this there were deductions from a crew member’s lay when he did finally get the money… anything an ordinary whaleman purchased from the ship’s store during the voyage—tobacco, boots, clothes, etc—was subtracted from his lay. The same if he was given an advance to send to his family. A crew member, especially one with a very long lay, could easily end up in debt to the ship’s owners at voyage’s end (‘Life Aboard’, New Bedford Whaling Museum, www.whalingmuseum.org).

New Bedford Whaling Museum
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⚀ 50 miles south of Boston, from the early 1820s on it supplanted Nantucket as America’s foremost whaling port

Architect of the Trojan Horse – Odysseus contra Epeius

February 1, 2025Ancient history, Creative Writing, Heritage & Conservation, Literary & LinguisticsAgamemnon’s Achaeans v Priam’s Trojans, Epeius of Phocis, Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus, Quintus of Smyrna’s The Fall of Troy, Trojan Horse, Trojan War, Virgil’s Aeneiddemonymonic

𓃗 𓃗 𓃗

Leaving aside the small percentage of the population who are by nature petracolous𖤓, who in the West hasn’t heard something described as a “Trojan Horse” at some time or other, even if they may not grasp that its a reference to the fabled Trojan Horse of Greek mythology? Its usage in the modern world—signifying a trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place—makes it one of the great, storied metaphors of human interaction and existence. In the age of IT the term has also crossed over into computing jargon to describe any malicious computer program that fools users into willingly running it (often called simply a “Trojan”). But let’s get back to the origin story, the literary-mythical “Trojan Horse” (Troia hippos or douráteos hippos) of antiquity upon which its metaphorical longevity of currency rests.

The Greeks’ gift(*sic*) of the gigantic wooden horse

The ancient sources of the classical world—principally Virgil’s Aeneid, Quintus of Smyrna’s The Fall of Troy and Homer’s Odyssey (but not the Iliad!)—gave us the legendary Trojan Horse story, an audacious ruse by the Achaeans§ to penetrate the impenetrable walls of Troy with the crafty “gift” of a deceptive and catastrophe-bringing equine decoy. The master-scheme, masterminded by Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, succeeded spectacularly, bringing the ten long years of a Hellenic-Trojan war, hitherto thought to be utterly inconclusive, to a swift and definitive conclusion.

Unsurprisingly in a story about great heroic warriors, all of the kudos for the triumph of the wooden horse gets lavished on Odysseus’ head, with the wily king of Ithaca being described by tradition as “the architect of the Trojan Horse”. The problem with this exalted tag being ascribed solely to Odysseus is that it completely glosses over the vital role of Epeius of Phocis who can stake a comparable (and literal) claim to the title in the Trojan Horse episode. The germ of the idea was the genius master-stroke of Odysseus, yes, but he still needed a highly skilled artisan–builder to bring the oversized horse decoy into being. Epeius, a soldier and pugilist in the Achaean ranks had been a master carpenter in his civilian life before the war, and the task was down to him, not Odysseus, to make the Wooden Horse a reality. Epeius designed and built the gigantic super-sized model of a horse with a hollow belly large enough to hold 30 warriors and their armour and weapons, making his creation a plausible structure, well-constructed and finely detailed…and he did all this in just three days – apparently with some help or inspiration from the goddess Athena. Without Epeius’ Herculean labour of monolithic scale carpentry, Odysseus would not have the Trojan Horse which is synonymous in Greek mythology with his name, the very instrument which proved a total game-breaker ending the stalemate in the decade-long war between Agamemnon’s Achaeans and Priam’s Trojans.

𖤓 ie, living under a rock

§ the name Homer (or “Homer”) used in referring to the ancient Greeks

What happened to ‘Peking’ and ‘Bombay’?: The Politics and Standardisation of Geographical Renaming

January 11, 2025Comparative politics, Geography, International Relations, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, PoliticsAstana, Bombay/Mumbai, China, Constantinople/Istanbul, Exonyms and endonyms, India, Indian local language communities, Kazakhstan, Peking/Beijing, St Petersburg, StalingradWolfgang Childerglas

Some time towards the tail-end of last century China and India changed the standard exonym by which its respective principal city is known to outsiders. Thus, Peking became Beijing and Bombay became Mumbai. Other cities within each country followed suit. At the time this caused some pointed comments and a degree of puzzlement among onlookers and even governments around the world. After being called “Peking” and “Bombay” for what seemed like forever (it wasn’t!), why did the Chinese and Indian governments all of a sudden make such a fundamental switch in nomenclature?

~~Bombay~~ Mumbai (credit: hayesandjarvis.co.uk)

The reasons why governments up and change the names of their cities and even occasionally the name by which the sovereign state itself is known※※, varies. Quite frequently, it’s about politics or ethnic/cultural identity. Often, it’s a matter of transliteration of writing systems to keep up with the state of contemporary realities – which dovetails neatly into the need for recognition of ethnic identities within the country. In some instances the change of name may be about both the political and the phonetic. Let’s look at a few specific cases from different countries.

~~Peking~~ Beijing (credit: https://ber.berlin-airport.de/en/)

Politics of decolonisation: Let’s start with India and Mumbai. “Bombay” was the first to be (officially) cancelled. In 1995 the Shiv Sena—a right-wing Hindu nationalist party—took power in the Maharashtra region (includes Bombay/Mumbai). Shiv Sena changed the city name because it wanted to rid it of a name with the connotation of the British colonial legacy (“Bombay” apparently being a tainted “Raj” name to Hindu nationalists)1⃞. In its place, the regional authority seeking a name which reflected Maratha heritage and identity chose “Mumbai” to honour the Koli goddess Mumbadevi2⃞.

Standardisation of spelling: From 1996 other Indian cities similarly underwent a name change, the most significant of which are Kolkata, replacing the former name “Calcutta”, Chennai, replacing “Madras”, Kozhikode, replacing “Calicut”, and Bengaluru, formally called “Bangalore”. While post-British decolonisation was at the heart of the desire to change names, many of the new names were the result of spelling changes to align with the prevailing local languages/ethnic communities (eg, Kolkata is a Bengali word for a city nearly two-thirds populated by Bengalis)3⃞.

Transliteration: China has quite a track record of changing the name of its cities, during the imperial era it was a regular occurrence. The question most are curious about is how “Peking” got traded in for “Beijing” (which translates as “northern capital”). Well for a start, Beijing is not a new name for the city. Back in 1403, during the Ming Dynasty, it was thus named…hence the wheel has gone full circle. In-between Beijing 1.0 and Beijing 2.0 the city was known variously as Beiping, Peiping and Peking (prior to Beijing 1.0 it was called Dadu when ruled by the Mongols). Which brings us back to the question of why Peking became Beijing. Basically, it was the (delayed) outcome of a change in the Chinese writing system/script, requiring the conversion of text to tally with the new Pinyin romanisation system introduced by the communist authorities. As part of the process the phonetic changes necessitated new spellings of many city names. And as the new system involved replacing Cantonese with Mandarin, this led to “Canton”, the old English name for the great southern Chinese city, being transliterated as “Guangzhou”4⃞. For the same reason “Pusan” in South Korea became “Busan” in 2000.

More politically motivated name swaps: The communist era of the USSR occasioned name changes of some cities to honour Bolshevik supreme leaders – “Tsaritsyn”, the Tsarist era name became “Stalingrad” (after Joseph Stalin), only to change again to “Volgograd”); “St Petersburg” became “Petrograd” before the Bolsheviks renamed it “Leningrad” (after VI Lenin), only for it to revert to St Petersburg after the dissolution of Soviet communism. Turkey’s preeminent city and capital, Istanbul, too has a history of different names, the changes occasioned by the succeeding waves of rulers who in turn conquered the city. Founded as “Byzantium” by the ancient Greeks, later it was renamed “Constantinople” when absorbed into the (eastern) Roman Empire (unofficially also known as “New Rome”), and finally, under the Ottoman conquerors it became and remains “Istanbul”5⃞.

(What) Once was Constantinople is now Istanbul (photo: global-geography.org/)

Endnote: The capital of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan is arguably the world record-holder for most changes of its name. While it was part of Russia it was originally called Akmoly, this changed to Akmelinsk and then Tselingrad. Since independence the capital has regularly changed autonyms (and at least one change of location and therefore its name as well) – going from Akmola (= “white tomb”, perhaps not the most uplifting name for a city!), to Astana (which simply means “capital”) to Nursultan (named after Kazakhstan’s autocratic first president) back to Astana.

Transformed and modernised Astana (photo: Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis)

※※ Re country name changes see this site’s August 2024 blog Bharat, Türkiye, etc. What’s in a Name?: The Politics of Country Rebranding

𖣴𖣴𖣴 𖣴 𖣴𖣴𖣴

1⃞ “Bombay” (meaning “good bay”) was the name the English adopted during the British Raj which derived from Bombaim, the name the Portuguese chose for the city during their occupation

2⃞  the new name, Mumbai, didn’t trigger a change in the name of the city’s famous film-making complex which remains “Bollywood”

3⃞  Goa, a Portuguese colony for 450 years interestingly has not changed its name…possibly something to do with “Goa” deriving from a South Asian Sanskrit word Gomantak (= “cow’s horn”)

4⃞  Shànghâi already conformed to the Pinyin system and so didn’t require a change of name

5⃞ if we turn our eyes to Europe other politically-motivated changes in the city name include “Danzig” (when a German city), changed to “Gdańsk” (when it came under Polish jurisdiction), and “Königsberg” (historic Prussian name) ➜ “Kaliningrad” (after the USSR took control of it from Germany). The spoils of war also accounts for the change in name of the Vietnamese city “Saigon” to “Ho Chi Minh City” after the North Vietnamese were victorious in the civil war

Physician Heal Thyself … Literally! The Fusion of Surgeon and Patient Together in a Polar Wasteland

December 21, 2024Built Environment, Coastal geology & environment, Geography, Literary & Linguistics, Medical historyAntarctica, Dr Leonid Rogozov, Novolazarevskaya Station, Pioneering surgery, Soviet Antarctic Expedition 1960–62, Soviet Order of the Red Banner of Laboursabinebuena

Twelve men from the Soviet Union on a scientific expedition to the remotest part of planet Earth, Antarctica, in 1961, found themselves on the horn of an incredible dilemma. One of their number, none other than the expedition doctor, suddenly became acutely stricken with appendicitis. What to do? No one else was medically trained and outside medically help was thousands of kilometres away, the patient couldn’t be transported there and waiting would prove fatal. So the surgeon, Leonid Rogozov, did the only thing he could do to try to save his own life…as mind-numbingly inconceivable as it sounds he operated on himself!

Novolazarevskaya Station, Antarctica, in winter (Photo: Sky News/Getty Images)

Auto-appendectomy was virtually unheard of, let alone performing such an impossibly dangerous procedure in a non-hospital environment, but Dr Rogozov rolled the dice. Firstly, he planned the operation systematically and meticulously (despite being in agonising pain), choosing two members of the expedition to be his surgical assistants, their roles were to hand him surgical instruments and hold a mirror to avail him of a view of his abdomen. The degree to which he prepared the operation exceptionally well can be seen in that he had the foresight to assign a third man to be present in the makeshift operating “theatre” in the event that one of the assistants fainted. As Rogozov needed to stay conscious he submitted only to a local anaesthetic and proceeded slowly in excruciating pain. Finding the inverted view of the mirror more a hinderance than an aid he dispensed with it and operated instead by touch with his bare hands.

The Soviet Union’s pioneering auto-appendectomy (Source: Vladislav Rogozov)

Somehow after nearly two hours the doctor succeeded in removing the offending appendix (while noting that its gangrenous appearance indicated it in all likelihood would burst the following day). Operation successfully completed, Rogozov stitched up his gaping wound and even had the presence of mind to instruct the assistants on how to wash the instruments properly and hygienically clean the room, before finally allowing himself a dose of antibiotics and sleeping tablets to induce sleep. After just two weeks rest the extraordinary doctor was, true to form, back at work. Truly remarkable, real Ripley’s “believe it or not” sort of stuff! [Sara Lentati, “The man who cut out his own appendix”, BBC, 05-May-2015, www.bbc.com].

Dr Rogozov recuperating after the operation (Source: Vladislav Rogozov)

The Antarctic ordeal wasn’t entirely over for Dr Rogozov. Mission completed, the expedition was meant to be picked up by a Soviet vessel about 12 months after the doctor’s self-appendectomy, however exceptionally bad weather and thick sea ice prevented it from getting close enough. Consequently there was a further lengthy delay before all the explorers were eventually evacuated by single-engine aircraft, a distinctly hairy manoeuvre in the treacherous polar conditions. Back in the USSR Leonid Rogozov was hailed as a hero of the Motherland and honoured with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, although the good doctor did his utmost to shun the huge publicity focused on him, preferring simply to return to his medical clinic work in Leningrad.

Leonid I Rogozov in happier times during his Antarctic stay (Source: Vladislav Rogozov)

ᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑ

Footnote: As a consequence of the 1961 Soviet expedition’s medical quasi-catastrophe, several countries including Australia made appendectomies mandatory for Antarctic explorers about to embark on an expedition to the farthest southern continent.

Mr Moto Goes to the Movies

November 9, 2024Cinema, Creative Writing, Inter-ethnic relations, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture20th Century Fox, Charlie Chan, Earl Derr Biggers, John P Marquand, Keye Luke, Lotus Long, Mr Moto, Murder mystery fiction, Peter Lorre, Saturday Evening Post, Warner Oland, Yellowface and racismSloane Snodgrasse

The popularity of Earl Derr Biggers’ Chinese detective creation Charlie Chan triggered a demand for this kind of Asian–American mystery crime fiction, paving the way for a spinoff into a profitable movie series. Biggers’ early death in 1933 after publishing just five Chan books left a void in fiction that other writers were not slow to try to fill. Encouraged by the editor of the Saturday Evening Post, which had serialised the Charlie Chan books, author John P Marquand created his notion of an Asian “detective” hero who triumphs in white society, Mr Moto. Mr Moto is Japanese, quiet, small and seemingly meek of nature, like Charlie Chan he roams the globe solving crimes and exposing murderers. Unlike Chan he uses ju-jitsu as well as brains to overcome and apprehend the bad guys.

Marquand eventually completed six novels centring around the Japanese secret agent/sleuth – Your Turn, Mr. Moto, Thank You, Mr. Moto, Think Fast, Mr. Moto, Mr. Moto is So Sorry, Last Laugh, Mr. Moto (all in the 1930s) and Right You Are, Mr. Moto (1957). 20th Century Fox bought the films rights (as they had with the Charlie Chan novels), and casting Hungarian-American actor Peter Lorre as the Japanese spy Moto🅐, rapidly made eight publicly well-received B-features in two years – Think Fast, Mr. Moto, Thank You, Mr. Moto, Mr. Motor’s Gamble, Mr. Moto Takes a Chance, Mysterious Mr. Moto, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning, Mr. Moto in Danger Island and Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (the series was variously set in Hawaii, Mongolia, Peking, Cambodia/Siam, Egypt, Devil’s Island, Puerto Rico, at sea, San Francisco and other locations in the US).

Your Turn, Mr. Moto: Book and movie The film is only loosely based on the original novel, retaining only some of the key characters like American Tom Nelson and Prince Tung, introduces new characters and makes the quest for the ancient Chinese scrolls a more central element than in the novel where it is subordinated to the question of Japo–Chinese relations🅑.

Apart from some overlap of titles there are big differences between the books and the movies. One of the most conspicuous is Mr Moto’s presence in the stories. In Marquand’s novels, the character of Mr Moto goes missing for large parts of the books (though he’s always actively working towards his objectives “off-stage”)…meanwhile attention switches to the male (American) protagonist who finds himself in trouble of some kind or other🅒. Moto returns to intervene at a crucial moment, the American is saved and finds redemption (which is the key to the plot). In the films by contrast, Mr Moto tends to “fill the screen and animate the whole series”. In the books Moto is “I.A. Moto”, a secret agent working for the imperial Japanese government, but in the films he is presented as “Kentaro Moto” (as his printed business card states), an Interpol agent. Moreover the two mediums craft quite different types of crime stories, the novels were international espionage adventures which Hollywood turned into formulaic detective stories on the screen, [Schneider, Michael A. “Mr. Moto: Improbable International Man of Mystery.” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, vol. 22, no. 1, 2015, pp. 7–16. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43898402. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024].

ᨎᨐᨏᨃᨑ

Mr Moto’s talents don’t stop at crime solving. He’s also a polymath, polyglot, art connoisseur, a graduate of Stanford University, amateur archaeologist and importer–exporter on the side. In some of these roles he demonstrates his special flair for effecting disguise, a ploy he uses to deflect suspicion from himself, blending in to exotic locales while undertaking dangerous spying assignments [‘Observations on Film Art: Charlie, Meet Kentaro’, Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell; David Bordwell’s website on cinema, 16-Mar-2007, www.davidbordwell.net; “‘Asian Detectives’. An Overview’, Philippa Gates, Crime Culture, www.crimeculture.com].

**Mr Moto in clownface (“Mr. Moto’s Last Warning”)**

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The Charlie Chan nexus: With two highly bankable screen detectives at its disposal Fox recognised the value of cross-promotion when the opportunity arose. The 1938 Moto movie Mr. Moto’s Gamble was originally meant to be a Warner Oland-starring Charlie Chan feature, however Oland’s ill-health and untimely death squashed those plans. Fox substituted Mr. Moto’s Gamble for the canned Chan movie and the producers kept Oland’s co-star Keye Luke in his No. 1 son role opposition Lorre this time, even allowing Mr Moto to politely inquire with Lee Chan (Luke) as to his honourable father’s health.

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Moto, genial but ruthless: Irrespective of the connexions and references between Charlie Chan and Kentaro Moto, Lorre’s off-centre sense of humour ensures that on screen Moto is “no Chan clone”. Although Moto, like Chan, employs logic and deduction in his policing methods and is quiet, meek exceedingly polite in public dealings (and a milk drinker no less!), he is also very much a man of action, disposing of physical threats to him with his uncompromising ju-jitsu prowess…in the case of the story’s murderer, once revealed, Moto customarily dispenses with the need for trial, having no qualms about liquidating him with 007-like utter ruthlessness, something Chan with his high moral code would never contemplate (Gates).

Moto’s alpha side (“Think Fast, Mr. Moto”)

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Mr Moto‘s personal side is as shadowy as his profession, to the audience it’s a blank slate. He has no family and no love life and his only companion is his cat. The only hint of a possible romance is his liaison with Lela (or Lotus) Liu (Lotus Long) in Think Fast, Mr. Moto and Mysterious Mr. Moto, but she turns out to be an agent like him and their attachment seems to be more a matter of working together to solve the case. Moto is a “lone wolf” when investigating cases, working solo without assistants. Occasionally he does ally with a self-appointed sidekick—usually a naive or gormless American or English idiot—who sometimes inadvertently unearths crucial evidence but as always it’s Mr Moto who unravels the mystery.

”Them Nipponese sure are peculiar birds”: Mr Moto, a Japanese man in 1930s America, is inevitably exposed in the stories to the casual racism of various people he meets, but the prejudice he cops seems more overt than the more subtle racist slurs DI Chan is subjected to. Possibly, this was a reflection of growing pro-Chinese feelings in America then in the wake of unremitting Japanese aggression against China in Manchuria. Moto, unfazed by the jibes, manages to turn the racism back on the perpetrators without their realising it…though he speaks perfectly fluent English he sometimes pretends to indulge their expectations of the stereotypical Asian: “Ah, so!!! Suiting you?”, he mocks in his singsong repartee manner 🅓 (Thompson & Bordwell).

**Versatile Mr Moto turns his hand (and voice) to ventriloquism (*Mr. Moto’s Last Warning*)**

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What makes Lorre’s star turn as the mysterious Japanese secret agent so good–even if it’s heavily stereotyped—is that he plays the role absolutely tongue-in-cheek and with considerable charm [‘A Guide to the Mr Moto Films’, Charles P. Mitchell, Classic Images, www.webarchive.org]. Although I wonder if Moto’s ever-smiling, ultra-polite, insufferable smugness with gleaming teeth while correcting lesser mortals as to the error of the misconceptions didn’t start to grate with some movie-watchers after a while?

“Mr Moto…the foxiest detective of them all!!!“

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As the series continued the film storylines and situations predictably became more formulaic. After eight features Peter Lorre called it quits, seeking a release from his Mr Moto contract. The Moto sub-genre was still very popular at the box office but it’s probable that Lorre’s concern was that he was being typecast again as Moto (having previously been stereotyped as a psycho killer), which he felt was limiting his choices of different parts (Gates).

Footnote: Where did Marquand get his inspiration for the character of Mr Moto? Marquand undertook a research tour of the Orient in 1934 to gather material for his Asian detective project. While in Japan he aroused the suspicions of a short, exceedingly polite police detective who started shadowing the American author on his journeys. Eventually the Japanese detective, realising that Marquand was no threat to the country, stopped tailing him. This chance encounter provided Marquand with the spark for the character of Moto.

Pearl Harbour effectively killed off novels for the American market about Japanese spies but Marquand did write a final “Mr Moto” after a lapse of nearly 20 years: a Cold War espionage thriller “Right You Are” with American agents hunting down communist infiltrators in Tokyo

🅐  leaving the series and Lorre open to retrospective criticism for engaging in “Yellowface”, although Moto hasn’t attracted the ire of modern critics to the same extent as the Charlie Chan series has for the steady stream of white actors who have portrayed the Chinese super-detective up until as recently as 1981 – see previous post ‘Charlie Chan, Murder Mystery-Buster Extraordinaire: A Positive Asian Stereotype or an Oriental “Uncle Tom”?’, (29 October 2024) 
 
🅑 Marquand’s focus in the books is on the clash of cultures, European/American vs Oriental (Japanese/Chinese), to a much greater degree that the films   

🅒 the first book, Your Turn, Mr. Moto, was originally titled No Hero, a reference to another character, not Moto

🅓 Mr. Moto Takes a Chance

“W”, “X”, “Y” & “Z” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

September 27, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Wadi: valley; stream; watercourse drying up in summer; oasis [from Arab. wādī‎, (“river” or “watercourse,”)]

Wadi in Jordan

Wanion: unluckily, due to the waning of the moon [from MidEng. waniand, from wanien, wanen (“to wane”)]

Withershins: in an unfortunate direction [from MidHighGer. wider (“against”)+ –sin (“direction”)]
Witling: a petty smart Alec; a mere pretender to wit (Bowler)[conjunction of wit + -ling]

Xenium: a present given to a guest [from Gk. xenial (pertaining to hospitality or relationship between host and guest) (cf. Xenodochium: a building for the reception of strangers; a caravanserai)

Caravanserai in Fars, Iran

Xenogenous: due to an outside cause; of foreign origin [from Gk. xeno]

word meaning & root formation

Yaul: to deviate from a stable course because of oscillation about the longitudinal axis (Rocket science) (Origin unknown)

Yegg: a burglar of safes; safecracker (Origin obscure: one (dubious) suggestion is from German jäger (“hunter”))

The challenge of the Yegg (Chubb advertisement)

Yemeles: negligent; careless; heedless [OldEng. from Germ.]

Yisse: desire or covet (Origin unknown)

Zeigarnik: (Psych.) the theory that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks; the tendency to remember an uncomplicated task [named after Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik (Zeigarnik Effect]

Zelotypia: morbid zeal; excessive jealousy [L. zēlotypia (“jealousy”) (Pliny) from Gk. (“jealousy, rivalry, envy“)

Zoilism: carping; destructive criticism [from Zoilus, ancient Greek grammarian and literary critic … was hyper-critical of Homer (Zoilus the “Homeromastix”)]

Zoilus of Ephesus

Zooerastia: (–asty) the practice of a human engaging in sexual intercourse with an animal; bestiality [from Gk. zoo + -astia]

Zoopery: experimentation on animals [from zoo + L. –operārī (“to work, labor, toil, have effect”)]

Zugzwang: a state of play in chess where the player is at a disadvantage as his or her next move will worsen their position in the game (cf. snookering) [from Ger. (“compulsion to move”)]

Zugzwang

Desperately Seeking William…Just William

September 22, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Memorabilia, Popular CultureAdrian Mole, Fascism and Nazism, Harry Potter, Interwar Britain, John Lennon, Just William, Juvenile fiction and humourBonza Rottwheeler

“Head boy of fiction”

If you could travel in the Tardis back to my primary school days, you’d find me most lunchtimes in the school library with my head in the fiction section habitually combing through the shelves for any books from my favourite series of reads for kids that I hadn’t yet wolfed down. Precisely I’d have my nose in the ‘C’ section – ‘C’ for Richmal Crompton, the author of the “Just William” series of books. From about the age of nine or ten I was hooked on the rebellious juvenile role model William, a 1920s–1960’s version of Harry Potter in his all-consuming cult appeal🄰…William became as integral to my childhood as Classics Illustrated comics, plasticine and chocolate malted sundaes. With more energy than I could ever summon for my obligatory school home work, I dedicated myself with missionary zeal to reading every single Just William book I could lay my hands on! Fortunately for me there was plenty of scope for that ambition, Crompton having written 39 Just William books in all. In the end I’m not sure if I actually read all of them (did the library hold the entire collection?), but I was certainly exposed to enough of them to become a vicarious member of “The Outlaws”.

The popularity of the Just William books prompted multiple other media spin-offs, including several television series—the 1962 series cast Denis Waterman (above) as William—as well as films and radio serials

William (Brown) is 11, and like Peter Pan he doesn’t age, despite the Just William entries in the series stretching over a period of nearly half-a-century!🄱 William in appearance is scruffy-haired and untidy, in nature straight talking, anarchic and rebellious – which generally lands him and his own small gang of school friends “The Outlaws” in hot water. Guy Mankowski attributes the series’ success (12 million books sold in the UK alone) to the English love of the rebel. My own recollection of the general tenor of mainstream Western society circa 1965, before the societal ripples of the Counterculture and Vietnam were felt, was still very conformist and strait-jacketed. I delighted in the character of William, his rebellious free spirit and sense of fun, constantly waging a war against the rules of adults which stop children like him enjoying the fun things in life (like unlimited ice cream). What also endeared me was William’s sheer inventiveness, constantly coming up with sometimes zany, always hilarious schemes to make money or to teach grown-ups a lesson or two, and the like. And I might add just quietly, William’s loud anti-school rhetoric didn’t diminish his appeal in my books as well.

Two things I only found out about Just William in my adulthood…I had from the start assumed that the author of the William books was a man, he had to be a man to write about a mischievous albeit good-natured boy with such knowing authority, I thought (plus, though “Richmal” was a weird first name, it sounded more like an upper-class toff’s name than a women’s name). Wrong on both counts! Miss Richmal Crompton Lamburn was in fact a school mistress (ironically – in an all-girls school!) who contracted polio and spent the rest of her life writing the William series of books as well as 41 separate adult novels (which she rated as her real true literary work)🄲. The second discovery was that John Lennon also harboured an all-consuming passion for the Just William stories growing up in Forties and Fifties Liverpool. Had I known at the time that no less a global cultural luminary of the Sixties than Beatle John hero-worshipped the fictional rebel William, my own cup of infatuated fandom for “Britain’s favourite naughty boy” may have runneth over even more than it did🄳.

Miss Crompton with juvenile “proofreaders” (photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

Something else that slipped under the radar of my 11-year-old self was the topicality (and sometimes controversial nature) of the William stories. In the 1940s in William and the Brains Trust William responds to the publication of the Beveridge Report—the blueprint for radical social policy change that profoundly affected postwar UK—with a list of his own child-centred demands. William the Dictator reflected the Western world’s concern with the rise of fascism and National Socialism. The US/USSR space race in the Fifties inspired the Just William titles William and the Moon Rocket and William and the Space Animal. Occasionally Crompton strayed onto edgy and even highly controversial turf. In the 1934 short story ‘William and the Nasties’ William and his Outlaws copy Hitler’s jackbooted Nazis by harassing and persecuting a local Jewish sweet-shop owner…passages such “There came to William glorious visions of chasing Jew after Jew out of sweetshop after sweetshop” definitely wouldn’t pass the politics or ethical pub test in our avowedly PC times. The anti-Semitic tone of ‘William and the Nasties’ has ensured its exclusion from modern editions of the William series.

**William the Lawless, the final book in the series, published in 1970, one year after Crompton’s death**

🄰 perhaps a better analogy is with Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole character although Adrian is way too timid and wimpishly sensitive juxtaposed to William

🄱 2022 was the centenary of the publication of the first Just William book in the series, although William’s debut in print was in a 1919 magazine story

🄲 Crompton Lamburn apparently based the character of William on a combination of her younger brother Battersby and her nephew Tommy

🄳 in William the Lawless (1970) William receives as a present, a Beatles’ LP

What’s in a Text?: Intentional and Affective Fallacies and the Logical Fallacy of Arguments from Silence

September 16, 2024Creative Writing, Geography, Literary & Linguistics, Medieval history,, Performing arts, Regional History, Social History, Society & Culture, Travel, Visual Arts, World history,‘Did Marco Polo go to China?’, ‘The Personal Heresy’, ’Travels of Marco Polo’, Affective fallacy, Arguments from silence, Authorial intent, CS Lewis v EMW Tillyard, ED Hirsch Jr, Frances Wood, Hans Ulrich Vogel, intentional fallacy, Intentionalism v Anti-intentionalism, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, Medieval Mongolists and Sinologists, Ming Dynasty, Mongol Yuan Dynasty, New Criticism, Norman Holland, Reader-response theory, Rustichello de Pisa, Semantic autonomy, WK Wimsatt and MC BeardsleyWolfgang Childerglas

Exegesis: Relegating the author IN literary and artistic aesthetics the intentional fallacy occurs when readers or viewers use factors outside the text or visual work (such as biographical information) to evaluate its merits, rather than ignoring these “external” factors and relying solely on the textual or visual evidence of the novel, play, poem, painting, etc. to assess the work in question (what’s actually in the text and nothing outside). This key precept of the New Criticism school declares that a poem (or other work of art) does not belong to its author, it is (as stated by the term’s originators WK Wimsatt and MC Beardsley) “detached from the author at birth and goes about the world beyond his power to intend about it or control it”1⃞. Authorial intention is a non-consideration in the assessment of the work. The text or work has an objective status and its meaning belongs solely to the reading or viewing public. The reader’s task in literature, advocates of New Criticism assert, is to eschew subjective or personal aspects such as the lives and psychology of authors and literary history and focus entirely on close reading and explication of the text (A Glossary of Literary Terms (4th edition, 1981), edited by M.H. Abrams).

The intentional fallacy, elaborated in Wimsatt’s 1954 *The Verbal Icon*

The intentional fallacy doctrine has a corollary in the affective fallacy which adheres to the same principles. Wimsatt and Beardsley affirmed that evaluating a poem by its effects—especially its emotional effects—upon the reader, is an erroneous way of approaching the task. Giving rein to the emotions a work of art evokes in you, negates an appreciation of “the (work’s) inherent qualities and craftsmanship” that an objective analysis permits (Prince Kumar, ‘Understand Affective Fallacy from Example’, LitforIndia, 23-Dec-2023, www.litforindia.com).

Semantic autonomy, Intentionalism, Anti-intentionalism: The intentional and affective fallacies as prescriptive “rules” of hermeneutics held sway from the 1940s to the 1970s, however this is not to say that there was no pushback from scholarly dissenters. Proponents (primarily American) of what is called “Reader-response theory” reject the claims of New Criticism of this prescribed mode of interpreting and critiquing a work of literature. Some of these objected to the fallacy’s nothing outside the text rigidity for constricting exploration of all possibilities of a work’s meanings. Critic Norman Holland frames it in a psychoanalytical context, the reader, he affirms, will react to a literary text with the same psychological responses he or she brings to events in their daily lives, ie, “the immediate goal of interpretation is to fulfil (one’s) psychological needs and desires” (‘Psychological Reader-response Theory’, Nasrullah Mambrol, Literary Theory and Criticism (2016), www.literariness.org). Theorist ED Hirsch in his “Objective Interpretation” essay also took issue with the expositors of the intentional fallacy thesis, arguing that on the contrary authorial intent (intentionalism) was integral to a full understanding of the work…the only meaning that is permanent and valid is that of the author in question, the reader should confine him or herself to interpreting what the author is trying to say (E.D. Hirsch, Jr, Validity in Interpretation, 1967) .

𖠔 : 𖠔 : 𖠔 : 𖠔 : 𖠔

A quite different kind of fallacious argument is the argument from silence (Latin: argumentum ex silentio). This arises when a conclusion or inference is drawn based on an absence of statements in historical documents and source materials…the argument seeks not to challenge or rebut specific things an author includes in a book or document, but is critical of the author for something they should have said but didn’t! The most common instances of the argument from silence in practice relate to biblical debates and controversies, but a contemporary classic example of a non-theological, historical nature, one generating considerable heated discourse, concerns the 13th century merchant and explorer Marco Polo and the famous book of his travels in the East.

Medieval Venezia at the time of Marco Polo (source: Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Medieval world travelogue guru?: Known by various names including Description of the World (Divisament du monde), Book of the Marvels of the World, Il libro di Marco Polo detto il Milione, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, or simply The Travels of Marco Polo, the book is one of the most celebrated tomes in the annals of literature dealing with the experiences of travellers to distant and unknown lands. The story, told and retold in numerous languages over centuries, presents Marco and his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo embarking on an epic road trip along the Silk Road to the court of the Great Khan in Khanbaliq (Beijing). The book recounts Marco’s travels in Cathay (North China) and Manji (South China), among other Eastern lands. The consensus among most historians is that Signor Polo, despite a tendency to exaggerate and embellish the tales of his travels2⃞, did nonetheless journey to China as he claimed in the book. The publication of Did Marco Polo Go to China? by Frances Wood in 1995 controversially swam against this tide. Wood infers serious doubts about Polo’s achievements, suggesting that despite his being away from his native Italy for the best part of a quarter-of-a-century, he never reached his intended destination China. According to Wood, he got only as far as Constantinople and the Black Sea where he accumulated all of his information on Chinese society and other Asian lands (his source material for the “Travels”) from picking the brains of visiting Persian merchants.

Doubting “Marco’s millions”: What made Wood so convinced that Marco Polo never visited China? Firstly, there is the book’s puzzling itinerary, it proceeds in a disjointed, incoherent fashion, is not uniformly chronological, has some odd detours and gets some geographical place names in China wrong. Then, while acknowledging The Travels of Marco Polo contains references to porcelain (from Fujian province), coal, rice-wine, paper currency and other items, Wood hones in on the fact that the Venetian traveller failed to mention certain other quintessentially Chinese things—namely the Great Wall of China, tea, chopsticks, cormorant fishing and the practice of foot-binding—in the pages of his “Travels’. Wood also picks up on Polo’s failure to learn Chinese during his sojourn in the Middle Kingdom. Allied to these omissions was the absence of Polo’s3⃞ name in any official Chinese document of the period, which Wood believed, further incriminated Marco as the perpetrator of a fraud.

A crumbling section of the not-so-great wall in north China built prior to Polo’s time (photo: John Man, *The Great Wall*)

Wood herself is perpetrating a pattern of reasoning which is problematic by recourse to an argument from silence. As Sven Bernecker and Duncan Pritchard in The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (2010) (ISBN 0-415-96219-6 Routledge pp. 64–65) note, “arguments from silence are, as a rule, quite weak; there are many examples where reasoning from silence would lead us astray.” Academic critics have been quick to pinpoint the shortcomings and misconceptions in Wood’s argument. There are, they counter, manifestly valid reasons why Polo would not refer to the Great Wall, for one, it was largely not there in the period of his residency in China! The impressive edifice of the Great Wall as we think of it was primarily a product of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368, three-quarters of a century after the Polos’ stay)…what there was of the not-so-Great Wall prior to that was a much more modest, unprepossessing sight (“a discontinuous series of derelict, pounded earth ramparts”) (‘F. Wood’s Did Marco Polo Go To China?’, A Critical Appraisal byI. de Rachewiltz, http://openresearch–repository.anu.edu.au). With the matter of the Chinese penchant for tea-drinking, perhaps Polo didn’t think the topic simply sufficiently noteworthy to rate a mention4⃞. The question of the omission of foot-binding, chopsticks and Polo’s linguistic ignorance of Chinese in the travelogue can all be accounted for. China and the royal court was under Mongol control (Yuan Dynasty) in Marco’s time, accordingly Polo moved in those circles, tending not to mix with the (Han) Chinese population. and so lacked the motivation (or opportunity) to learn Chinese. Likewise, he wouldn’t have encountered many upper class Chinese women in their homes, this was the strata of society that practiced female foot-binding, not the Mongols. Again, with chopsticks, not a utensil of choice for the Mongols who Polo tended to fraternise with (Morgan, D. O. (1996). Marco Polo in China-Or Not [Review of Did Marco Polo Go to China?, by F. Wood]. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6(2), 221–225. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25183182). As for “the Travels’” silence on fishing with cormorants, the activity was not a widespread phenomena in China during the Yuan era, confined to the remoter areas of Sichuan Province (‘Cormorant Fishing in China’, Sally Guo, China Travel (Upd. 04-April-2021), www.chinatravel.com).

MP (source: caamadi.com/de/marco-polo-in-venice)

Filtered Marco Polo – Rustichello et al: And there’s another line of thought when considerating the book’s glaring omissions, inconsistencies and inaccuracies that Frances Wood doesn’t seem to have factored into her thesis…The Travels of Marco Polo, the published book we read today, is a different beast in form and content to the original article from the late 1290s. In fact the original manuscript which Polo dictated to his amanuensis, an imaginative romance writer Rustichello de Pisa —who had licence to inject his own theatrical flourishes and flavour into Marco’s original story—was lost early on, so “the Travels” have gone on an untraceable and interminable journey through “dozens of translations of translations, none of which are necessarily accurate” (‘The Travels of Marco Polo: The True Story of a 14th-Century Bestseller’, Anna Bressanin, BBC, 09-Jan-2024, www.bbc.com). Of the 54 extant manuscripts (out of around 150 distinct copies in all languages), no two copies are entirely alike with “improvements” and edits made by each copyist and translator. We should also remember that Marco was in prison, relying on his memory to recount a multitude of events and experiences, some of which stretched back over 20 years, hardly surprising then if readers have to contend with the recollections of a not entirely reliable narrator (‘Marco Polo’s book on China omits tea, chopsticks, bound feet’, Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post, 04-Oct-2020, www.amp.scmp.com).

The Marco Polo saga has spawned a long history of film and television versions with romantic adventure taking precedence over story accuracy

Heavily redacted archives: The issue of Polo’s claim to have been an official in Kublai Khan’s service—and in particular governor of Yangzhou—was seized on by Dr Wood who pointed out that Marco’s name does not appear in any historical official Chinese archives. Rather than being necessarily proof of Marco fabricating a presence in China as Wood assumes, other factors may explain the discrepancy…no other Italian merchants known to have visited medieval China are mentioned in any Chinese sources, even the Papal envoy to the Great Khan’s court, Giovanni de Marignolli, doesn’t rate a mention (‘Marco Polo was not a swindler. He really did go to China’, Science News, 16-Apr-2012, www.sciencedaily.com). Another factor germane to this is the fact that the Ming (Han) Dynasty that succeeded the Mongol-dominated Yuan Dynasty initiated the practice of erasing the records of earlier non-Han officials (Morgan).

One particularly vocal critic of Did Marco Polo Go To China?, Sinologist Hans Ulrich Vogel from the University of Tübingen, produced a research paper demonstrating that Marco’s descriptions of currency, salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly in China were of a standard of accuracy and uniqueness of detail5⃞, that produces a very high level of proof that Polo had to have been in China, close to the wheels of power, to be privy to such comprehensive knowledge (www.sciencedaily.com).

Chinese salt production (source: Wellcome Images)

The “logical fallacy of weak induction”: Frances Wood’s iconoclastic book was certainly an attention-grabber, both for medieval scholars and Sinologists and for the general public, causing a furore upon its publication in 1995 and spawning several TV documentaries. China and the world of the Great Khan is a central tenet of the Marco Polo story, making it unthinkable to most scholars, almost a sacrilege, to suggest that the legendary Venetian traveller never set foot in the Middle Kingdom! The weight of the counter-argument unleashed against Wood’s thesis throws a spotlight on the hazards of trying to “treat the absence of evidence as evidence itself”, as Steven Lewis summarises the fallacious nature of the argument from silence (‘The Argument from Silence”, Steven Lewis, SES, www.ses.edu).

Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo go to China? (1995, Secker & Warburg, London)

1⃞ Wimsatt and Beardsley’s 1946 ‘Intentional Fallacy’ essay to some extent has its antecedents in the earlier debate between CS Lewis and EMW Tillyard, published as The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (1939), in which Lewis argued that an author’s own personality and biography has negligible to zero impact on the literary text, while Tillyard enunciated the contrary position: that an author’s own imagination and story can have an indelible influence on a work of literature

2⃞  and there had been doubters even in Marco’s time and later about some of his more wilder and fantastic claims, earning him the epithet Il Milione or “the Millions”) (aka “Marchus Paulo Millioni”). Wood’s particular slant on Polo’s book follows the lead of earlier German Mongolists

3⃞ who had claimed to have been an emissary in the emperor’s service

4⃞ Wood herself concedes that Rustichello may have edited out references to tea on the grounds of it being “of no interest to the general public”

5⃞ and corroborated by Chinese documents

Bharat, Türkiye, etc. What’s in a Name?: The Politics of Country Rebranding

August 11, 2024Comparative politics, Inter-ethnic relations, International Relations, Literary & Linguistics, National politics, Politics, Regional politics, Society & CultureBJP, Burma v Myanmar, Cambodia, Chechia, Chechnya, Endonyms v exonyms, Eswatini v Swaziland, India v Bharat, Kampuchea, Khmer Republic, Narendra Modi, Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun), Recep Erdoğan, Thailand v Siam, Turkey v Türkiyedemonymonic

In international news of late there’s been speculation by some pundits that the Republic of India might be planning to drop the name “India”—the name the world identifies the South Asian mega-state by—as the official title of the country. The conjecture stems from an apparent signal given by Modi’s government in issuing invitations in the name of the “President of Bharat” to attendees of the September 2023 G-20 summit held in New Delhi.

Why Bharat? Well, Bharat is already the other official name of India, enshrined in the nation’s constitutionᗩ, with a backstory stretching far back into the Sub-continent’s pre-colonial history. The word comes from ancient Sanskrit—Bhārata (“to bear or to carry”), a shortened form of Bhāratavarsa (first used in the 1st century AD)—as does the name Hindustān, also in currency among Hindi-speaking Indians as another name to describe the country as a whole. Some Hindu nationalists have advocated for the creation of Akhand Bharat (“Greater India”) which would unite India with all of its contiguous neighbours in a South Asian super-state.

Origin of “India”: It derives from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, a name for the Indus River and the lower Indus basin. Etymology: Ancient Greek Indikē, Latin Indía. The name “Hindu”, the predominant Indian religion and dharma, also relates to the Sub-continent’s paramount river, being an Old Persian adaption of “Sindhu”.

Modi of Bharat (photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)

Modi’s nomenclature move has received endorsement by government officials and followers (no surprise!) who contend that the name “India” as a nation title is “tainted” with its past connotations of colonialism and slavery, echoing the sentiment that “British colonial rulers had coined the name India to overshadow Bharat and forge a British legacy” [‘India’s government has used another name on the world stage. What does ’Bharat’ mean?’ SBS News, 06-Sep-2023, www.sbs.com.au].

If Bharat has already been an official name for India since 1949, why has the Indian government decided to publicise it just now? One answer comes from the political opponents of the BJP who allege that the notion is a diversional tactic by Modi’s party to try to upstage the recent formation of the opposition’s “INDIA” alliance to contest upcoming elections (Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party). This move follows a BJP pattern in power of erasing Indian place names which reflect India’s Mughal (Muslim) and (British) colonial past. Critics accuse the government of “pursuing a nationalist agenda aimed at forming an ethnic Hindu state out of a constitutionally secular India” [‘India’s Modi gov’t replaces country’s name with Bharat in G20 dinner invite’, Aljazeera, 05-Sep-2023, www.aljazeera.com]

Disassociating with the bird: In 2022 the Republic of Turkey notified the international community that it repudiates the name “Turkey” as a descriptor for it, instead the country should be be referred to officially by all as Türkiye (pronounced “Tur-kee-yay”)ᗷ, the communique stated. The government foreign minister said the use of Türkiye would increase “the country’s brand value”, but reputedly, a reason for the name switch is the president, Recep Erdoğan’s dislike of the association of his country with the Meleagris, a large gallinaceous bird (and by extension with the whole American Thanksgiving thing)…compounding that aversion to the name, is “turkey’s” colloquial meanings, (a person who is) inept or stupid; a movie or play which is a dud.

Another motive of Erdoğan’s could be in play – a political one. The move fits in neatly with his wish to be “rid of a westernised, anglicised name that jarred with his neo-Islamist, nationalist-populist brand” [‘The Observer view on Turkey’s name change’, The Guardian, 05-Jun-2022, www.imp.theguardian.com]. Critics of the Erdoğan regime take an even more scathing view, that “the rebrand is another populist device that Erdoğan is exploiting to divert attention away from the country’s persisting economic woes and to galvanise nationalist voters ahead of (upcoming) crucial elections” ‘ Turkey is now Türkiye: What other countries have changed their name?’, Euronews 28-Jun-2022, wwweuronews.com].

Switching synonyms: While India and Turkey are topical examples of the inclination for nomenclature rebranding, the 20th century is dotted with instances of other such name changes. In 1989 the authoritarian military government in Burma—a country named after the Burmans, the dominant ethnic group—caught the world by surprise by suddenly changing the country’s name to “Myanmar”. The regime explained the switch as jettisoning a name inherited from its colonial past and choosing a new name that would foster ethnic unity by recognising it was a multi-ethnic state. In reality it was “linguistic sleight-of-hand” as in the Burmese language “Myanmar” is merely a more formal version of “Burma”. The Burmese regime, viewed as an international pariah after years of violent repression against its citizens was seeking to rebuild its PR standing, so you only needed to be slightly cynical to see the thinking behind such a cosmetic name change ploy [‘Myanmar, Burma and why the different names matter’, Kim Tong-Hyung & Hyung-Jin Kim, PBS News, 03-Feb-2021, www.pbs.org].

Myanmar, the military’s choice (photo: JPaing/The Irrawaddy)

Czechs of Czechia: The Czech Republic (Česká republika) came into existence in 1993 when Czechoslovakia ceased to be a single political entity (splitting amicably into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). In 2016 a further name change, or more correctly, name addition, happened, the Czech government introduced a short-form title, “Czechia”, for communication in English, while retaining Česká republika as its full name. Though less controversial than other instances, the term “Czechia” was criticised by some Czechs for being confusingly too close in sound to the name of the internal Russian republic, Chechnya. This was the very reason the Kingdom of Swaziland, a landlocked southern African country, swapped names in 2018, becoming (the Kingdom of) Eswatini. The change occurred by royal fiat…with the stated reason that when Swazi tourists were overseas locals would mistakenly think they were from Switzerland.

”Resplendent” name change: The small island nation of Ceylon left the British Commonwealth and became a republic in 1972…at the same time the government affected a name change to “Sri Lanka“, which combines the honorific Sri meaning “resplendent” and the island’s original name Lanka which simply means “island”. The name “Ceylon”, based on an earlier Portuguese name, had been adopted by the British rulers after they had colonised the island in stages between 1796 and 1817 [‘Sri Lanka erases colonial name, Ceylon’, Charles Haviland, BBC News, 01-Jan-2011, www.bbc.com]. Prior to becoming a British colony the island comprised two entities, a Dutch Ceylan part and the native Sinhalese Kandyan Kingdom.

Regime change ➔ name change: In the case of the small Southeast Asian state of Cambodia the changing of the country’s name, throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, became something of a merry-go-round. In succession it went from (the Kingdom of) Cambodia to the Khmer Republic to Democratic Kampuchea to (the People’s Republic of) Kampuchea to (the State of) Cambodia back to (the Kingdom of) Cambodia, reflecting the state-level instability of ongoing regime changeᑢ.

Ping-pong nomenclature in Bangkok: Prior to 1939 Thailand was known by the name “Siam”, deriving from a Sanskrit word, syam. In 1939 Prime Minster Phibun changed the kingdom’s name from Prathet Siam to Prathet Thai or Mu’ang Thai (English: “Land of the Thais”). At the end of WWII Phibun having backed the losing Japanese side fell from favour and the succeeding Thai regime changed the name back to Siam to distinguish itself from the previous regime associated with the fascist Japanese invaders. In 1948 however Phibun returned to power and reinstated the name Thailand, which the country has retained to the present [‘Thai or Siam?’ P Juntanamalaga, (1988), Names: A Journal of Onomastics, www.ans-names.pitt.edu].

Footnote: Endonyms and exonyms When Turkish president Ergodan objected to the continued use of the name “Turkey” by outsiders to describe his country, he was in fact rejecting the convention of exonyms (or if you like, xenonyms) – the non-native name by which others refer to your country (cf. endonyms, the native name by which you refer to your own country)…for instance, what an English-speaker calls “China” (an exonym), a Chinese-language speaker would call Zhōngguó or Chung-kuóᘿ(an endonym). Imagine how unwieldy and long–handedly confusing it would get if every country insisted on universal usage of their particular linguistic exonym for everyone?

ᗩ Article 1 of the Constitution, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”

ᗷ not really a name change as the nation officially has been called Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) since 1923

ᑢ Cambodia” is the exonym, cf. the endonym of “Khmer”

ᕲ also called an autonym

ᘿ meaning “Central Demesne” or “Middle Kingdom” or “Central Nation”

“T” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

August 3, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional HistoryAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Tabescent: {appeared in Logolept’s Diet 1.0 but sans its Latin etymology, included here} [from L. tabescens]

Talionic: retaliation; retribution [from MidFr . talion, from L . talis (“such”)]

Tapinosis: {also made an entry in Logolept’s Diet 1.0 but have added Peter Bowler’s definition} the use of degrading diction [from Gk. tapeínōsis, (“lowering”)]

Tarhood: group of sailors, or state of being a sailor; collective term for sailors [from Dut. teer(?) (“seaman”; “mariner”)]

Tardigrade: slow in movement; microscopic water bear [from L. tardigradus (“slowly stepping”), from tardus (“slow”) + -gradior (“step”; “walk”)]

**Tardigrade** (source: Front Line Genomics)

Tautegorical: saying the same thing with different words, opposite of allegorical [poss. from MidEng. tought (“distended”) + -gori(?) + -cal]

Tegestologist: a collector of beer mats or coasters [from L. teges (“covering”; “mat”) +‎ -logy]

Temulency: inebriation; drunkenness [from L. temulentia]

Tetragram: a word containing four letters [from Gk. tetra (“four”). + -grāmma (“letter”)]

Thelyphthoric: that which corrupts the morals of women (Gk. Nonce word (?): coined by English clergyman and writer Martin Madan (1780) poss. from thelus (“woman”) + –phthora (“destruction”; “ruin.”) + –ic]

Thersitical: abusive and foul-mouthed; scurrilous; grossly defamatory [Gk. after Thersites, a minor character in the Iliad who slandered and mocked Agamemnon]

Thigmotaxis: the movement of an organism in response to stimulus [Gk. thigma, thigma (“touch”) + –taxis, (“arrangement”; “order”)]

Thrasonical: bragging and boasting; of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of Thraso; a vainglorious boaster and swaggerer [L. Thrason-, Thraso, + (-cal): “Thraso”, a braggart soldier in the comedic play Eunuchus by 2nd century BC Roman dramatist Terence]

Tiffin: a snack or light lunch (meaning uncertain)

Tonitruous: thundering; explosive 🧨 [from L. tonitruum (“thunder”)]

Tonsorial: pertaining to barber or hairdressing [from L. tonsor (“barber”) from tondere (“shear”; “clip”) + -al]

Toparch: ruler or prince of a small district, city or petty state [from Gk. (“ruler of a small district”), from tópos, “place”) +‎ –árkhēs, (“ruler”)]

Tralatitious: having a character, force, or significance transferred or derived from something extraneous; passed from one generation to another; handed down (metaphorically) [from L. transferre (“to transfer”) + -itius, -icius (“-itious“)

Tregetour: a magician or juggler 🤹 [from OldFr. tres (“across”) + -geter, -jeter (“to throw”)]

Trilemma: a difficult choice from three options, each of which is unacceptable or unfavourable [modelled on dilemma, with di- (“prefix meaning ‘two, twice, double’”) replaced by tri- (“prefix meaning ‘three’”)]

Tristiloquy: a dull and depressing speech [(?) + -loqui (“speech”)]

“Q” and “R” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

July 8, 2024Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Quadrimum: best or oldest wine; four-year-old wine [from L. quad (“four”) + -mus]

Quaintise: a cunning little ploy or strategem; craft; elegance [from Fr. cointise]

Qued: bad; evil [from Proto-Wt Germanic. kwād (“bad”; “evil”)]

Quillet: a subtlety in argument; a subtle distinction [Uncertain, poss from L. quidlibet (“anything”)]

Quinquagesima: pertaining to 50 days [from L. quinquaginta (“fifty”)]

Quisquous: hard to deal with; dubious; of people: having a character difficult to assess [from Scot. Eng. from L. quisquis (“whosoever”)]

Quodlibet: a philosophical or theological point proposed for disputation; a whimsical combination of familiar melodies or texts [from L. qui (“what”) + -libet (“it pleases)”]

Quondam: that once was; (a) former [as that grand dame of words Merriam Webster says: “Looking for an unusual and creative way to say “former”?” Quondam (which came to English in the 16th century from Latin quondam, meaning “at one time” or “formerly”) ~ look no further!]

Rampallian: a bold, forward, rampant or wanton woman [Elizabethan term, Henry IV Pt II, Act II)

Rasorial: habitually scratching the ground in search of food [from LateLat. rasor (“one that scrapes”) + -ial]

Recusant: refusing staunchly to comply with some generally accepted rule or custom (Orig. Relig.) [from L. re- + causari (“to give a reason”), from causa (“cause”; “reason”)]

Redivivus: restored to life, or to full liveliness; reborn [L. “reused”]

Remiped: (Zool.) having feet that are adaptable as oars [from L. remiped-, remipes (“oar-footed”)] 👣

Remontado: someone who has fled to the mountains or hills and renounced civilisation; a Northern Philippine’s tribesman; go-back (to the wild) [Galician (Sp.). remontado/remontada]

Renable: eloquent; fluent [from OldFr. resnable]

Resipiscence: recognising one’s own error or errors; to see reason once again [from L. resipīscere (“to regain consciousness, come to one’s senses”)]

Resupinate: (Botany.) upside down as a result of twisting ; (Medic.) lying on the back [from re + L. –supīnus, from sup- sub (“under”)]

Rhonchisonant: making a snorting noise; snorting [from L. rhonchus, + –sonans]

Rixation: quarrelling [from L. rīxārī (“to quarrel”)]

Roinous: mean, nasty and contemptible (origin unknown, possibly from Fr)

Rodomontade: empty boasting and blustering; arrogant ranting; braggadocio [from Rodomont, a character in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso]

Ruptuary: one not of noble blood; a plebeian; a commoner; a roturier [from MidFr. roturier]

“P” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

June 25, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Memorabilia, Popular Culture, Regional HistoryAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Pachycephalic: thick-sculled; stupid [from Gk. pakhús (“thick”) + –cephalic (“head”)]

Paleomnesia: good memory for events of the far past [Gk. paleo (“old”; “ancient”) + –mnesia (“memory”)]

Palimony: the division of financial assets and real property on the termination of a personal live-in relationship wherein the parties are not legally married (ie, de facto) [formed from “pal” + “alimony” (coined by celebrity lawyer Marvin Mitchelson)]

Palinoia: the compulsive repetition of an act over and over until perfection is achieved [? + Gk. –noia (“mind”)]

Palladian: pertaining to learning and wisdom [from Gk. Pallás an epithet of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom) + -ian^]

Palpebrate: having eyelids; to wink. [L. palpebra, eyelid]

Paltripolitan: an insular city dweller [blending of “paltry” + -“metropolitan”]

Pancratic: (Hist.) an athletic contest called the pankration; athletic; pertaining to or having ability in all matters [Gk. pankratḗs, [“all-powerful”)]

**Pancratic Credit: Midjourney for the Greek Reporter**

Pandaculation: involuntary stretching and yawning [L. pandiculatus, from pandiculari (“to stretch oneself”)] 🥱

Pangrammatist: a person who composes verses or sentences using all letters of the alphabet [Gk. pan (“all”) + -grammar + -ist]

Pantophagy: a diet that consists of a large variety of foods; ideally, of all possible foods [from Gk. pant (“all”) + –phagein (“to eat”)]

Paracme: (Medic.) a point beyond the greatest or highest (eg, of a fever); the stage after one’s peak [from Gk. para, (“beyond”) + -akmē, (“highest point”; “prime”)]

Paradiastole: (Rhetoric) a form of euphemism in which a positive synonym is substituted for a negative word; to reframe a vice as a virtue [para + -diastolḗ, (“separation”; “distinction”)]

Paronomasia: word-play of the punning kind; playing upon words which sound alike for comic or clever effect [from para + –onomasía, (“naming”)]

Parorexia: a craving or appetite for unusual foods [from Gk. para + -orexia (“desire”; “appetite”)]

Passepartout: a master key; a safe conduct or passport (from Fr. lit. (“passes everywhere”)] 🔑

Peculate: to pilfer or embezzle (money, esp public funds) [L. from peculatus]

Pilgarlic: a pitiful bald-headed man [from “pilled”/“peeled” + “-garlic”]

Pleionosis: the exaggeration of one’s own importance [? + Gk. –osis (“disease”; “process”); “condition”)]

Preterist: (Theo.) a Christian eschatological view or belief that interprets prophecies of the Bible as events which have already been fulfilled in history; a person interested in the past [ from L. praeteritus, (“gone by”) + -ist]

Prevenient: anticipating; preceding in time or order; having foresight; preventing [from L. praeveniens (“precedes”)]

Procerity: tallness; height [from L. pro– (“forward”) + –cerus, from –crescere (“to grow”) + –itas (“-ity”)]

Proctalgia: a severe, episodic pain in the region of the rectum and anus; pain in the arse [Gk. prōktos (“anus”) + –algos (“pain”)] (cf. Rectalgia)

Procumbent: lying or kneeling with face down; prostrate [L. pro + -cumbere (“to lie down”)]

Protogenal: pertaining to primitive creatures [NewLat. protogenes, from L. prot (“first”) + –gen (“birth”)]

Psephologist: someone who studies elections and voting patterns [Gk. psēphos, (“pebble”)]

**Psephologist** (credit: the Irish News)

Psychagogic: attractive; persuasive; interesting [from Gk. psychagōgia (“persuasion”; “winning of souls”) + -ikos -ic]

Pyknic: relating to a stocky physique; rounded body and head, thickset trunk and tendency towards fat [from Gk. pyknos (“dense”; “stocky”)]

“N” & “O” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

June 15, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Society & Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Nanocephalous: having an abnormally small head [Gk. nânos (“small”) + -cephal (“head”) + -ous]

Nasute: having an acute or sensitive sense of smell; having a long snout [from L. nāsus (“nose”) +‎ -ūtus]

Naupathia: sea-sickness [Gk. naus (“ship”) + -pathos (“suffering”)]

**Naupathia** (photo: oceanservice.noaa.gov)

Necromorphous: feigning death to deter an aggressor [from Gk. necro (“death”) + –morphe (“form”)]

Nefandous: unspeakable; unutterable [from L. ne- (“not”) + –fandus, ➨ –fārī (“to speak”)]

Neoteny: an indefinite prolongation of the period of immaturity, with the retention of infantile or juvenile qualities, into adulthood [from Gk. néos “young” + -o--O- + -teínein (“to stretch”; “extend”) + -y]

Nepheligenous: producing clouds of smoke [from Gk. nephélē, (“cloud”) +‎ -genous (“producing). Coined by OW Holmes]

Neopotation: prodigality; extravagance; squandering one’s money on riotous living (OU)

Nidifugous: leaving the nest while still young [L. nīdus (“nest”) + –fugiō (“I flee”; “escape”) + -ous]

Nikhedonia: the pleasure and satisfaction derived from the anticipation of success [nik(?) poss. from Nike, Greek god of victory + Gk. –hedonikos (“pleasure”)]

Nimiety: excess; extravagance; surfeit [from L. nimius (“excessive”)]

Nocent: harmful [from L. nocens (“to harm”)]

Noctivagant: wandering by night [from L. nocti- (“night”) + –vagari (“to wander”)] 🌃

Noisome: noxious; smelly; nasty [from MidEng. noy (“annoyance”) + -some, (“characterised by a specified thing,”)]

Nonfeasance: failure to perform some action which ought to have been performed [L. non- + Eng. -feasance (“doing”; “execution”)]

Nostrificate: to accept as one’s own; to grant recognition to a degree (or other formal qualification) from a foreign university (or other registered educational institution) [from L. noster (“our”) + -cate]

Noyade: mass execution by drowning (esp in revolutionary France in Nantes, 1793-94) [from L. necare (“kill without using a weapon”) (nonce word)]

**The Noyades of Nantes** (image source: Selbymay (CC BY— SA) WHE)

Nugacity: triviality; futility; drollery (cf. nugatory: of no value; trifling; pointless) [from L. nugacitas (“trifling”)]

Nullibiety: the state of being nowhere [from L. nūllus (“none”; “no”; “not any”) +‎ –ibī (“there”) + -ety] (cf. Nullibist: one who denies that the soul exists in physical space)

Numen: pertaining to numina; awe-inspiring; supernatural) [L. nuō + –men (“a nodding with the head”; “command”; “will”)]

Nummamorous: money-loving (cf. Nummary: pertaining to coin) (OU) 💴 🪙

Numinous: divine; spiritual” [from L. nūmen]

Nuncheon: a noon drink [from MidEng . nonshench, noneschench, nonechenche (“slight refreshment, usually taken in the afternoon”) from L. nōnus] 🍷

Nutation: the act of nodding the head, esp habitually or constantly; a periodic variation in the inclination of the axis of a rotating object [from L . nūtātiō (“nodding”), from nūtō (“I nod”)]

Nycterent: someone who hunts by night [from Gk. nyct (“night”) + -ent] (cf. Nyctitropic: turning in a certain direction at night) (cf. Nyctalopia: night-blindness)

Nympholepsy: a passionate longing for something unattainable [from Gk mythology: nymphóleptos (“possessed by nymphs”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

Obsidional or Obsidionary: pertaining to a siege [from L. obsidiō (“siege”; “blockade”)]

**Obsidional** (source: Medieval art by Marilyn Stokstad)

Obsolagnium: waning sexual desire due to age [from L. ob- (“against”) + lagnium (“desire”)]

Obtund: to blunt, dull or deaden [from L. obtundere (“to dull”, “deaden”, “deafen”)]

Oculogyric: eye-rolling; rotation of the eyes [from L. oculo- (“eye”) + –gyric, from Gk. -gurus (“circle”)]

Oligophagos: eating only a few particular kinds of food [from Gk. olig (“few”) + –phagos (“eating”)]

Ollapod: pharmacist; (Orig. a country apothecary [name of a character in George Colman the Younger‘s comedy The Poor Gentleman (1801)]

**Ollapod** (source: Wellcome Collection (CC))

Ombrophilous: capable of withstanding heavy and continuous rain [from Gk. ómbros (“rain”) + –philous (“love”)]

Omniety: the state or condition of being all [from L. omnis (“all”) + -iety]

Oneirataxia: inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality [Gk. oneiros (“dream” + –taxis (“arrangement”)]

Onomasticon: an ordered list of names (Orig. a gazetteer of historical and contemporary 4th-century place names in Palestine and Transjordan compiled by Eusebius) [Gk. onomastikós, (“belonging to names”), from onomázō, (“I name”)]

Onychophagia: nail-biting [from Gk. onych (“claw”) + -phagos].

Ophelimity: the ability to please another; economic satisfaction [from Gk. ōphélimos, (“helpful”)]

Opisthenar: back of the hand [from Gk. opistho- (“behind”; “back”) +‎ –thenar (“palm of the hand”)] 🤚

Opsablepria: inability to look someone in the eye (OU) 👁️

Orarian: dweller by the seaside; relating to the seaside [from L. ōrārius (“coasting”; “along the coast”) + -an]

Orthostatic: relating to standing upright; straight posture [Gk. orth (“right angle”; “perpendicular”) + –statikós (“to make stand”)] (cf. Orthobiosis: a hygienic and moral lifestyle)

Osophagist: a fastidious eater [Gk. (?) + –phagos]

Otiose: serving no useful purpose; leisurely (cf. Otiant: idle or resting [from L. otium (“leisure”)]

Ozostomia: evil-smelling breath [from Gk ozóstom(os) (“having bad breath”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

“L” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

May 23, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Labefaction: shaking, weakening and/or downfall; impairment, especially of moral principles or civil order [L. labefactus, labefacere (“to cause to totter”; “shake”) from labare (“to totter”) + -facere (“to make”) + -ion]

Labile: unstable; liable to change [from L. labi, (“to slip or fall”)]

Labrose: thick-lipped [L. labrosus, from labrum (“lip”)] 👄

Laevorotatory or Levorotatory: counter- or anti-clockwise (opp. Dextrorotatory) [L. levo from laevus (“left”) + rotatiō] 🕰️

Lampadedromy: foot race with lighted torches, esp a relay race passing the torch from runner to runner (Anc. Greece: a race in honor of Prometheus in which the contestants ran bearing lit torches, the winner being the first to finish with his torch still lit) [Gk. lampein (“to shine”) + –dromos (“a running”)]

**Lampadedromy** at the ancient Greek Olympic Games (image. medium.com)

Lamprophony: speaking in a clear loud voice [Gk. lampróphónos (“clear-voiced”) from lamprós (“clear”; “distinct”) + -phone (“sound”) + -y]

Languescent: becoming tired or languid [from L. languescere (“to become faint”)]

Lapidate: stone to death [L. lapidare (“to stone”), from lapid-, lapis (“stone”) + -ate]

**Lapidate** (v):the punishment of Lapidation

Latebricole: living in holes (OU) 🕳️

Latibulise: to hibernate (OU)

Latifundian: rich in real estate [ L. latus, (“spacious”) + -fundus, (“farm”, (“estate”)] (Latifundium was a large agricultural estate in Ancient Rome)

Leman: paramour; lover; inamorata [from OldEng. lēofmann (“lover”); (“sweetheart”); equiv. to lief +‎ –man (“beloved person”)]

Lenitic or Lentic: living in quiet or still waters [L. lenitas (“mildness”) + -ic] (cf. Lotic: living in actively moving waters)

Lepid: charming; elegant; amiable [from Gk. lepid-, lepis (“scale”?), from lepein]

Lestobiosis: living by furtive stealing; the act of pilfering food, especially of ants 🐜 [Gr. lestes, (“robber”) +–biosis, (“manner of life”)]

Loganamnosis: a mania for trying to recall a forgotten word or words [Gk. log (“word”) + -amnosis (?) perhaps from –amnesia (“memory”)]

Lucifugous: avoiding daylight or light altogether [ from L. lucifugus, from luci- + -fugus (from fugere (“to flee”) + -al +-ous]

Lucripetous: money-hungry (OU) 💰

Luctiferous: sad and sorry [L. luctifer (“mournful”) from luctus (“sorrow”) + -fer (-ferous) + –ous]

Ludification: derision; mockery [from L. ludificatio, from ludificare (“to make sport of”), from ludus (“sport”) + -ficare (“to make”, in comparative)]

Lurdane: stupid, dull and lazy; a sluggard [MidFr. lourdin (“dullard”), from lourd (“heavy”)]

Lypophrenia: a vague feeling of sadness, seemingly without cause [OU. ? + Gk. –phrenia (“mind”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

Zorro, Caballero and Social Bandit: From a Pulp Fiction Story to a Rapier Sharp Template for Inspiring Iconic Screen Superheroes

May 21, 2024Cinema, Literary & Linguistics, Memorabilia, Popular Culture, Social History, Society & Culture‘Mark of Zorro’ (1920), ‘The Curse of Capistrano’ (novella), ’Mask of Zorro’ (1998), Antonio Banderas, Bandito culture, Batman, Disney Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega, Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Guy Williams, Joaquin Murrieta, Johnston McCulley, Lone Ranger, Mexican Inquisition, Méxican-American Latinos, Old (Alta) California, Robin Hood, Salomon Pico, Scarlet Pimpernel, Superman, Tiburcio Vásquez, Tyrone Power, William Lamport, Zorrosabinebuena

The Zorro story is deeply embedded in western popular culture, especially in the world of Anglophone cinema and television which trades heavily on all the familiar tropes, “carving the ‘Z’ on someone or something (the zigzagging mark of El Zorro)”; “secret identity of the protagonist, the elusive fox”🇦; “masked avenging angel fighting the powerful in the cause of the powerless”, etc. The fictional Zorro inherits the tradition of storied folklore heroes like Robin Hood and the Scarlet Pimpernel…in this Zorro is a worthy member of that exalted pantheon of morally-superior righters of heinous wrongs.

Before Batman, Superman and the Lone Ranger: Zorro, he of the rapid rapier and distinctive black mask covering only his eyes, was a precursor to the iconic, quintessential American heroes of comic book and screen. There are transparent linkages between Zorro, the caballero (Spanish gentleman)–cum–rebellious outlaw, and Batman, the crusading superhero of Gotham City…both heroes effect a double identity. Both Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro) and Bruce Wayne (Batman) are wealthy aristocrats who feign unheroic personalities in their open identities🇧(compare Don Diego’s foppish even effeminate affectations with Wayne’s playboy persona). The dual/secret identities trope is also exhibited in the Supermen franchise, in times of great crisis or peril mild-mannered loser-type Clark Kent only has to dash into the nearest phone booth to instantly transform into peerless crime fighter Superman. The parallels extend to popular American TV westerns fare in the 1950s with the masked Lone Ranger who “was little more than Zorro in a western guise”, substituting the swashbuckler Zorro’s black garb and accessories with a lawman’s white outfit, etc. Zorro and Lone Ranger share another similar trait to their makeup, as does Batman. Unlike Superman, they don’t rely on superpowers or extra human strength but utilise “stealth, dexterity and ingenuity” to best the bad guys and end “corruption and abuse, and establish a world of moral justice” [John J. Valadez. (2016). The Lone Ranger Unmasked: Zorro and the Whitewashing of the American Superhero. Filmmaker Essay. Chiricú, 1(1), 135–151. https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.1.1.11]. In Batman’s case, he relies on his “scientific knowledge, detective skills and athletic prowess” [Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America (1968)].

Over 40 films, several TV series, novels, a musical, cartoons and comics, and the obligatory merchandise, Zorro as an entertainment phenomenon has been the complete package for over a century. But it all started with a simple and seemingly nondescript adventure story, The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, appearing in print in a dime pulp magazine. First serialised in 1919, the template was picked up almost immediately by Douglas Fairbanks Sr (a Zorro tragic!) and his production company and developed into a box office hit silent movie, The Mark of Zorro in 1920. On the strength of The Mark of Zorro’s success McCulley serialised the Zorro tale, producing in all over 60 stories by the time of his death in 1958. The Curse of Capistrano by itself has sold more than 750 million copies worldwide!

Time setting for ‘Zorro’? McCalley’s Zorro stories are vaguely set during the later era of Spanish California (ca.1800–1821), however some of the film adaptations locate Zorro much closer to the gold rushes and the US takeover (late 1840s).

⍍ Guy Williams, the iconic Zorro of ‘50s television, and creator Johnston McCulley

Chicano bandit prototypes for Zorro: McCulley drew on sources from literature and legend—primarily Robin Hood and Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel—for inspiration for the Zorro character, but he also gleaned much from the pages of history, especially of early California. McCulley seems to have modelled Zorro partly on various 19th century Californio bandidos, in particular Joaquin Murrieta whose actual historicity is uncertain🇨. The popular legend has Murrieta immigrating to the California gold fields but when gringos committed murderous atrocities against his family, the Mexican wreaks revenge on the American killers and embarks on a short but violent career of robbery and banditry. Murrieta’s “exploits” polarised opinion, Californian authorities identify him an enemy of the state and place a high price on his head while to Chicanos the romanticised outlaw has become a symbol of Mexican resistance to Anglo-American economic and cultural domination in California [‘Joaquin Murrieta’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org]🇩.

Moviemakers even roped Zorro into the Italian Sword-and-Sandals (peplum strongman) sub-genre during its apotheosis, with *Zorro Contro Maciste* (1963)

Another Mexican bandit (more historically authenticatable than Murrieta), Tiburcio Vásquez, provided similar inspiration for fiction author McCulley. Vásquez attributed his 20-year career in crime to retribution for the racist attitudes of the norteamericanos—the white settlers from the US who had taken over Alta California after it had become an American state—and their treatment of non-Anglo (especially Mexican) inhabitants of California. Vásquez’s bold defiance earned him a folkhero following within the 19th century Méxican-American community (Valadez).

An Irish Gaelic Zorro?: A decidedly non-Latino historical influence on the creation of Zorro is attributed to the career of Irish adventurer William Lamport, noted for being both an accomplished swordsman and a ladies’ man. The peripatetic Lamport served as a captain in the Spanish army and was sent to New Spain (Mexico) with a new, Hispanicised name to spy for the Spanish crown. The Eirish adventurer was appalled by the treatment of Amerindians and Black slaves in Mexico and sought to advance their liberation. Lamport was eventually arrested and accused of sedition and intending to set himself up as king of an independent Mexico. The Irishman was tried by the Mexican Inquisition and executed as a heretic in 1659 [‘The Man Behind the Mask of Zorro’, History Ireland, www.historyireland.com].

⍍ Banderas & Zeta-Jones in the 2005 sequel to ‘The Mask of Zorro’

TriStar Pictures’ 1998 production, The Mask of Zorro, with a vigorous, athletic Antonio Banderas in the title role, revived interest in the Zorro story and earned a cool US$250,000,000 at the box office. In the 1960s Disney’s television adaptation of the Zorro story (starring Guy Williams, the Anglo-sounding screen name of Armando Catalano) was one of the most popular programs on the box, especially with kids. So is Zorro just some innocuous action-adventure entertainment fare? Well, not according to some critical voices from the Latino community who see the Zorro phenomena as perpetuating Hispanic myths within the wider white-dominated mainstream, reinforcing “classic stereotypes of the Latin Lover (see also Footnote below) fighting endless series of inept Méxican villains” and misrepresenting the “multiethnicity and cultural complexity of of early California [‘Zorro still makes his mark’, Lewis Beale, Los Angeles Times, 28-June-2005, www.latimes.com]🇪. Others are critical of Zorro’s ethnicity, UCLA professor, Rafael Perez-Torres, emphasises the point that the “Robin Hood of the pueblo” is Criollo, a white Spaniard born in the New World of purely Spanish blood, he is always represented as the “honourable good ” against the evil and corrupt Méxican officials (Beale). Novelist Isabel Allende with an unorthodox take on Zorro (El Zorro: comienza la leyenda, 2005) subverts this idea of Eurocentric Zorro by reinventing his origin as a mestizo (mixed parentage: Spanish aristocrat father and Shoshone warrior mother).

The ineffectual dandy Don Diego & macho he-man alter ego Zorro in the Walt Disney TV ‘Zorro’

Footnote: Celluloid Zorros One of the tropes employed by filmmakers in Zorro’s frequent screen appearances is Zorro as “sexy Latino lover”, as portrayed in the versions (big screen and small) by a bevy of heart-throb testosterone-charged actors – Tyrone Power, Guy Williams, Alain Delon, Antonio Banderas, George Hamilton (though Hamilton in the 1981 Zorro: The Gay Blade, tagline: “Zexy, Zany and Zensational!”, plays the black caped avenger purely for (campy) laughs).

🇦 zorro in Spanish translates as “fox”

🇧 Bob Kane co-creator of the Batman character admitted Zorro—and in particular the Douglas Fairbanks Sr swashbuckling portrayal in Mark of Zorro (1920)—heavily influenced his shaping of the “caped crusader” of Gotham City

🇨 Murrieta’s story is mostly recounted through a contemporary novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854)

🇩Californio Salomón Pico was another historical figure in 1850s California with a similar sounding story embellished by local legend – grievously wronged by white settlers so he turns to banditry against the powers that-be and shares his booty with the local Mexican poor

🇪all of which is not to deny that there are countless other Latinos (and other peoples) who have derived genuine inspiration from the story and legend of Zorro to help fortify them in their very real, everyday struggles against unjust, authoritarian and oppressive regimes

“J” and “K” Words from Left Field II – Redux: A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

May 13, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Law and society,, Literary & LinguisticsAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Jackanapes: “a silly impertinent monkey of a fellow” (Bowler); an impudent or conceited person; a tame monkey [nickname of William de la Pole, (Duke of Suffolk, d. 1450), MidEng. Jack Napis]

**Jackanapes** (from Wm de la Pole) (source: pinterest.com.au)

Jagannath: juggernaut [Sanskrit. Jagannath (“lord of the universe”) from jagat (“universe”) + -nātha (“master” or “lord”) ]

Janiceps: monster twins with two heads which look in opposite direction [from L. Iānus (“two-headed god”) + -ceps (“headed”)] (cf. Janiform: two-headed god of Greek mythology )

**Janiceps** (from Janus) (image: Quora)

Jannock: pleasant; outspoken; honest; generous (somewhat the antithesis of a “Jackanapes”) (OU)

Jargogle: to befuddle, jumble or mess up (OU)

Jeofail: (Law.) an oversight in pleading, or the acknowledgment of a mistake or oversight [From OldFrench . j’ai failli [(“I have failed”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

Kedogenous: brought about by worry or anxiety [? + –genous (“producing”) OU]

Khamsin: (also Khamaseen) dust storm; oppressively hot, dry wind in Egypt that blows from the Sahara [from Egy Arabic. khamsīn (“fifties”)]

**Khamsin** wind engulfs Cairo (photo: Reuters)

Khoja(h): title of respect for teacher or wise man [Khoja, from Khwāja (New Persian Khājé), a Persian honorific title of pious individuals]

Kickshaw: a fancy but insubstantial cooked dish, esp of foreign origin; an elegant but insubstantial trinket (Nth. Amer.) [Fr. quelque chose (“something”)]

Kinetosis: a fancy name for travel sickness; (Medic.) any disorder due to unaccustomed motion, aka motion sickness, seasickness, carsickness, etc [Gk. kinet(o)- (“movable” or “moving”) + -osis (“denoting actions, conditions or states)]

Kippage: commotion; confusion [Scot. usage, from modification of Fr. équipage (as in être en piteux équipage (“to be in a sorry plight”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

“H” and “I” Words from Left Field II – Redux: A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

May 3, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture, Regional History, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Haptodysphoria: a shiveringly unpleasant feeling experienced from touching certain surfaces, such as peaches or wool [Gk. háptō (“touch”; “hasten”) + -dus (“bad”) + –phérō (“I bear”; “carry”)]

Harpocratic: relating to silence (OU)?

**Harpocratic** (source: Clipart Library)

Hartal: a general strike of labour, including a total shutdown of workplaces, businesses, courts, etc, as a political protest [Hindi haṛtāl, from hāṭ (“shop”) + -tālā (“lock”)]

Hebesphalmology: study of juvenile delinquency [OU; from Hebe (“goddess of youth and spring”(?)) + ? + -logy]

Henotic: promoting harmony or peace; unifying [Gk. henōtikós, (“serving to unite”)] ☮️

Hesternopotia: a pathological yearning for the good old days (OU)

Heteronym: a word with the same spelling but a different pronunciation and meaning [Gk. héteros (“other”; “another”) + -nym]

Heterotopia: strange or ambivalent places (places that defy the normal logic of ordering) [word popularised by philosopher Michel Foucault, Fr. hétérotopie, Gk. héteros + -topia from “utopia”, (“place”)]

Horrisonant: having an ugly, harsh sound; unpleasant to the ear [L. horrēre, sonānt-em (“to dread”; “shudder”) + -ant]

Humicubation: the act or practice of lying on the ground, esp in penitence or self-abasement [L. humus (“the ground”) + –cubare (“to lie down”)]

Hygeiolatry: fanaticism about health; the worship of health and/or hygiene [ Gk. hygie (“healthy”) + –latry (“worship”)]

**Hygeiolatry** (image: everydayhealth.com)

Hygrophanous: seeming transparent when wet, and opaque when dry [Gk. hygr- (“wet”) + –phan, -phen (“to show”; “visible”)(?) + -ous]

Hyperhedonia: (Medic.) a condition where abnormally heightened pleasure is derived from participation in any act or happening (no matter how mundane) [Gk. hyper- + G. hēdonē, (“pleasure”)]

Hypertrichosis: excessive hairiness [Gk. hyper-, (“excess”) + -trikhos, (“hair”) and –osis]

Hypobulia: (the procrastinator’s curse!) (Psych.) a lack of willpower or decisiveness [Gk. hypo (“beneath“ or “below,”) + -aboulía (“irresolution”)]

Hypogeal: pertaining to the earth’s interior; subterranean; growing or existing underground [Gk. hupógeios (“underground”)] (cf. Hypogeum: underground temple, tomb or cavern)

Hypothimia: profound melancholy or mental prostration; depressive state of mind; diminished emotional response [Gk. hypo- + Greek -thymos (“spirit”)]

Key: OU = origin unknown

Idioglossia: secret speech or language, especially invented by children [Gk. idio- (“own”; “peculiarity”) + -glōssa, (“tongue”; “speech”)]

Idolum: insubstantial image; a spectre or phantom; a fallacy [Gk. eídōlon, (“image; “idol”), from eîdos, (“form”)]

Illuminati: those who claim to have exceptional intellectual or spiritual awareness (orig. a Bavarian secret society founded in 1776) [L. illuminatus (“enlightened”)]

Indocible: unteachable [in- + LateLat. -docibilis (“docible” (“teachable”)]

Ineluctable: unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable [L. in- + –ēlūctor (“struggle out”) + -bilis]

Interciliary: between the eyebrows [L. inter- (“between“; “amid”) + –cilium (“eyelid”)]

Inexpugnable: that which cannot be taken by assault or storm; unconquerable; impregnable [L. in + -expugnābilis]

Innascible: not subject to birth; without a beginning; self-existent [L. innāscibilitās (“state of being unable to be born”)]

Invultuation: the use of or the act of making images of people, animals, etc, for witchcraft; sticking pins in a wax doll representing someone you wish to inflict pain on [MedLat. invultuāre (“to make a likeness”) from in- + vultus (“likeness”)]

Irrefragable: not able to be refuted or disproved; irrefutable; indisputable; unbreakable [LateLat. irrefragabilis, from L. refragari (“to oppose or resist”)]

Isographer: someone who imitates another person’s hand-writing [Gk. iso- (“same”) + –graphe (“write”)]

“C” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

March 27, 2024Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Performing arts, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

<word meaning and root formation>

Cabotin: ham actor; theatrical; poser (perjorative) [from Fr. cabotin (“histrionic”]

**Cabotin**: thespian trekker going the whole hog

Cacedoxical: heretical (cf. Cacodoxy: heterodoxy) [from Gk. kákos (“bad”) + –doxa, (“opinion” or “glory”]

Cacestogenous: caused by unfavourable home environment (OU)

Calepin: a notebook; a dictionary, esp a polyglot dictionary [It. calepino, named after Ambrogio Calepino ((15th-16th cent. author of a Latin dictionary]

**Calepin:** Calepino – *Dictionarivm Octolingve*, 1647 (source: liveauctioneers.com)

Callisteia: beauty prizes; originally a festival held by the women of the island of Lesbos, with a prize for the fairest beauty [name of the festival , named in honour of the Greek goddess of Callisto]

Callithumpian: a noisy band parade or demonstration [alteration of gallithumpian)

Cambist: one skilled in the science of financial exchange; a banker [from L . cambire (“to exchange”)]

**Cambist** (source: Gumpanat/Shutterstock.com)

Campestral: pertaining to or thriving in open countryside [L. from campester from campus (“field”; “plain”) + -al]

Canard: a fabricated anecdote; an unfounded sensational report; a phoney yarn; a hoax — or to put it in immediately-recognisable contemporary currency…fake news [Fr. canard (“duck”), in the sense of being a hoax] 🦆

Cancrine: reads the same backwards as forwards; palindromic [From Latin cancer (“crab”) + -īnus]

Canatory: pertaining to a singer or singing [from It. cantata from L. cantare (“to sing”) + -ory] (cf. Cantatrice: female singer) 🎤

Caprine: pertaining to a goat; goat-like [L. caprīnus, from caper (“goat”)] 🐐

Carriwitchet: absurd, riddling question; a condundrum; a kind of hoax; pun [uncertain, possibly a humorous alteration of catechism]

Castrophenia: the belief that one’s thoughts are being stolen by one’s enemies (OU, castro- kastron-(?))

Catholicon: a universal remedy or fix; panacea [Gk. katholikós, (“universal”), from katá, “(according to”) + –hólos, “(whole”)]

Charientism: a figure of speech wherein an insult is disguised as or softened by a jest [from Gk. kharientismós]

Chimera: (also spelt Chimaera) imaginary monster; fanciful; impossible idea; a body; an unjustified fear [from Greek mythology: a fire-breathing she-monster having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail]

Circumforaneous: wandering from house to house, from place to place, from market to market [L. circumforāneus (“itinerant”), from circum- (“around”) + –forum (“marketplace”) + -aneus (“-aneous”)]

Claudicant: (Medic.) limping (L. claudicans from claudio (“to limp”) from claudus (“crippled”)]

Claviger: club-bearer; key-keeper or caretaker [L. from clavi- (“clavi”) – + -ger (“bearing, bearer”)] 🔑

Comiconomenclaturist: a connoisseur of humorous names; a specialist in the creation of funny names [from L. comicus (“of comedy”) from Gk. komikos (“of or pertaining to comedy”) + L. nōmenclātūra nomenclature (“naming”) + -ist]

Key: OU ➨ origin unknown

“B” Words from Left Field II – Redux: A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

March 23, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

<word meaning and root formation>

Badaud: a person given to idle observation of everything, with wonder or astonishment; a credulous or gossipy idler; an urban bystander who “rubbernecks” (gawks) at some incident [Fr. from Old Occitan badau, from badar, from Medieval Latin badare (“to gape”; “yawn”)]

Badaud, a type in French literature (Gérard Auliac, Le Badaud sculpture)

Baffona: a woman with a slight moustache [It. from baffo (“moustache”)]

Balmaiden: a female surface miner [Cornish: bal (“mine”) + -maiden (“a young or unmarried woman”)]

Balmaiden: (Cornwall, Eng. 1890)

Balistarius: a crossbowman [Gk. ballístra from bállō, (“I throw”) + -ius]

Balletomane: a person fanatically devoted to ballet; balletmaniac [from Fr. balletomane]

Balletomane: Billy Elliot (film)

Balneal: pertaining to bathing or baths [L. balneum (“bath”) + -al, -ary] (cf. Balneotherapy: treatment using natural water)

Balneal: Roman Baths, UK (photo: romanbaths.co.uk)

Banausic: common, ordinary, mundane, undistinguished, dull, insipid [Gk. banausikós, (“of or for mechanics”), from bánausos, (“mechanical; ironsmith”)]

Bandobast: protection of a person, building or organisation from crime or attack [Pers. band-o-bast (“tying and binding”), from Urdu. bundobast]

Baryecoia: dullness of hearing; deafness (OU)

Basial: pertaining to kissing (OU) 💋

Battue: the driving of game towards hunters by beaters; massacre of helpless people [Fr. battue, (“beaten”), from L. battere]

Biverbal: relating to two words; punning [L. bi (“two”) + from LateL. -verbālis (“belonging to a word”)]

Brachiation: the act of swinging from tree limb to tree limb (as performed by primates) [L. bracchium, (“arm“) + -tion] 🐵

Breedbate: someone looking for an argument; originator of quarrels [Breed from OldEng. brēdan, from Proto-Germ. brōdijaną (“to brood”) + MidEng. –bate (“contention”), from OldFr. batre (Fr. battre), from L. battere.]

Byrthynsak: the theft of a calf or a sheep; stealing as much as you can carry (OU)

Byrthynsak (source: thekashmiriyat.co.uk/)

Key: OU = origin unknown

“A” Words from Left Field II: Redux. A Supplement to the Logolept’s Diet

March 20, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & LinguisticsAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

<word origin and root formation>

Abderian: pertaining to foolish or excessive laughter [from Abderian, from Abdera (town in Thrace where Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher, lived) +‎ -ian]

**Abderian:** *Democritus, by Hendrik ter Brugghen – Heraclitus, 1628 (credit: rijksmuseum.nl*)

Acapnotic: someone who doesn’t smoke; a non-smoker [Gk. a (“not”) + –capno, –kapnós (“smoke”)] 🚭

Acataleptic: incomprehensible; one who suspends judgment as a matter of principle believing certainty is impossible [Gk. akatálēptos, (“incomprehensible”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + –katalambánō, (“I seize”)]

Accolent: dwelling near by; neighbouring [ac + -colo (“to move”; “to revolve around” 🔜 “to sojourn”; “to dwell”) + -ent]

Aceldama: field, or scene, of bloodshed [Gk. akeldamákh (“field of blood”). Originally from Aramaic] 🩸

Acephalist: an individual who acknowledges no head or superior [Gk. aképhalos (“headless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + kephalḗ (“head”) + -ist]

Acousma: ringing or buzzing noise in head; illusory auditory perception of strange nonverbal sounds [Gk. ákou(sma) (“something heard”)]

Acrologic: Of or pertaining to initials or acronyms [Fr. acrologique, from acrologie from Gk. acr (“high”; “extreme”; “tip”) + -ique (“-ic”)

**Acrologic** (photo: palmerandpenn.com.au)

Acronychal: occurring at nightfall [ákronux, (“nightfall”)] 🌃

Acyrology: incorrect diction; imprecise or improper use of a word [Gk. akurología), ἀ- (a-, “not”) + –kuros, (“authority”) + –logia, (“speech”)]

Adiabolist: person denying existence of the Devil [a + -diabol + -ism from French diabolique, from Latin diabolicus]

Adumbral: dark; shadowy [L. ad (“to”;”toward”) + Sp. –umbral (“doorstep”; “threshold”)]

Afreet: (also spelt Ifrit) (Arabian mythology) an evil spirit or giant monster; a powerful type of demon in Islamic culture [possibly from Arab. afara, (“to rub with dust” or “to roll into dust”)]

**Afreet**: The ifrit Al-Malik al-Aswad (The Black King)

Agastopia: admiring a particular part of someone’s body (OU) 👁️ 👁️

Agonist: one that is engaged in a struggle (as in “antagonist”) [Gk. agōnistḗs, (“combatant”; “champion”)]

Airmonger: someone who is attracted to visionary ideas and projects; quixotic, a hopeless visionary [air + L. –mangō (“dealer”; “trader”)]

Aischrolatreia: worship of filth, dirt, smut; cult of obscenity [Gk. aischros (“shameful”; “ugly”), from aischos (“disgrace”) + -latreia (“latry”)]

Allagrugous: grim and ghastly; sour; woebegone [Scot. Gaelic. origin uncertain]

Allision: intentional collision, especially of ships [Late L. allision-, allisio, from Latin allisus (allidere (“to strike against”) from ad- + -lidere, from laedere (“to hurt”) + -ion] 🚢 🛳️

Allochthonous: Originating in a place other than where it is found (esp in geology); foreign [Gk. állos (“other”) + –khthṓn (“earth”; “ground”)] (cf. Autochthonous: native to the place where it is found; indigenous)

Altivolent: flying high [L. altus (“high”; “deep”) + –volō (“I fly”)] ✈️

Ambisinister: unskilled or clumsy with both hands [L. ambi (“both”; “around”) + sinister (“on the left side; unfavourably located)] 🙌

Amphigean: found or occuring throughout the world; across all geographic zones [Gk. amphí, (“on both sides”) + –geō (“earth”)] 🌍

Anabiosis: return to life after seeming death; a state of suspended animation [Gk. aná (“again”) + -biōsis, from –bioun (“to live”), from -bios (“life”)]

Antibasilican: opposed to the principle of monarchy [anti (“-against”) + –basilike (“royal”; “kingly”)] 👑

Apanthropy: dislike of being in the company of other people; love of solitude [Gk. apó (“from”; “away from”) + –ánthrōpos, (“human”)]

Apaetesis: a matter put aside in anger to be taken-up later (OU)

Aurulent: gold-coloured [L. aurulentus (“golden”)]

Autoangelist: one who does his own communicating [self + -angelist(?)]

Autothaumaturgist: someone who pretends to be notable or feigns an air of mystery about him or herself [Gk. auto (“self”) + –thaumaturgist (“performer of miracles; a magician”)]

**Autothaumaturgist** (image: comicartcommunity.com)

Key: OU = origin unknown

Note: some of the sources I have drawn on in the Redux A–Z, in addition to those previously acknowledged in the original Logolept’s Diet, include Peter Bowler, The Superior Person’s Great Big Book of Words (1996) and ‘Luciferous Logolepsy’ (arcane.org/)

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “Y” Words

March 5, 2024Ancient history, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “Y” Words

”Y” words from the lexical womb

“Y” (pronounced the same as “why” or “wye”) is the 25th and penultimate letter of the English alphabet. “Y” appears in the Semitic alphabet as waw, which it shares with several other Latin letters, namely F, U, V and W. n the Classical Greek alphabet “upsilon” or “ypsilon” represents the letter Y. In mathematics “Y” is the 2nd unknown variable, following “X”. Y is a consonant but also can be a vowel in the articulation of certain sounds (eg, the semi-vowel “yes”).

{word} <meaning> <derivation>

Yale: (Euro. myth.) mythical animal resembling a horse (or antelope) with a tusk in combination with the the tail of an elephant (used in heraldry) [etymology uncertain but believed to be derived from the Hebrew word yael (“ibex“)]

A Pair of **yales** adorning St John’s College, Cambridge

Yam: (Hist.) was a postal system or supply-point route messenger system extensively used by the Great Khans; a posting-house along a road (Marco Polo: a yam was a waystation where a “large and handsome building” housed messengers and horses in “rooms furnished with fine beds” fit for a king, decorated with “rich silk” and “everything they can want.”) [Mongolian. örtöö, (“checkpoint”)]

The **Yam** system: described as a kind of “medieval pony express” operating within Mongolia (source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Yarborough: hand of cards (whist) or bridge with no card above a nine; a weak hand [Eng. from toponymic surname, from Yarburgh (Yarborough) in Lincolnshire, from OldEng. habitational or topographic name eorðburg (“earthworks”; “fortifications”)]

A Yarborough hand (source: Science matters)

Yardland: unit of land area equal to 30 acres (¼ of a hide🄰); also called a Virgate) [MidEng. yerdlond, from yerde (“yard”; “measure”) + –lond (“land”)]

Yare: (esp of a vessel) answering swiftly to the helm; easily handled; marked by quickness and agility; nimble; prepared [from OldEng. gearu (“ready”)]

Yarling: wailing; howling [Eng. from “yarl”, “to yarl”, a deep, guttural vocal style with affected pronunciation, characteristic of male grunge and post-grunge singers of the1990s and early 2000s]

Yaud: a worn out or old horse; a workhorse (Scot. mare) [MidEng.? yald from Old Norse. jalda (“mare”) of Finno-Ugric origin, cf. “jade”] 🐴

Yealing: person of the same age as oneself (of uncertain origin)

Yellowplush: a footman [from character in Yellowplush Papers, a series of satirical sketches by William Makepeace Thackeray (1850s) (compounding of “yellow” + “plush”)]

Yegg: a burglar of safes; safecracker (origin unknown)

Yobbery: hooliganism; characteristic of the (bad) behaviour of a yob; a rowdy, disruptive youth [coined 1970s by inverting the spelling of “boy”]

Yogibogiebox: a container holding the assessories used by a spiritualist [a compound of yogi +‎ –bogey +‎ –box. Coined or introduced by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922)]

Yogini female yogi [from yoga from Sanskrit. yuj (“to join or unite”)]

Yoicks: a hunting cry used to urge hounds after a fox or other quarry; expression of surprise or excitement (origin unknown but appears related to fox-hunting) (cf. Yikes: exclamation of alarm or surprise)

Yonderly: mentally or emotionally distant; vacant or absent-minded [from “yonder” from Eng. “yon” and from Dutch. ginder (“over there”)]

Yoni: symbol representing female genitalia [Sanskrit. yoni (“female reproductive organ”; literally “the womb” or (“the source”)]

Yowndrift: snow driven by the wind (Scot. Eng.? origin uncertain)

🄰 English unit of land measurement originally intended to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a household

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “Z” Words

March 5, 2024Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Local history, Media & Communications, Regional HistoryAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularysabinebuena

Meet the “Z” family of words…Zeta, Zelda, Zara, Zack, Zee and Zed

Z is the twenty-sixth and not-so-lucky last letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and other western European languages. It is most commonly pronounced zed, as used in international English. But in the US, and sometimes in Canadian and Caribbean English, the preference is for zee. A third, archaic variant pronounces the letter “Z” as izzard, whose usage today is confined to Hong Kong English and Cantonese. “Z” derives from the Greek letter zeta, reaching English via the customary pathway of Latin. The ancient Greek “Z” was a close copy of the Phoenician Zayin (I) (meaning “weapon” or “sword”). Around 300 BC, Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus relegated the letter Z to the ancient history archives, striking it from the alphabet allegedly due to his distaste for the letter, owing to it “looking like the tongue of a corpse”🅐.

Zabernism: misuse or abuse of military authority; bullying [From the German name for Saverne, a town in Alsace involving a 1913 incident of an overzealous soldier who wounded a cobbler for laughing at him, ultimately triggering an intervention from the army who took over the power from local authorities]

Zaftig: having a full, rounded figure; pleasingly plump (esp of a woman) [Yiddish. zaftik, (“juicy” or “succulent”) from zaft, (“juice” or “sap”)]

🅐 a more likely explanation is that the “z” sound had disappeared from Latin at that time making the letter useless for spelling Latin words…a few centuries later it made a comeback to the A(to Z) team resuming its place as № 26

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “X” Words

March 1, 2024Ancient history, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

“X”-factor words

The letter “X” is the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet, as well as the Roman numerical symbol for “ten”(10). It derived from the Phoenician letter samekh, meaning “fish”, then circa 900BC the Greeks borrowed the samekh letter and renamed it Chi, giving it its present shape, the meaningful symbol of two diagonally-crossed vertical strokes. X is notable for its versatility and is powerfully ingrained in popular culture with so many different applications – it can signify the unexpected in everyday life, the mysterious phenomena or the unknown value of something; X can be defiantly undefinable. “X marks the spot” (see at bottom) or it can be a cautionary viewer-rating for television or films; it can represent a chromosome juxtaposed with its succeeding letter of the alphabet, “y”; it can stand in place of the word “Christ” as in “X’mas”; and it can be a shorthand affectionate or amorous sign-off between two correspondents (XXX or XOXO), the “kisses” in “kisses and hugs”; or the “crosses” in the perennial game of “noughts and crosses”; there’s “Generation X” of MTV-land and there’s “X” the rebranded moniker for the US-based social media website formerly known as Twitter (‘Before X Was X: The Dark Horse Story Of The 24th Letter’, January 09, 2019, www.dictionary.com)

Xanthippe: an ill -tempered woman [Gk. history: Socrates’ Athenian wife]

Xanthocomic: yellow-haired [Gk. xanthós (“yellow”) + (?)-kómēs (“harmony”) from -kome (“hair of the head”) (?) (cf. Xanthochroic: having yellow skin) 👱

Xenagogue: a tour guide; someone who conducts or directs strangers [Gk. xeno, xenós (“stranger”; “foreigner”) + -agōgos (“to lead”)] (cf. Xenodochy: hospitality; reception of strangers)

Xenarthral: resembling a sloth, an anteater or an armadillo [Gk. xenós (“foreigner”) + -árthron (“joint”)

**Xenarthral** (image: Encyclopedia Britannica)

Xenodocheionology: (studying) the history of hotels or inns; the lore of hotels or inns [Gk. xenodocheion (“inn”) + -o- + –logy]

**Xenodocheionology:** The Don CeSar, Florida, AKA “The Pink Palace”

Xenoglossia: supposedly when someone is able to speak, understand or write in a foreign language that he/she has never learnt or studied [Gk. xeno + -glossia (“speak)] (cf. Xenoglossophobia: fear of foreign languages)

Xerothermic: both dry and hot [Gk. xērós, (“dry”) + -thermós, “heat”) +‎ –ic] (cf. Xerarch: growing in dry places) (cf. Xerasia: abnormal dryness of the hair) (cf. Xerostomia: excessive dryness of the mouth)

Xiphias: swordfish; a genus (the type of the family Xiphiidae) of large scombroid fishes comprising the common swordfish [Gk. xíphos, (“sword”)] 🗡️ 🐟

Xylopolist: one who sells wood; a timber merchant [Gk. xylo (“wood”) + –polist (“I barter”; “sell”)] 🪵

Xystus: (Hist.) architectural element in Anc Greece for covered portico of the gymnasium; covered walkway for exercises [from Gk. xustos, (“smooth”) (ie, polished floor of the xystus)

◢━■━■◤◢━■━■◢━■━■◤◢━■━■◤

**“X marks the spot!”** (from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “W” Words

February 18, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Appius Claudius Caecus, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

A “W” beats a “single U”, and a “single V” for that matter!”

“W”, letter number 23 in the alphabet, traces its genesis to the Semitic letter vaw (as does f, u, v and y), which the ancient Greeks adopted as upsilon. W’s place in the English alphabet came about indirectly via the prior-existing letters “U” and “V”. At first there was no letter “W”, “W” was represented by two consecutive letter U or V …eventually one single character evolved to represent the “W” sound – “W” or “Double-U”. “It’s this history that gives W the longest name of any letter of the English language—and also means that the acronym www uniquely contains three times more syllables than it does letters” (www.mentalfloss.com).

Why Double-U and not Double-V? In print (but not cursive writing) “W” comprises two Vs (VV), so why wasn’t it called “Double-V”? Basically it’s to do with the timing of the letter W’s evolution in Old English. At the time the “W” symbol was created “V” did not exist in that language, so “W” was rendered as “UU”, and so it stayed (‘Why isn’t a W called a double V?’ Grammarphobia (27-Apr-2011), www.grammarphobia.com).

<word> <meaning> <derivation>

Wafture: (cf. Waftage) act of waving or making a wave-like motion; wafting: to convey or carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water [from LowGer., Dutch wachter, from wachten (“to guard”, the sense of “convey by water”/“escort a ship”) from wafter (“armed convoy vessel”)] 👋

Waggoner: driver of a wagon; a collection or book of nautical maps [from OldDutch wagan, from Proto-West Germanic wagn, from Proto-Germanic wagnaz (“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European woǵnos (“wagon”; “primitive carriage”), from weǵ- (“to transport”)] 📕

**Waggoner** (source: National Maritime Historical Society)

Wagtail: an obsequious person; a harlot (origin unknown)

Wale: to choose; the act of choosing(?) (origin unknown)

Wamble: nauseous; walk unsteadily; a staggering gait; wobbling or rolling motion; churning of the stomach [MidEng. wamlen; (“to become nauseated”), from L. vomere (“to vomit”)]

Wanchancy: unlucky; uncanny [from MidEng. wan-, from OldEng. wan-, from Proto-West Germanic wana- + From MidEng. chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French cheance (“accident”; “chance”; “luck”), from Vulgar Latin cadentia (“falling”)]

Wanhope: hopelessness; despair; vain hope; overconfidence; delusion [OldEng. wan-, from Proto-Germanic wanaz (“lacking”; “missing”; “deficient”) + from Old English –hopian (“hope”)]

Warray: to wage war on [from warry (“war-like”), from Fr, from Vulgar Latin werridiāre]

Wasm: a doctrine, ideology, rule, or theory that is no longer current or fashionable (etymology unclear, first appeared in print via Arthur Koestler, 1949)

Wassail: toast to someone’s health; to go caroling or carousing; spiced ale or mulled wine [Old Norse. ves heill (“be well”, toast] 🥂

Wasserman: a mythical sea monster, part man, thought to destroy ships [from Ger.Wasserman]

**Wasserman** (image: Pinterest.com.au/)

Webster: female weaver [OldEng. webbestre, from webba (“a weaver”) from webb]

Wegotism: excessive use of the pronoun “we” in speech or writing [blend of we +‎ –egotism]

Weirdward: bordering upon the supernatural (origin unknown)

Welkin: the vault of the sky; firmament; heaven [from OldEng. wolcn (“cloud”)]

Wen: a very large, overcrowded city [from MidEng. wen, wenne, from OldEng. wenn, wænn (“wen”), from Proto-Ger . wanjaz]

**Wen** (photograph: Satish Bate/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)

Wergild: fine paid by family of murderer to family of murder victim (“man-price”) [MidEng. wergeld, from OldEng. wer (“man”) + -geld, alteration of gield, geld (“payment”; “tribute”) 💰

Wertfrei: without value judgement; morally neutral [Ger. wert (“worth”) + -frei (“free”)]

Whangam: an imaginary creature [17th cent. neologism coined by Oliver Goldsmith, Anglo-Irish author]

Whipcat: a person who makes, repairs, or alters outer garments, esp menswear; a tailor (slang: a worker “who whips the cat”) (origin unknown)

Whiskerando: a man with extravagant whiskers [Scand. Iceld. visk (“a wisp of hay”); allusion to Don Ferolo Whiskerando in RB Sheridan’s The Critic] (cf. Whiskerine: beard-growing contest)

**Whiskerando** (source: dailymail.co.uk)

Wiccaphobiac: one who fears or hates Wiccans or Wicca. A person with a morbid fear of witches or witchcraft [OldEng. wiċċa (“male witch”), from Proto-Germanic wikkô (“sorcerer”) + -phobia]

**Wiccaphobiac** ((image: Pinterest.com.au/)

Widdershins: counterclockwise, anticlockwise; to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left MidLowGer. weddersinnes, (literally “against the way”, i.e. “in the opposite direction”)] cf. Widersinnen: “to go against”)

Wight: nimble; strong; courageous; a supernatural, man-like being [from MidEng. wight or wiȝt, from OldEng. wiht, from Proto-West Germanic wihti]

Williwaw: a sudden, violent gust of cold wind; a state of extreme confusion, turmoil, or agitation (origin unknown) 💨

Witticaster: a petty or inferior wit [from MidEng. witty, witti, from OldEng. wittiġ, witiġ, ġewittiġ (“clever”; “wise”), from Proto-West Germanic witīg + –aster]

Wold: a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor (Brit.) [OldEng. wald (“wooded upland”) of Germanic origin; perhaps related to wild]

Wondermonger: one who promises miracles; a person who tells of or exploits strange or freakish things [from MidEng. wonder, wunder, from OldEng. wundor (“wonder”; “miracle”; “marvel”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundr + from L. –mangō (“dealer”; “trader”)]

Woonerf: a road in a residential district which has installed devices (eg, traffic calming, low speed limits, shared space) to reduce or slow the flow of traffic (a living street) [Dutch: wonen (“reside”) + erf (“ground”; “premises”) (literally: “living yard” or “residential grounds”)]

Woopie: an affluent retired person able to pursuit an active lifestyle [derived from the acronym “well off older person” (“woop)”]

Worksome: industrious; diligent; labour-intensive [from MidEng. work, werk, from OldEng. weorc + from OldEng. -sum (“some”)]

Worricow: scarecrow; hobgoblin; frightening-looking person [Scot. from worry (“to harass”) + –cow (“hobgoblin”)]

Woubit: a small and shabby person; a hairy caterpillar [MidEng. wolbode, from woll (“wool”) + -bode (?)]

Wrackful: destructive or ruinous [from “wreck”, from OldNorse reta (“to drive”) ➠ Anglo-Norman Fr. wrec]

Writative: characterized by an inclination to write ✍️ [from MidEng. writen, from OldEng. wrītan, from Proto-West Germanic wrītan + -tive (poss. based on “talkative”)]

Wynd: narrow street or lane [MidEng: (Scots) wynde, probably from wynden (“to wind”; “proceed”; “go”) from OldEng. windan (“to twist”)]

Wyrd: the personification of fate or destiny [from Proto-Germanic wurdiz, from Proto-Indo-European wr̥ti-, wert- (“to turn”)]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “V” Words

February 6, 2024Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional History, Science and society, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”V” for verbiage – a plethora of words!

V (lower case: v) is the twenty-second letter in the Latin alphabet, it appears in the modern English A—Z as well in as the alphabets of other western European languages. Its name in English is pronounced vee. As is the case with its sequential predecessor, “U”, which was the conduit for V’s linguistic journey, “V” ultimately comes from the Phoenician letter waw.The letter “V” in the popular consciousness is forever associated with “victory”, a symbolic nexus forged during the Second World War as a rallying call for the Allies’ war effort. It’s originator, an obscure Belgian politician, largely forgotten by the overarching giantic shadow of the phrase’s populariser, that wallflower of the shrinking violet variety, Sir Winston Churchill, for which the term “V for victory”, along with its accompanying Winnie trademark two-digit gesture, is eternally associated. Again, as with the letter “U”, Latin root words form the nucleus of “V” words in the following list.

<word> <meaning> <derivation>

Vaccimulgence: the milking of cows [L. vacci- (“cow”) +‎ –mulgentia (“milking”)] 🐄 🥛

Vadelect: serving man, part of the household staff; personal servant [L. vadelectus, vad- (“go”) + unknown (?)]

Valetudinarian: a person who is obsessed with some ailment; hypochondriac [L. valēre, (“to have strength”; “to be well.”) + -ian]

Valuta: comparative value of different currencies (USD: AUD, etc) [[L. valēre]

Vaniloquent: speaking only of oneself or speaking egotistically [L. vanus (“vain”) + –loqui (“speak”)]

Vapulate: to beat with a whip [L. vāpulō [Prob. onomatopoeic in its origin, meaning “cry”; “wail”) from which meaning the attested meaning “be beaten, be stricken” evolved]

Veduta: panoramic view of a town; highly detailed, often large scaled painting or print of a cityscape or other vista [It. veduta (“view”)]

**Veduta:** (*townscape: View of Bracciano* by Paul Bril; early 1620s)

Vellichor: the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time [velli- (unknown?) + -chor (“sing”; “dance”)]

**Vellichor** (photo: en.japantravel.com)

Velocious: with great speed [L. veloc-, velox (“quick”) + -ious] (cf. Velocipede: swift-footed person)

Velologist: collecting of, study of, buying & selling of vehicle tax discs (UK) [L. velo (unknown?) + -logy]

Venator: (also Venerer) hunter; huntsman (cf. Venatrix (Fem.)); (Hist.) a type of Roman gladiator who specialised in hunting wild animals; type of wolf spider 🕷️ [from L. vēnor (“I hunt”) +‎ -tor]

Vendible: capable of being sold [L. vēndere (“to sell”) + -bilis (“capable of being acted upon)”]

Venineman: juror (derivation unknown)

Ventripotent: having a fat belly, or being a glutton [L. ventr-, venter– (“abdomen”) + -potent-, potens, from OldLat. potēre (“to be powerful”)]

Venustaphobia: fear of beautiful women [L. Venus (“Roman goddess of love and beauty”) venust (“beautiful”) + -phobia]

Verbarian: coiner of words [MidLat. verbum (“word”; “verb”) + -arian]

Verbigerate: to continually repeat a word or phrase meaninglessly, usually unconciously [L. verbum (“word”) + -gerare, from gerere (“to carry”)]

Verger: church usher and attendant [L. verge (“rod”; “wand of office”) + -er] ⛪️

Veriloquent: speaking nothing but the truth [L. vērāc– (“true”) + –loqui] (cf. Veridical: veracious; genuine; truthful)

Vernarexia: (also Vernalagnia) a romantic mood brought on by Spring; “Spring Fever” [L. vernal (“spring”) + -orexia (“desire”)]

Versutiloquent: speaking craftily [ L. versūtus, from vertö, versum (“to turn”) + loqui] (cf. Versute: crafty; wily; artful)

Vertiginous: extremely high or steep; giddy, dizziness (affected by Vertigo) [L. veriginosus, from vertigo (“whirling about”)]

**Vertiginous** (source: atlasobscura.com)

Vespertine: happening or active in the evening; flourishing or flowering at night [Gk. Hesperus is from (“evening star”) + -ine] (cf. Vesper: evening; the evening star)

Vesthibitionism: the flirtatious display of undergarments by a woman [L. vestimenta, (“clothes or undergarments”) + –exhibeo, (“to show”) +-ism]

Vestigial: a very small remnant of something once greater or more noticeable; rudimentary or degenerate organ/body part [Unknown, possibly from earlier verstīgium, from L. verrō (“to sweep”), or poss. from vē- +‎ stīgō, from Proto-Indo-European stéygeti (“to walk”)]

Vetanda: forbidden things [Vetanda in Sanskrit vetanda (? “elephant”)]

Vetust: very ancient [L. vetustus (“old, ancient”)]

Vexillologist: a collector of flags for display [L. vexillum (“flag”) + -logist] 🇧🇷🇧🇮🇬🇱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇨🇽🇺🇬🇨🇼

Viātor: “traveller;” “wayfarer” [from L. via (“track or road”) + -tor] (cf. Viaggiatory: traveling frequently)

Vicennial: occurring every twenty years [LateLat. vīcennium, (“period of twenty years”)]

Vicinage: neighbourhood; residents in a neighbourhood [L. vīcīnus (“neighbour”)]

Victrix: female victor [from L. vincere (“conquer”)]

**Victrix** (image: lessonplanned.co.uk)

Victualler: one who operates a pub or eatery; supplier of provisions to a naval ship or army; seller of alcohol [L. victus (“food”) + -ler]

Videndum: the thing to be seen [L. vindendus, from videō (“I see”)]

Vigneron: wine-grower 🍷 [from OldFr. vigne, (+ -ron) from L. vīnea (“vines in a vineyard”)]

**Vigneron** (photo: vigneron-independant.com/)

Vilipend: to treat or regard with contempt; to belittle; to speak slanderously or slightingly of someone [LateLat. vīlipendere, from L. vīlis (“worthless”) + -pendere (“to esteem”)]

Virago: a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues [L. virāgō (“vigorous maiden”) from vir– (“man-like”) + -ago] (cf. Viraginity)

Virgivitiphobia: a fear of being raped [L. virgi (“marriageable girl”?) + -phobia]

Viripotent: fit for a husband; marriageable [L. vir (“man”) + –potens (“fit for”)]

Virvestitism: a preference of some women to wear mens clothing [origin unknown)

y [L. viaggiatore (“traveller ”; “voyager”) + -tory)] (cf. Viator:

Viatical: of, like or pertaining to roads or travel (cf. Viatecture: construction of roads and bridges)

Vociferant: clamorous; shout; complain; argue loudly or vehemently [L. vox (“voice”) + –ferre (“carry”)]

Voluptuary: sensualist; person fond of luxury [ LateLat. voluptuārius, from L. voluptārius (“pleasure-seeker”; “agreeable”; “delightful”; “pleasant”; “sensual”), (cf. Volupty: sexual pleasure)

Voraginous: pertaining to something which devours everything [L. vorāginōsus, from vorāgō (“abyss”) + -ous]

Vorago: gulf; chasm; abyss (origin unknown)

Votary: a devoted follower, esp a monk or nun; adherent; a staunch advocate of someone or something else [L. vot (“vowed”) + -ary]

Vulgus: the common people [L. volvō (“I roll”; “turn over”) (cf. Vulgo: commonly; popularly)

Vulpine: pertaining to foxes; (Literal: crafty; cunning [L. vulpinus, from vulpes (“fox”)] 🦊

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “U” Words

January 30, 2024Adult education, Geography, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional History, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Doing a U-turn!

The letter “U”, 21st letter and ultima vowel of the Latin alphabet, phonemetically one-half of the letter “W” (“double-U”). “U” derives from the Semitic waw, as does F, and later, Y, W, and V. Pictorially its oldest ancestor goes to Egyptian hieroglyphs, and is probably sourced from a hieroglyph of a mace or fowl, representing the sound [v] or the sound [w]. This was borrowed to Phoenician, where it represented the sound [w], and seldom the vowel [u]. The bulk of the U-words that follow reveal the extent of the debt of their Latin roots.

<word> <meaning> <derivation>

Uberous: yielding an abundance of milk 🐄 🥛[L. uber (“full”; “fruitful”; “fertile”; “abundant”; “plentiful”; “copious”; “productive”) + -ous] (cf. Uberty: fruitfulness; abundantly productive)

Ubicity: whereabouts [L. ubi (“where”) + -icity] (cf. Ubique: everywhere)

Ucalegon: neighbour whose house is on fire [eponym from ancient Greek. ~ an Elder of Troy, Ucalegon’s house was set afire by the Achaeans during the sack of Troy (the Iliad; the Aeneid]

Ulotrichous: having woolly hair [Gk. oûlos, (“crisp, curly”) + –trikhos, (“haired”)]

Ultimo: of last month [L. ultimo (“mense”) (“in the last month”)]

Ultimogeniture: inheritance/right of succession going to the last son [L. ultimus (“last”) + Late Lat.-genitura (“a late birth”)]

Ultracrepidate: to criticise beyond the range of one’s knowledge; to go beyond one’s purview [L. ultra crepidam (“beyond the sandal”)]

Ultrafidian: going beyond more than mere faith; gullible [L. ultrā (“beyond”) + -fidem (“faith”) + -ian]

Ultrageous: violently extreme [L. ultrā + –geous(?)]

Ultraist: someone holding extreme views [L. ultrā + -ist]

**Ultraist** activism: the upsurge in far-right politics (photo: ft.com)

Ultramontane: south of the Alps; other side of the Alps; a Catholic Church belief that supports the pope’s supreme authority [L. ultrā + -mont-, -mons (“mountain”)]

**Ultramontane:** the Papal cross-keys, symbolising the Papacy

Ultroneous: pertaining to a witness who testifies voluntarily [L. ultroneus, from ultro (“to the further side, on his part, of one’s own accord”)]

Unasinous: equally as stupid as each other [L. ünus (“one”) + -asinus (“ass”) + -ous]

Unctuous: oily; slimy; greasy; offensively suave and smug; ingratiating; sycophantic [L. unguere (“to anoint”) + -ous]

Undecennial: occurring every eleven years [L. undecim (“eleven”) + –ial]

Undinism: the trait of having erotic thoughts when viewing or contemplating water; an awakening of the libido caused by viewing running water or urine [L. unda (“wave”) -ism]

**Undinism** (image: theseamossharvest.com)

Unicity: the fact of being or consisting of one, or of being united as a whole; the quality of being unique [L. ūnicitās, ūnicus (“uniqueness”) + -ity]

Unigeniture: the state of being the only begotten (ie, fathering a child into existence) [L. unigenitus (“only-begotten”), from unus (“one”) + –genitum (“to beget”)]

Unipara: a woman who gives birth only the once [unus, unius + –parus (“to produce”)]

Unsinew: to take the strength from [un- + from Old Saxon. sinewa]

Untreasure: to despoil [un- + Gk. thēsaurós, (“treasure house”)]

Unwithdrawing: not withdrawing or retreating”; “lavish or liberal” [un- + MidEng. from with from + drawen (“to draw”)]

Unzymotic: fabulous [(?) un- + zumoûn (“to ferment”)]

Upaithric: roofless; open to the sky [Gk. hypaithros, from hypo- + aithēr (“ether”; air”)]

Upas: poisonous or harmful institution or influence [Indon. Malay pohon upas (“poison tree”)] 🌳

**Upas:** the highly toxic Upas tree (source: naturespoisons.com)

Uraniscus: roof of the mouth; the palate [Gk. ouranískos, (“ceiling”)]

Uranism: male homosexuality [Gk. ouránios, (“heavenly”; “spiritual”)]

Urinator: a diver, especially someone who searches for things underwater [L. ūrīnātor (“diver”), from ūrīnor (“to plunge under water”; “dive”), poss. from ūrīna (“urine”; water(?))]

**Urinator** (source: Southeast Texas Scuba)

Ursine: of, like or pertaining to bears [from L. ursus (“bear”)] (cf. Ursiform: having the shape or appearance of a bear)

Urticant: (Path.) causing a stinging or itching sensation; irritating [MedLat. urticant-, urticans, from L. urticare (“to sting”)]

Usance: (orig.) habit; custom; firmly established and generally accepted practice or procedure; use, employment; (obs.) interest [L. ūsant-, from ūsāre (“to use”)]

Usitative: signifying a usual act [L. usitari (“to use often”)]

Usufruct: (Civil Law) the right to use and enjoy something; a limited real right which unites the two property interests of usus (usage of or access to) is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directly and without altering it) and fructus (the right to derive profit from a thing possessed: eg, by selling crops (the “fruits” of production), leasing immovables or annexed movables, taxing for entry, and so on [L. uses et fructus (“use and employment”)] 𓍝

Uxorial: of, like or pertaining to a wife [L. uxōrius (“of or pertaining to a wife; overly fond of one’s wife”) from uxor (“wife”) + -al ] (cf. Uxorious: excessively fond of one’s wife) (cf. Uxorodespotic: morbid domineering by one’s wife; wifely tyranny of her husband ➲ (cf. Maritodespotism: tyrannical rulership of a wife by her husband)

⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎ ⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎ ⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎⛩︎

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “T” Words

January 23, 2024Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional History, Science and society, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”T” time for wordsmiths

The letter “T”/“t”, in English pronounced tee, numero venti (20) in the Latin alphabet, like many of its letters owes its advent to the Phoenicians et al. It derives from the Semitic Taw 𐤕 and Paleo-Hebrew script (Aramaic and Hebrew Taw ת/𐡕/, Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ) and once again the linguistic go-between is the Greek letter τ (tau). Unlike the English “T”, Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets. The T-words that follow consist of lexemes and morphemes of all shapes and sizes, including the unholy trinity of the trim, the taut and the terrific, not to forget the terras, the teles, the technos, the thermos, the tachys, and a whole lot more!

<word> <meaning> <derivation>

Tabefaction: wasting away; emaciation (origin unknown)

Tabellary: auditor; carrier of letters [L. tabellārius from tabella (“letter”) +‎ -ārius]

Tabellion: (Hist.) a scrivener under the Roman Empire with some notarial powers; an official scribe or notary public especially in England and New England in the 17th and 18th cent. [from L. tabella + -ion] 🪶

Tacenda: things not to be mentioned [from [L. tacëo (“silent;” “shut up”)] (cf. Tacent: (“to be silent”; “hold one’s tongue”)

Tachyphrasia: the act of talking very fast [Gk. takhús, (“swift”) + -phrasia (“talk”; “say”)] (cf. Tachyphagia: fast eating) (cf. Tachygraphy: shorthand; literally, “speedy writing” ✍️

Taliped: with a club-foot; with a foot twisted out of shape or position [L. talus (“ankle”) (?) + –ped (“foot”)]

Tambour: (Arch.) sloping buttress wall or fortification [Fr. tambour (“drum”), from Arabic ‎ṭunbūr]

Tantième: share of profits or royalties [Fr. tantième (“percentage”;“proportion”)]

Tapinosis: use of degrading or diminutive diction regarding a topic; undignified language that debases something or someone; deliberately using a base word to diminish a person or thing’s dignity [Gk. tapeinós, (“low”)] (cf. Meiosis – using a euphemism to depreciate an object or thing’s size or significance)

Tarantism: (Psych.) an extreme impulse to dance, esp to overcome a feeling of melancholy [It. tarantismo (from Italian city of Taranto (during (15th-(17th. a spider bite from the tarantula was believed to trigger the dancing mania)] 🕷️

Tarantella, the frenetic dance inspired by **Tarantism** (source: britannica.com)

Tardiloquent: speaking slowly [L. tardi (“slow”) + –loqui] (cf. Tardigrade: slow-paced)

Tauromachy: the art or practice of bullfighting [Gk. taurus (“bull”) + –machia (“fight”)] 🐂

Tautochronous: lasting the same amount of time [Gk. tauto (“the same”) + –khrónos (“time”) + -ous]

Tautonym: word composed of two identical words/spellings/sounds (in repetition) eg, paw-paw, yo-yo 🪀 [Gk. tautó, (“the same”) + –onuma (“name”)]

Technopole: place where high-technology industries are located; tech hub [Gk. tékhnē, (“skill”) + –pólis (“city”)] (cf. Tectiform: shaped like a roof) (cf. Tectonic: structural component of a building/construction)

Telegenic: having an appearance and exhibiting qualities thought to be attractive to television viewers [Gk. têle, (“at a distance”; “far off”; “far away”; “far from”) + -genḗs, (“offspring”; “kind”)]

Telekinetic: (Psychic.) supposed skill to move objects at a distance by exercising your mental power only [Gk. têle + –kinēsis (“motion”) from -kinein (“to move”)]

Telos: ultimate object or aim; provides the moral justification [Gk. télos, (“end”; “purpose” or “goal'”)]

Temporality: (Philos.) linear projection of past, present and future; existing within or having some relationship with time; temporal [L. temporālis (“of time”) + –itāt, itās]

Tempore: in the time of; in historical literature, denotes a period during which a person whose exact lifespan is unknown, was known to have been alive or active, or some other date which is not exactly known, usually given as the reign of a monarch [L. tempus (“time”; “period”)] (cf. Temporise: to delay; to procrastinate) 🕰️

Tenebrific: producing darkness [NewLat. tenebrae (“darkness”) + -i- + -ficus] cf. Tenebrose: dark; gloomy) 🌃

Tentamen: experiment; attempt [L. tentāmen (“attempt”)] (cf. Tentation: experiment by trial and error)

Tentigo: priapism, tumescence; morbid lasciviousness [L. tentīgō (“lust”), from tendō (“stretch”)] (cf. Tentiginous: “lust-provoking”)

Teratology: study of monsters, freaks, abnormal growths or malformations [Greek terat-, téras– (“sign sent by the gods”; “portent”;“marvel”; “monster”) + –logie (“-logy”)] (cf. Teratoid: resembling a monster) (cf. Teramorphous: of abnormal or monstrous form)

**Teratology** (credit: GregLuzniakArt/Etsy)

Terdiurnal: three times per day [L. ter (“thrice”) + LateLat. –diurnalis “daily”)

Terebration: a pain that feels as though a drill is boring through some body part [L. terebro, (“to bore”) + -ion]

Tergal: of, like or pertaining to the back; (Zool.) relating to the terga of an arthropod [L. terga (“the back”)]

**Tergal:** the back of an arthropodic beetle 🪲

Tergiversation: the act of evading any clear course of action or speech, of being deliberately ambiguous; equivocation; fickleness [L. tergiversātiō, from tergiversārī (“to turn one’s back, to evade”; to avoid”) + -tiō (“-tion]

Termagant: a violent, nagging, brawling woman; a shrew [MidEng. termagaunt, earlier tervagaunt, alteration of OldFr. tervagan (“name of the imaginary deity”)]

Terraneous: of, like or pertaining to the earth [L. terrenum (“land”; “ground”), from terra (“earth”) + -ous] (cf. Terrigenous: produced on land; produced by the land)

Terremotive: (Geology) relating to an earthquake; seismic [L. terra (“earth”) + –mōtus (“movement”)]

**Terremotive** (Diagram: worldatlas.com)

Terrisonant: having a terrible sound [L. terrëo (“frighten”; “terrify”; “scare away” + -ant]

Tessaraglot: a person who is capable of speaking in four languages [Gk. téssara (“four”) + –glôssa (“tongue”)] 👅

Tessellation: fitting together exactly; leaving no spaces; surface tiling with no gaps or overlays [L. tessella (“small square”) from Gk. tessera, (“four”)]

**Tessellation** (source: tilewizards.com.au)

Tesserarian: of, like or pertaining to games of dice [Gk. tessera + -ian] 🎲

Testicond: having the testes concealed within the body [L. testis (“testis”) + –condere (“to hide”)]

Thalassic: marine; of seas; of inland seas [Gk. thalassa (“sea”)] (cf. Thalassography: science of the sea) 🌊

Thanatopsis: the contemplation of death; considering one’s mortality [Gk. thanatos (“death”) + –opsis‘ (“view”; “sight”)] (cf. Thanatoid: apparently dead; deathly; deadly)

Thaumaturgic: performer of miracles, esp a magician or a saint [Gk. thaumatourgós (“performer of wonders (as an acrobat”) + -ia – y]

Theandric: divine and human at the same time [Gk. theandros (“God-man”)]

Thelemite: one who does as he or she pleases; libertine [Fr. thélémite, from L’Abbaye de Thélème, imaginary abbey with the motto “Do as you please” in Gargantua (1535) by François Rabelais (1553) + -ite] (cf. Thelemic: allowing people to do as they wish [Gk. thelema (“will”) + -ic)

**Thelemite:** L’Abbaye de Thélème, Rabelais’ fictional “anti-monastery”

Thelyotokous: having only female offspring [Gk. thêlus, “female”) + –tókos, (“birth”)]

Theologaster: petty or shallow theologian [Gk. theológos, (“one who talks about the gods”; “theologian”) + L. –aster (“inferior”; “shallow”, etc.)

Theotherapist: faith-healer; treatment of illness or disease by prayer and other religious exercises [Gk. theó, (“god”) + -therapeía, “(service”; “medical treatment”)]

Thereoid: bestial; savage [Gk. thēr, thērós (“beast”; “animal”) + –oid (“-like”)]

Thereology: the art of healing; therapeutics [Gr. therein=therapeuein, (“to tend the sick”) + -logy]

Theriacal: (Medic.) of, like or pertaining to antidotes [Gk. thēriakḕ, “of or related to poisonous reptiles”), from thēríon, “little beast”) from thḗr + -al]

Therianthropic: combining human and animal forms [Gk. thērianthrōpos (“beast-man”)]

Theriatrics: the science of veterinary medicine [Gk. thḗr, (“wild beast”) + iatrós, (“doctor”)]

Thermoplegia: (Medic.) heat- or sunstroke [Gk. thermos (“heat”) + –plēgē (“paralysis”; “stroke”)]

Thesmothete: law-giver; (Hist.) a junior archon or magistrate responsible for legislation in Ancient Greece [from Gk. thesmothétēs]

Thirdborough: petty provincial constable [MidEng. thridborro, probably by folk etymology, from frithborg (“frankpledge”)]

Thooid: resembling a wolf; (Zool.) relating to an obsolete group of carnivores including wolves, dogs and jackals [Gk. thōs jackal + -oid]

Threnody: a lament for the dead (poem, speech, song) [Gk. thrēnōidia, from thrēnos, (“dirge”)]

Threpterolagnia: A lust for female nurses [Gk. threptero(?) + –lagnia (“coitus”; “lust”)]

Thyestean: cannibalistic [from Greek mythology, Thyestes, a king of Olympia, was served his own children’s flesh by his vengeful twin brother Atreus as revenge for adultery]

Thygatrilagnia: an incestuous desire by a father for his own daughter [Gk. thygatro (“daughter”) + –lagnia]

Tibialoconcupiscent: having a lascivious interest in watching women put on stockings [L. tibia (“shinbone”?) + -lo (?) + –concupiscēns, –concupiscere (“to conceive an ardent desire for”)]

Timbromaniac: an avid stamp collector; a passionate philatelist [Fr. from timbre (“postage stamp”) +‎ -o- +‎ -mania]

**Timbromaniac** (credit: istockphoto.com)

Tirocinium: a soldier’s first battle; military baptism of fire [L. tirocinium (“first military campaign”; “inexperienced raw recruit”; “first attempt”]

Tmesis: a word compound that is divided into two parts, with another word infixed between the parts for emphasis, thus constituting a separate word compound, eg, “Absar—bloody—lutely!”; “in—fucking—credible!” [Gk. tmēsis (“a cutting”) from temnō, (“I cut”)]

Tolutiloquent: pertaining to a smooth talker, characterised by fluency or glib utterances [L. tolutim, “trotting along”) + –loqui (“speak”)]

Tomecide: the act of “murdering” or destroying a book, esp by the act of book burning [Gk. tomḗ + -cide]

**Tomecide:** Book burning by the Pinochet regime after the 1973 coup in Chile

Toponym: (Onomastics) a name by which a geographical place is known or a word derived from a place name or from a topographical feature eg, cashmere from Kashmir, lima beans from Lima [Back-formation from toponymy Gk. topos (“place”) + -nym] (cf. Toponymics: the study of place names)

Toxophilite: archer; fond of or an expert in archery [Gk. toxon, (“bow and arrow”) + -phil + -ite]

Tranch: a portion (literally: slice) of something [OldFr. trenche, (“slice”)]

Tritavia: (Ancient Rome) the female ascendant in the sixth degree; the great grandmother of one’s great grandmother; the mother of either an atavus or atavia [L. trēs (“three”) + –avus (“(“grandfather;” “uncle”)] (cf. Tritavus: great grandfather of one’s great grandfather)

Tropoclastics: the science of breaking habits [Gk. trope᷄ (“a turning”) + -klastos (“shattered”) from –klan (“to break”)

Tuism: apostrophe; reference to or regard to a second person [L. tu (“thou”) + -ism]

Tumultuary: chaotic; haphazard [L. tumultus; perhaps akin to Sanskrit tumula (“noisy”)]

Turgescence: act or process of swelling; swollenness [L. turgescent-, turgescens, turgescere (“to swell”)] (cf. Tumefy: to swell)

Turnverein: (Hist.) (19th-(20th. German-American association of gymnasts (members called “turners” promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics); athletic club [Ger. turnen (“to practice gymnastics”) + verein (“club”; “union”) ]

**Turnverein:** Turners, Madison, Wisconsin (photo: wisconsinhistory.org)

Turriform: (Arch.) shaped like a tower [L. turris, (“tower”) from Gk. turrhís + ‑form]

**Turriform:** Tower of London (source: hrp.org.uk/)

Tutelary: having the guardianship of a thing [from L. tūtēla (“tutelage, guardianship; dependent, client”) + -ārius ]

Twain: two; couple or pair [MidEng. from OldEng. twēgen ] 👯

Twire: to peep out; to leer [origin unknown, perhaps akin to MidHighGer. zwieren (“to wink”)] 👀

Tycolosis: accident prevention (origin unknown)

Typhlology: the study of blindness [Gk. tuphlós (“blind”) + -logy] 🕶️

Tyroid: resembling cheese; cheesy [Gk. tyros (“cheese”) + -oid] (cf. Turophile: a connoisseur of cheese; a cheese fancier) 🧀

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “S” Words

January 16, 2024Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”S” sounds are pet sounds

“S” is the 19th letter of the Latin alphabet. Pronounced [ess] the letter is a veritable wellspring of onomatopoeic worddom – (alliterative indulgence follows for effect) sizzling, screeching, slithering, swaying snakes alive! As with other entries in the sequence, the symbol corresponds to the Semitic sin (“tooth”). The cool shape of the Latin “S” came about from the Greek Σ (sigma) by dropping one out of the four strokes of that letter. The (angular) S-shape composed of three strokes existed as a variant of the four-stroke letter Σ already in the epigraphy in Western Greek alphabets, and the three and four strokes variants existed alongside one another in the classical Etruscan alphabet. Trust the ‘truscans to always bob up in the linguistic story somewhere! In other Italic alphabets (Venetic, Lepontic), the letter could be represented as a zig-zagging line of any number between three and six strokes. The lower-case “s” used to be rendered as ∫¹ (sometimes called a medial S or a “long-s”) and looking more like a fancy f sans the cross stroke) but this went of vogue in English sometime in the 18th century and was eventually phased out like pounds, shillings and pence. Neato!

____________________

¹ sometimes written with a slight cursive tilt to the left

<word> <meaning> <derivation>

Sabulous: sandy; gritty; growing in sandy places [L. sabulosus, from sabulum (“sand”)]

Saccadic: a rapid movement of the eye between fixation points; jerky; twitching [OldFr. saquer (“to pull”)]

Sadogue: fat; easy-going person (origin unknown))

Salsipotent: ruling the salt seas; having the power of/over the sea (ref. to Neptune, Roman god of the sea [L. salsipotentem (as if from salsum (“salt”), (a false reading for salipotentem, from salum (“salt water”) + -potentem (“potent”)]

Neptune, **salsipotent** of the seas (image: empirerome.com)

Saltant: leaping; dancing [L. salire (“to jump”; “leap”)]

Saltus: breach of continuity; jump to a conclusion [L. saltus (“a leap”)]

Sanable: able to be healed (cf. Sanatory: producing health) [L. sanare (“to cure”) + -abilis (“-able”)]

Sanctiloquent: speaking on heavenly or holy matters; prone to speaking in a sanctimonious manner; preachy [L. sanctus (“holy”) + loquens]

Sapid: having a perceptible or decided taste; savoury; agreeable [L. from sapere (“to taste”)]

Sapience: discernment; judgement [L. sapientia (“good taste”; “good sense”; “discernment”; “intelligence”; “wisdom”; from sapiens “sensible”; “shrewd”; “knowing”; “discrete”] (cf. Sapiential: providing wisdom)

Sapor (-ine🙂 property of substance of taste; flavour; pertaining to taste [L. sapor (“taste”; “flavour”) + -ine]

Sarcoline: flesh-coloured [Gk. sárx, sarkós (“flesh”) + -line (?))]

Sargasso: a mass of floating vegetation, especially sargassums (seaweed); gulfweed [from Port. sargaço (flowering plant related to the rockrose)] originally from L. salicastrum (“kind of wild vine found in willow-thickets”) ➾ Sargasso Sea (tract of still water with masses of thick seaweed in Nth Atlantic) ➾ which is prob. the source of Sargasso’s second meaning: a confused, tangled mess or situation]

Sargasso Sea: abundant sargassum galore! (photo: dan.org/]

Sarmassant: pertaining to sexual caressing or any such form of love-making (origin unknown) (cf. Sarmassate: to make love by handling, fondling or squeezing organs and tissues of a female)

Sartorial²: of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes; (broadly) of or relating to clothes [L. sartor (“tailor”) + -ial]

Sarwan: a person who drives and guides a camel [Pers. sārwān, from sār (“camel”) + -wān (“keeping”; “guarding”)] 🐫

Satisfice: to aim for or achieve that which will suffice; (Heuristics) a decision-making strategy that aims for a satisfactory or adequate result, rather than the optimal solution [blend of satisfy and suffice]

Sative: cultivated; sown [L. sativus, from satus, serere (“to sow”) + -ivus (“ -ive”)]

Satrapess: A female satrap; an official who acts like a petty tyrant [from satrap Gk. satrápes, from OldPers. khshathapavan (literally “protector of the province”) + -ess]

Saturnalian: riotously merry or orgiastic; behaviour like the Saturnalia: an ancient Roman holiday/festival honouring Saturn, the god of seed-sowing, a time of jovial merrymaking with many social norms were relaxed and inverted; riotous merry-making [L. Saturn (Roman god of agriculture among other things)]

**Saturnalian** (image source: mediastorehouse.com.au)

Saturnine❇note the nuance of meaning contrasted with the preceding entry :— of a gloomy or surly disposition; sardonic [L. Saturn + -ine]

Satyromaniac: a man with an abnormally great, uncontrollable testosterone sexual drive; satyriasis [Gk. sáturos (“satyr”)+‎ -mania]

Saxifragous: breaking stone; (Biol.) rock-splitting plant [L. saxifragus (“rock-breaking”)]

Scamander: to take a winding course; to meander [Gk.from Skamandros (also called Xanthos), a river god in Greek mythology. Origin uncertain ➠ poss. from skázō (“to limp”; “to stumble (over an obstacle)”) or from skaiós (“left(-handed”; “awkward”)]

Scanderoon: homing pigeon (origin unknown)

Scansorial: relating to, capable of, or adapted for climbing [L. scansus + -orius -ory) + –al]

Scapegrace: an incorrigible rascal; a mischievous or wayward person, esp a child [Eng. scape (Literally) one who escaped the grace of god]

Scaphism: form of execution (alleged relating to ancient Persia) by covering someone in honey and abandoning him in the sun or leaving him tethered between two boats [Gk. skaph (“boat”) + -ism]

Scazon: : a classical verse with a limping or halting movement; limping verse [Gk. skázō (“I limp”)]

Scepsis: (Philos.) philosophic doubt; skepticism; a skeptical approach or belief” [Gk. sképsis, “examination”); “observation”; “consideration”)]

Schesis: deriding an opponent’s argument by referring to his or her way of thought; mocking the habitude of an adversary [Gk. skhésis, (“state”; “condition”; “attitude”)]

Schoenobatist: a tight-rope walker [origin unknown(?) poss. from MidDutch. schoe, (“shoe”; “footwear”)]

Sciapodous: having large feet [Gk. Skiapodes, from skia (“shadow”) + -pod-, -pous (“-foot”) + -ous] (cf. Sciapods: (aka Monopods) (Greek mythology) a tribe of one-legged, giant-footed Libyan (some references say Ethiopian or Indian) men whose foot was so big they could raise it in the air to provide shade against the hot southern sun)

Scholarch: head of a school; (Hist.) the leader of an Athenian school of philosophy [Late Gk. scholarchēs (“scholar”)] school 🏫

Scible: that which is knowable (origin unknown)

Scientaster: a petty or inferior scientist [L. sciēns (“knowing”), from sciō (“know”) + -aster] 👨‍🔬

Scintillant: sparkling [L. scintillāns, scintillāre (“to send out sparks”; “flash”)] (cf. Scintillescent twinkling)

Sclerotic: grown rigid or unresponsive especially with age; unable or reluctant to adapt or compromise; hardening (eg, of emotions) [Gk. sklērōtos, from sklēroun (“to harden”)]

Scoliotropism: a diminished desire to attend school [origin uncertain(?), Gk. skoliós (“crooked”) + –tropḗ, (“turn”); “solstice”; “trope”) + -ism] ✎ᝰ.📖

Scolist: (someone) who pretends to have more knowledge than they really do; a superficial show of learning [LateLat. sciolus (“smatterer”; “pretender to knowledge” from L. scius “possessing knowledge”; “expert”) derivative of scīre (“to know”) —perhaps as back-formation from nescius (“ignorant”)— + –ist]

Scopophile: a person whose sexual pleasure is derived from watching others in a state of nudity, undressing, or engaging in sexual activity; (Psych.) one with a sexual dependency on openly observing genitalia and sexual acts (distinguished from a voyeur who watches in secret) [Gk. skopós, “watcher”) + -phile] 👁️👁

Scortation: fornication; lewdness [L. scorṯarī (“to consort with or like a harlot”)]

Scriniary: archives-keeper; archivist [from L. scriniarius “keeper of the scrinium” (“chest or box for keeping books, papers, letters”, etc)]

**Scriniary:** on the records (source: planitplus.net)

Scriptory: by, in or pertaining to writing [L. scriptorius, from scriptus, scribere (“to write”) + -orius (“-ory”)] (cf. Scripturient: having a violent desire to write) 📝 ✍️

Scurrier (also sp. Scurriour): a scout (origin unknown, possibly French)

Sebastomania: religious insanity [Gk. sebastos, “reverenced”; “mania”; madness”) + -mania]

Sectiuncle: a little or petty sect [nebulous etymology: L. secare (“cut”)(?) + –uncle (“small”; “little”)]

Secundogeniture: custom where second-oldest child inherits property; a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants [L. secundus (“following”; “second”) + –genitus (“born”)] (cf. Tertiogeniture: third-oldest child is a beneficiary (rarely applied))

Sederunt: sitting of an ecclesiastical court (in Scotland); gathering; long discussion (cf. Sedent: seated or inactive) [L. from sedēre (“to sit”)]

Sedulous: accomplished with careful perseverance (craftsmanship); diligent in application or pursuit [L. sedēre (“meaning”; “to sit”) + -ous]

Selcouth: rare; strange; unusual; marvellous [from OldEng. seldcūth, from seldan (“seldom”) + -cūth (“known”)]

Selenic: of, like or pertaining to the Moon [Gk. selḗnē, (“moon”)] 🌒

Semelincident: (of a disease or ailment) occurring only once in the same individual [[L. semel, (“once”), + -incido, (“to happen”), from cado, (“to fall”)] (cf. Semelparous: reproducing only once in its lifetime)

Sempervirent: evergreen; always fresh [L. semper (“always”) + –virent, -virēre (“to be green”)]

Sempiternal: of never-ending duration; eternal [L. from semper + –æternus (“eternal”)]

Sempster: (also Seamster) a man who sews; tailor [OldEng. seamestre “sewer”; “tailor”; ”person whose work is sewing”)]

Senectitude: old age [L. senectus (“aged”; “old age”), senex (“old”)] (cf. Senectuous: very old)

Senient: conscious; perceiving; able to perceive or feel things [L. sentient-, sentiens, (“to perceive”; “feel”)]

Septentrional: to the north; northern [L. From septem (“seven”) +‎ –triō (“plow”; “ox”)]

Septimanal: weekly [L. septi- + -manal(?)]

Sequacious: ready to follow a leader or authority; (pliant) compliant; tractable [L. sequac-, sequax– (“inclined to follow”) from sequi, (“to follow”) + -ous]

The **sequacious** will inherit a leader (photo source: esquire.com)

Seraglio: harem [It. serraglio, modification of Turkish saray (“palace”)]

Seraphic: serene; blissful; angelic [MedLat. seraphicus, from LateLat. seraphim (“an angel”) + -icus]

Sermuncle: a little sermon [L. sermo, sermonis—serĕre, (“to join”) + –uncle]

Sesquipedalian: (of a word) polysyllabic, long [L. sesquipedalia verba (“words a foot and a half long”) from sesqui- (“one and a half times”)]

Sexdigitated: (Med.) six-fingered or -toed [L. sex, six, + -digitus, finger or toe]

Sexotropic: obsessed with sex [L. sexus + –tropḗ]

Shenango: a casually employed dock worker [probably from the Chenango river and canal in south-central New York state]

Shunamitism: (Med./Psych.)) the rejuvenation of an old man by sleeping with a young woman, although not necessarily having sex with her [from Hebrew. Shunem (small village mentioned in the Pentateuch) + -ite]

Sialoquent: spitting or emitting saliva excessively while speaking [blend of sialic +‎ –eloquent, from Gk. (“síalon”; “spittle”; “saliva”)]

Sibylline: characteristic of a sibyl (a pagan female oracle); prophetic; oracular; mysterious [Gk. Síbulla + -ine]

Sicarian: murderer; assassin (origin unknown)

Siffleur: whistler, esp an animal (such as the whistling marmot) that makes a whistling noise [Fr. siffler (“to whistle”) + -eur -or] (cf. Siffilate: to talk in a whisper)

Signate: distinct; distinguished; designated; identified; having markings like letters [L signatus, signare (“to mark”; “seal”; designate”)]

Significs: (Semiotics.) science of meaning [L. from significare (“to indicate”; “signify”) from signum (“sign”)]

Sillograph: one who writes satires; a satirist [Gk. from Sílloi (satirical poem) of Timon of Phlius, (circa 280BC) +‎ -graph; etymology uncertain, poss. relating to “silhouette”]

Simous: having a flat; upturned nose [L. simus (“snub-nosed”)]

Sinistromanual: left-handed [L. sinistro (“left”) + -manus (“hand”)] ✋

Siriasis: sunstroke [Gk. seiríāsis, equiv. seiri(ân) (“to be hot”; “scorching”) + -asis] ☀️

Skoptsy: self-castration [from Rus. skopets (“castrate”) (the Skoptsy were a Christian Spiritualist sect during the Russian Empire who practised male castration and female mastectomy in accordance with their beliefs]

Smellfungus: a person who finds faults with everything; a grumbler; a complainer [after Smelfungus, a hypercritical traveler in Laurence Sterne’s 1768 novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy]

Sociogenesis: origin of human societies [NewLat. from socio- + L. genesis]

Soldatesque: soldierlike; soldierly [from It. soldatesco]

Somnambulist: a person who walks about in their sleep; a sleepwalker [from L. somnus (“sleep”) + –ambulō (“to walk”)] (cf. Somniloquent: someone who talks in their sleep) (cf. Somnophile: someone who’s sexually aroused by the sight of sleeping or unconscious people) (cf. Somnifacient: sleep-inducing ⟺ Somnorific: causing sleep; soporific)

Soubrette: coquettish and intriguing maid; a female theatrical role in opera and drama [from L. superare (“be above”)]

Sovenance: remembrance; memory [MidFr. sovenance, souvenance, from (se) sovenir, (se) souvenir (“to remember”) + -ance]

Spadassin: swordsman; fighter [from It. spadaccino (“swordsman”)]

Specious: superficially plausible but actually wrong; having deceptive attraction or allure [L. speciosus, (“beautiful”); “plausible,”)]

Sphairist: (cf. Sphairistikè: game that evolved into “tennis”) tennis-player [Gk. sphairistike techne, (“the skill of playing with a ball” (coined by Maj. Walter Wingfield (1874) inventor of a form of modern tennis incorporating aspects of earlier ball and racket games Badminton and Rackets)

**Sphairist**: Lawn tennis player from the pioneering era (photo source: Getty Images)

Splenetic: bad-tempered; malevolent; spiteful [L. splen, (“bodily organ responsible for storing and filtering blood”)]

Stagiary: a resident canon; a law student [MedLatin. stagium, estagium (“term of residence”) + –arius (“ary”)]

Stallenger: (Hist.) keeper of a markets stall (Scotland (18th.) [OldScots. stallangear, from O.Fr. estalagier, (“one who pays stallage, a stall-tax at a fair”)]

Stasiarch: ringleader in sedition [Gk. stásis, (“part”; “band”; “sedition”) + –árkhēs, (“ruler”)/(-arkhós (“leader”)]

Steatopygous: having excessively fat buttocks and thighs [Gk. steato (“fat”) + –pȳgḗ (“buttocks”)]

Stegophilist: one who climbs the outside of buildings as a sporting activity [Gk. stego (“roof”) + -phil]

Stentorian: extremely loud (cf. Stentor: loud-voiced person) [Gk. Greek herald Stentor (character in the Iliad), distinctive for his loud, booming voice]

Stercorate: to shit [L. stercorare (“to dung”)]

Stasiology: study of political parties [Gk. stasis (“faction”; “discord”) + -ology]

Sthenolagnia: sexual arousal from displays of strength or muscles [Gk. sthénos (“moral or emotional strength”; “might”; “power”)+‎ -lagnia (“lust”)]

Stochastic: of, like or pertaining to a sequence of random events; having a random probability distribution [Gk. stochastikos (“skillful in aiming”) from stochazesthai (“to aim at”; “guess at”) from stochos (“target”; “aim”; “guess”)] 🎲

Stomachous: resentful; haughty; spirited; brave [Gk. stómakhos (“throat”; “gullet”; “oesophagus”) + -ous]

Stomatiferous: having an orifice or mouth [Gk. stóma (“mouth”) + –ferous (“bearing”)]

Storiograph: writer of folk tales [LateLat. storia from L. historia (“history”; “account”; “tale”; “story” (+ Gk. –graphia (“writing”)]

Stratocrat: a military ruler; despot [Gk. stratos (“an army”)] (cf. Stratonic: of or relating to an army)

Struthious: of, relating to, or resembling the ostrich or related ratite birds [from Gk. strouthos (“ostrich”)] 𓅦

Suggilate: to beat until bruised [L. suggillo (“to beat until bruised”)]

Supernaculum: drink to the last drop; wine or alcohol so good you want to drink to the last drop; (Hist.) a drinking game [from L. super (“over”; “on”) + NewLat. nagulum, naculum (“nail”) from German nagel (“fingernail”)]🍷🗿

Sybarite: person devoted to pleasure and luxury; hedonist [Gk. Subarī́tēs, (“inhabitant of Sybaris (city in Magna Graecia (ancient Italy); (adj.) (“decadent”; “self-indulgent”)]

“Lux” lifestyles of the ancient **Sybarites** (image: calabria-mediterranea.tumblr.com/)

Symmachy: an alliance of disparate parties fighting jointly against a common enemy [Gk. sym (“with”) + –machy (“fight”)]

Symposiarch: (Hist.) master of a feast (Ancient Greece); a master of ceremonies [Gk. from symposium ➠ sumpósion, (“drinking party”) + -arch] (cf. Symposiast: someone engaged in banqueting and merrymaking with others; a fellow-drinker)

Syndasmia: open marriage (origin unknown)

Synonymicon: thesaurus [from Gk. sunōnumía, (“synonym”)]

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

² “Sartorial”, specifically the phrase “sartorial elegance” became such a cliche in the 1970s that it almost doesn’t qualify to be a compendium of obscure and unusual words – except for the fact that its usage as a stock phrase has greatly diminished now

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “R” Words

January 6, 2024Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”R”-letter day

“R” is the 18th letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. It corresponds to the ancient Semitic resh and is perhaps derived from an earlier hieroglyph representing a human head. From the Egyptian symbol the letter evolved into a triangular flag shape and then to a rounded “P” under Greek influence, before the descending, angled stroke of “R” was added in the 3rd century BC, giving the letter the form we recognise today. The standard English pronunciation is ar. R-words can be fun and surprising – “r” is the letter of the dictionary we turn to when we decide to open the dictionary at random! Or they can be positive and uplifting – why else would we describe a day that signifies a special significance or opportunity to us as a “red-letter day”?

<Word> <Meaning> <Derivation>

Rabelaisian: coarsely humorous; bawdy; ribald [after Francois Rabelais, (16th cent. French writer and satirist]

**Rabelaisian:** Rabelais’ most famous comic novels (*Gargantua* and *Pantagruel)*

Rabulous: vile; scurrilous [L. origin unknown]

Rackrent: excessive rent [from “the rack” – medieval torture device (Irish/Brit.)]

Ragabash: an idle, ragged person [origin unknown]

Raisonneur: a personage in a play or book embodying an author’s viewpoint [Fr. raison (“reason”) + –eur]

Ragmatical: turbulent; riotous [origin unknown]

Rampallion: scoundrel; ruffian; villain [of unknown origin, appears in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2 uttered by Falstaff]

**Rampallion:** Sir John Falstaff in *Henry IV, Part II* (source: bookbub.com)

Rampasture: a room in which several unmarried men live, usually in a boarding house or inn [conjunction of “ram” + “pasture”, early (20th.]

Ranarium: a place where frogs are kept, usually for breeding 🐸 [L. rāna (“frog”) + –arium, -arias] (cf. Raniform: frog-like)

Rancescent: becoming rancid [L. rancescens (“turning rancid or sour”)]

Rand: border; edge; margin; a long rocky ridge [OldEng. rand (“a place at the border or edge”)]

Rantipole: wild; disorderly [Eng. “rant”, from Dutch ranten, randen (“to talk nonsense, rave”) + -y + -L. pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”)]

Rarissima: extremely rare books, manuscripts or prints [from L. rārissima]

Ras: headland; cape [from Amharic. rās (lit. “head”)]

Ratheripe: early ripe [MidEng. rathe “quick”, from OldEng. hræth]

Ratten: to practice sabotage against [MidEng. ratoun (“rat”) + -en]

Razzmatazz : meaningless talk; hype; nonsense [origin unknown, 1890s slang, perhaps a varied rhyming reduplication of “jazz”] 🎵

Rebarbative: causing annoyance; irritation; repellant [L. barba (“beard”) + -ive]

Rebus: picture puzzle representing a word (a combination of a picture and an individual letter prompts a particular word) [from L. res (“thing”)]

Reciprocornous: (Zool.) having horns that turn backward and then forward (like a ram’s) [L. poss. from re- (“back”), prō(“forwards”) and -que (“and”)╰┈➤ (“back and forth”) + -ous]

Recondite: out of the way; little known or obscure; difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend [L. from recondere, [“to conceal”)]

Recreant: craven; cowardly; false; apostate [L. re- + credere (“to believe”)]

Rectigrade: moving or proceeding in a straight line or course [L. rectus (“straight”) + -gradus (“step”)]

Rectopathic: one who is easily hurt emotionally [L. rectus + –pathic (“suffering”)]

Recumbent: lying down; representing a person (or effigy) lying down [L. re– (“back”; “again”) + -cumbere, “to lie down”]

Recumbentibus: a knockout blow, either verbal or physical [L. recumbent-, recumbens + -ibus (?)] 🥊

Resipiscent: (Literary) acknowledgment that one has been mistaken; to learn from experience and have one’s sanity restored; a change of mind or heart (often prompting a return to a sane, sound, or correct view or position) [LateLat. resipiscere (“to recover one’s senses”; from L. “sapere (“to know”)]

Redact: edit for publication, esp censoring or obscuring part of a text for legal or national security reasons [L. redigō (“to lead back, collect, prepare, reduce to a certain state”)] (cf. Redactophobe: someone who has a fear of editing or editors)

**Redact:** the editor strikes through ✍️ (photo: alamy)

Remontado: a person who lives in the forest or mountains and avoids civilisation [Spanish. remontado (“to flee or go back to the mountains”)]

Rend: tear or rent apart; rip into pieces (cf. Riven: split or tear apart violently [From Middle English. renden, from Old English . rendan (“to rend”; “tear”; “cut”; “lacerate”; “cut down”), from Proto-West Germanic (h)randijan (“to tear”), of uncertain origin]

Rhinophonia: extreme nasal sound in one’s voice [L. rhino- + Gk. rhis, rhin (“nose”) + –lalia, (“talking”)]

Rittmaster: captain of a troop of horse (cavalry) [part. transltn. of German rittmeister, from ritt (“troop of horsemen”) from reiten (“to ride”), from Old High German rītan + -meister (“master”)]

Rixatrix: a scolding or quarrelsome woman; a common scold [L. rixārī (“to quarrel”) + –trix (Latinate fem. agent noun)]

Rupicoline: rock-dwelling [rupi, rupes- (“a rock”) + Eng. -colous, -coline] (cf. Rupellary: rocky) 🪨

Rurigenous: one who has been born in the country [L. rus, ruris (“the country”) + –genere, –gignere (“to bring forth”; “to be born”)]

Rusticate: go, live in the country for a time; live a rustic life [L. rūsticor (“live in the countryside”)] (cf. Rusticity: rustic manner; simplicity; rudeness)

Ruth: (also Ruthful) a feeling of pity, distress or grief [Hebrew. Ruth (“friend” or “companion”) Biblical figure (Old Testament)]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “Q” Words

January 2, 2024Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Form a “Q”

“Q”, (pronounced c ue), is the 17th letter of the alphabet. The letter is from the Phoenician equivalent of Hebrew koph, qoph, which was used for the deeper and more guttural of the two “k” sounds in Semitic. The letter existed in early Greek (where there was no such distinction), and called koppa, but it was little used and not alphabetized; it mainly served as a sign of number (90). Correspondingly, the root base of English Q-words is uniformly Latin and characterised by the total absence of Greek prefixes and suffixes, which is in sharp contrast to other letters. The form of the letter “Q” could have been based on the eye of a needle, a knot, or even a monkey with its tail hanging down… /q/ is a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in many European languages. One view is that the form of the letter “Q” is even more ancient: it could have originated from Egyptian hieroglyphics. And “Q”, like “M” before it, is of course a character in the never-ending James Bond franchise.

<Word> <Meaning> <Derivation>

Qua: in the capacity of [Latin. qua “which way”; “as”. From qui (“who”)]

Quab: something unfinished or immature (origin unknown)

Quacksalver: one who falsely pretends to knowledge of medicine

**Quacksalver:** pseudo-medical quackery (image: artic.edu)

Quadragenarian: someone aged between 40 and [L. quadrāgēnī (“40 in each”) + -ārius (“-ary”), from quadrāgintā (“four tens, forty”)]

Quadratary: relating to a square [L. quadrātus from quadrō (quadrat),(“make square”) + -ary] (cf. Quadrate: to make square; to make to agree)

Quadrigamist: someone who has been married four times or is married to four people simultaneously (polygamy?) [L. from quattuor (“four”) + -gam (“married”) + -ist]

Quadriliteral: relating to a word with four letters; a 4-letter word [L. quadri + –littera, –litera (“a letter”)] (cf. Quadrilateral: a four-sided figure)

Quaestuary: seeking money or trying to make money; concerned with profit 💰[L. quaestus , quaerere (“to seek”; “gain”; “ask”) + -arius (“ary”)] (cf. Quomodocunquize: to make money by any means possible)

Quaestor: (Hist.) magistrate; a medieval pardoner (in ancient Rome an official in charge of public revenue and expenditure) [L. quaestor (“investigator”); quaesit (“submit”)]

Temple of Saturn, site of the Roman Treasury, workplace of the **Quaestor**

Qualtagh: first person you meet after leaving the house; first person you meet on New Year’s Day [from Manx. quaaltagh, cognate with Old Irish. com (“co”) + -dál (“meeting”)] 🏠

Qualtrayle: one’s great, great, great grandfather (origin unknown)

Quantophrenia: obsessive reliance on statistics and mathematical results [LateLat. quantitātīvus (“quantity”) + –phrḗn (“mind”) +‎ -ia]

Quantulum: a very small quantity [L. quantus (“how much”) + -lum]

Quaquaversal: facing or bending all ways [L. quaqua versus (“turned wheresoever”)]

Quassation: act of shaking or being shaken [L. quassō (“shake repeatedly or violently”) +‎ -tiō]

Quatch: a word, a sound; squat, plump (Shakespeare) (origin unknown) (cf. Sasquatch: (in Canadian folklore) a hairy beast or manlike monster said to leave huge footprints)

**Quatch**: Sasquatch (Bigfoot) (photo: Lonely Planet)

Quarternity: fourness; any set of four things [L. quattuor (“four”) + -ity]

Quean: a lewd woman; hussy; an impudent or badly behaved female of ill-repute [Old English. cwene (from “queen”)]

Querulant: (Psych. & Legal) a person who obsessively feels they have been wronged, particularly about minor cases of action [L. querulus (“complaining”)] (NB: a Querimony is a complaint) (cf. Querent: one who asks a question)

Questmonger: one whose occupation is to conduct inquests [L. quaesta (“tribute”; “tax”; “inquiry”; “search”) + –mangō (“dealer”; “trader”)]

Quickhatch: a woverine [from East Cree (Algonquian language) kwi˙hkwaha˙če˙w]

**Quickhatch:** ie, Wolverine (photo: nwf.org)

Quicquidlibet: whatever one pleases; anything whatsoever [L. quic (quis) + -quid (“anything”) + –libet (”it pleases”)]

Quidditch: fictional sport for broomstick-riding mavens in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter fantasy book series [NB: the etymology of “quidditch” long predates Harry Potter, poss. derives from Anglo-Saxon cwæō-dīc (“mud-ditch”)]

Quiddity: (also Quidditative) eccentric; quirky; unique essence; (a sort of “x-factor” — whatever makes something the type that it is) [MedLat. quidditat-, -quidditas (“essence”) from L. quid (“what”) neuter of quis (“who”) + -ity]

Quidfather: father-in-law (origin unknown)

Quidnunc: an inquisitive and gossipy person; a person who always wants to know what’s going on (the latest news and gossip) [L. quid nunc (“what now?”)]

Quincaillerie: hardware store [Fr. clincaille, akin to clinquer (“clink”)]

Quindecad: set of fifteen things [L. quīnque (“five”) + –decem (“ten”)]

Quinquagesimal: consisting of 50 days; a 50-day period [MedLat. quinquagesima + -al]

Quisling: a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying his country; a “puppet” leader propped up by an invading foreign power [after Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian military officer, Nazi Germany’s puppet ruler of Norway during their WWII occupation]

**Quisling** (source: norwegianamerican.com (drawing by Stig Höök))

Quisquous: difficult to deal with or settle; perplexing; (of a person) of dubious character (origin unknown)

Quixotic: extravagantly and romantically chivalrous; enunciator of wildly impractical, lofty ideals to the point of being ludicrously out of touch with reality [after Don Quixote, eponymous protagonist of Cervantes’ The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (publ. 1605)]

Quizzacious: satirical; mocking [Eng. quiz (“to mock”), poss. from L. qui es? (“who are you?” + -acious]

Quodlibertarian: a person who is happy to discuss any subject at pleasure [L. quod libet (lit. “that which is pleasing”) + -arian]

Quoniam: female genitalia; the vulva [from L. quoniam (“since”), prob. educated respelling/euphemism of Old French conin (“coney, rabbit”)]

Quotidian: occurring every day (or every 24 hours); daily; ordinary or mundane [L. quotidie (“every day”); from quot + -dies (“day”)]

Quoz: absurd person or thing [prob. alteration of quiz]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “P” Words

December 27, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

A myriad of P’s in this pod

“P” is numerus XVI in the English alphabet letter of sequence. The letter has a special place in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)…the symbol ⟨p⟩ represents a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages, the voiceless bilabial plosive or stop (sometimes called the unvoiced labial stop). “P” corresponds to the Semitic pe, perhaps deriving from an earlier sign for “mouth.” The early Greeks renamed this form pi(Π). The rounded shape of the “P”(“p”) is thought to be a Latin borrowing from the ancient Etruscan language. Another feature of the letter p is its use in combination with h in words of Greek origin to denote the unvoiced labiodental spirant expressed in other words by the letter f—e.g., philosophy, phonetics, and graphic (www.britannica.com)

{word} | {definition} | {derivation}

Padrone: (in Italy) an innkeeper; employer, esp one who exploits immigrant workers [It. (“protector”; “owner”) from L. patronus (“patron”)]

Pagophagia: the eating of ice [Gk. pagos (“frost”) + phagō (“to eat”)] 🧊

Palzogony: foreplay; love-play (origin unknown, It. ?)

Pancratic: accomplished all-rounder, good at many sports or games; having a mastery over numerous subjects) [Gk. pankratḗs, “all-powerful”) +‎ -ic]

Pangloss: one who is optimistic regardless of the circumstances [Gk. pan (“all”) + –glossa (“tongue”) from the character “Pangloss”, optimistic tutor in Voltaire’s Candide (1759)] (cf. Panglossian: excessively optimistic; marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds)

Pannapictagraphist: collector of comic books (origin unknown)

Panoply: a collection or assortment of things; an impressive or extensive array [Gk. panoplia (“full suit of armour worn by hoplite warriors in Ancient Greece”) ]

**Panoply: Greek hoplites‘ armour** (image: imagining
history.co.uk)

Pantagamy: married to everybody: practice of intra-communal marriage of all members to each other in some proto-communistic societies such as in certain Amerindian tribes [Gk. pan + -gam + -ic]

Paraethesia: a prickly feeling one gets when your limbs fall asleep; a sensation of “pins and needles” [L. para- (“alongside”, “irregular”; ie, “disordered”) + -aisthēsis (“perception”; “feeling”)] 📍 🪡

Paralian: a person who lives near the sea [Gk. parálios, (“coastal”; “maritime”)] 🌊

Paralipsis: (also called Apophasis) a rhetorical device whereby the speaker emphasises the point they are trying to make by (calculated) denial…example: “I’m not saying that…“ (assertion). By merely suggesting it, they are inferring that it is in fact the case; the ploy involves drawing attention to some issue by denying that you talking about it [Gk. pará, (“by”; “near”) + -leípō, (“I leave”)]

**Donald Trump, grandmaster of the artifice of Paralipsis (photo: The Globe and Mail)**

Paramnesia: (psych.) a disorder prompting someone to recall events that never happened [Gk. par, para (“beside”; “next to”) + -mnesia (“memory”)]

Paranymph: the best man or bridesmaid at a wedding; a ceremonial assistant or coach to the best man/bridesmaid at a wedding [Gk. para- + -nymphē. (“bride”)]

Parapraxis: a memory lapse, a slip of the tongue, usually revealing a hidden thought (“Freudian slip”) 👅 [Gk. para– + –praxís (“doing”)]

Parateresiomaniac: a compulsive voyeur 👁️ 👁️ [Gk. para + -teresio(?) + -maniac]

Parergon: a piece of work that is supplementary to or a by-product of a larger work [Gk. párergos, (“beside the main subject”; “subordinate”; “incidental”)]

Parthenolagnia: the desire to copulate with virgins [ Gk. parthenos (“maiden”; “virgin”) + –lagneía (“sexual intercourse, -lasciviousness”)]

Partialism: (psych.) a sexual fetish with an exclusive focus on a specific part of the body other than genitals [L. pars (“part”) + -ism] (cf. Paraphilia: a form of sexual arousal caused by objects, situations, or targets that are considered atypical or not of the norm)

Pauciloquent: using a few words as possible when speaking [L. paucus (“little”; “few”) + –loqui, loquor (“to speak”)]

Patavinity: the use of local slang expressions or dialects when writing [L. patavinitas, from Patavium (Padua), Italy (birthplace of Livy) + -itas -ity]

Pecunious: possessing buckets of money [L. pecūnia (“money”) + -ious] 💰 💵

Pedotrophy: the art of raising children properly [Gk. paîs, (“child”) –tréphō, (“I congeal”; “thicken”)] 👧 👦🏽

Pentapopemptic: a person who has been divorced five times [Gk. pent, penta + -apo (“off”; “away”) + –pempē (“to send”) + -ic]

Peristerophilist: one who collects pigeons (origin unknown) (-phily: the art of training pigeons)

**Peristerophilist** (photo: irishtimes.com)

Pernoctation: someone who stays up all night to work or to party [L. pernoctātus (“having spent the night”) + -iōn (cf. Pernoctator: someone who stays up all night to study) 🎆🌃

Pervulgate: to publish something [L. pervulgo (“to publish”; “to make public”)]

Phagomania: insatiable hunger [Gk. phagós (“eating”) + -mania]

Phanerolagniast: a psychologist who studies human lust [Gk. phaneros (“visible”; “evident”) from phainein (“bring to light”; “cause to appear”; “show”) + –lagnia]

Phillumenist: collector of matchboxes and their labels [Gk. phil- + L. -lumen (“light “) + -ist]

Philodox: one who loves his or her own opinions [Gk. phílo– (“beloved”) + –dóxa (“glory; “opinion”)] (cf. Philoxenist: a person who loves to entertain strangers)

Phosphene: the phenomenon of seeing light without light entering the eye; what occurs when you see ”stars and dots” after rubbing your eyes [Gk. phōs- (“light”) + -phainein (“to show”)] 💡

Phrontifugic: helping to escape from one’s thoughts [Gk. phrēn, (“diaphragm, mind”) + It. -fuga, from Latin, “a running away”; “flight”]

Phrontistery: a place for thinking or study [Gk. phrontis (“thought”; “care”; attention”) + -ery]

Picayune: of little value or significance; petty; a small coin in (18–(19 th. Louisiana with a low monetary value [Occitan. picaioun (“small coin”) from pica (“to jingle”)] 🪙

Pictophile: one who gets sexual gratification from pictorial porn or erotic art [ + -phile]

**Pictophile: connoisseurs of “adult magazines”** (source: AFP via Getty)

Pilosism: (also -ity) excessive hairiness [L. pilo- (“hair”) + -ism]

Plangonolist: [origin uncertain, one suggestion: Gk. plangon from plaggon (wax dolls in ancient Greek theatre substituting for female roles(?)) + -ist]

Planiloquent: talking plainly about some subject or other [L. planus (“flat”) + –loqui]

Platypygous: having a broad bottom [Gk. platys” (flat or broad) + -pygous, -pugē (“buttocks”)] (cf. Pygephanous: displaying one’s buttocks)

Pleniloquent: excessive talking; fullness of speech [L. plēnos (“full”) + –loqui]

Pleonasm: using more words than necessary; redundancy of words [Gk. pleōn (“more”) + -asm]

Pogontrophy: the practice of grooming a beard or moustache [Gk. pogon (“beard”) + –trophy (“nourishment”; “growth”)(cf. Pogontomy: cutting or trimming a beard)

The art of **Pogontrophy** (photo: freepik)

Polemologist: student of war [Gk. pólemos (“war; battle”) +‎ -logy]

Politicaster: 2nd-rate or inferior or petty, contemptible politician [polī́tēs (“citizen”; “freeman”) + -aster§] (cf. Poetaster: an inferior poet)

**Politicaster** (source: frankfuredi.substack.com)

Polyoquent: garrulous; loquacious; discourse on many topics [Gk. poly + -loqui (“speak”)]

Polyphage: someone who eats many kinds of food [Gk. poly + –phage]

Polyphasic: consisting of two or more phases [Gk. poly + -phase + -ic]

Pomiculturalist: fruit-grower [L. pōmum (“fruit tree”; “fruit” + –culture] 🍇 🍈 🍉

Preantepenultimate: fourth from last [L. prae (“before”) + –ante (“preposition and prefix”) + –paene (“almost”) + –ultimus (“last”)]

Pre-meridian: before noon [L. pre + -meridies (“noon”)] 🕚

Presbycusis: loss of hearing due to old age [Gk. presbys, (“old man”), + akousis, (“hearing”) (cf. Presbyopia: loss of sight due to old age)

Preterpluperfect: better than perfect [L. praeter (“past”; “beyond”) + –plūs (“more”) + –quam (“than”) + –perfectus (“achieved”; “finished”; “perfected”) (literally, “more than finished”)]

Pridian: yesterday; previous day [L. prior + -dies (“day”) + -anus (“-an”)]

Proctor: disciplinary officer (university); particular class of senior lawyer [MidEng. procutour (“procurator”; “proctor”)]

Progenitor: ancestor or parent [L. pro- (“forth”) + –gignere (“to beget”)]

Propinquity: physical proximity or similarity between things (like attracts like); close kinship [L. prope (“near”) + -quity]

Prosopolethy: inability to remember a face [Gk. prosōpon (“person”; “face” + -lēpsis (“act of taking hold or receiving”; “acceptance”) + -ia -y]

Protean: ever-changing: versatile; mutable; able to change frequently or easily [Gk. from Proteus, in Greek mythology a sea-god with a tendency to shape-shift)]

**Protean: from the shape-shifting god of rivers and oceans**

Pseudandry: use of a masculine pseudonym by a woman [Gk. pseudēs (“false”) + –andrós (“male”)] (cf. Pseudogyny: use of a feminine pseudonym by a man)

Puellaphilist: (Psych.) one who loves girls (and perhaps sexually desires them) [L. puella (“young girl”) + –phil]

Pulchritudinous: comely; beautiful; dazzling; ideal; a looker [L. pulcher (“beautiful”) + -tūdō (“-ness”)]

Pusillanimous: lacking courage or resolution; timidly cowardly [Latin pusillus (“very small”) (diminutive of pusus (“boy”) + -animus “spirit”)]

Pyknic: being of stocky physique and a rounded body and head; thickset [Gk. puknos (“thick“) + -ic]

Pysmatic: always asking questions and inquiring (origin unknown)

Pythogenic: coming from garbage [Gk. pytho– from pythein (“to cause to rot”) + -genic]

Standout P-word in the ALDOOCDO catalogue of lexical merit: Pernickety: fussy, particular; extensive attention to esp trivial or minor detail (an OCD candidate?) [Scots. pernickety, persnickety, of uncertain origin; (resembles in form per- (“intensifying prefix”) + –nick, but might be derived from particular + -finicky)]

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§ the suffix –aster, whenever it pops up tacked on to the end of some base word is invariably pejorative, meaning something that is inferior, small or shallow

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd”O” Words

December 24, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Sports history, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

The story of ”O” lexemes

ALDOOCDOW reaches one of the key letters in lexicon entries, “O”, the great connector of syllables. The story of “O”, the 15th letter and fourth vowel in the alphabet, is an interesting one. Circular in shape like the number zero, the letter “O” surfaces for the first time in writing systems in the Semitic languages some time around 1,000BC as a consonant (the cognate Arabic letter ayin which possibly evolved earlier from a hieroglyphic sign representing an eye). When it reached the archaic Greeks “O” morphed into the vowel we recognise in English today.

Obeliscolychny: a lighthouse [Gk. obelískos (“obelisk”) + –lukhníon (“lamp-stand”)]

Obelise: to condemn as spurious, doubtful or corrupt [Gk. obelós, (“obelus” – a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar)]

Obequitate: to ride about; to ride aimlessly on a horse 🐎 [L. ob + equito (“to ride”)]

Obganiate: to irritate someone by constantly repeating oneself [It. ostinato (“obstinate”; ”persistent”)]

Oblectation: enjoyment; pleasure; satisfaction [L. oblectare (“to delight”)]

Oblivescence: forgetfulness; forgetting [L. oblīv(īscī) (“to forget”) + (–influenced by -escenc)]

Oblocutor: one who denies or disputes [L. obloqui (“to speak against”) + -or]

Obrogate: to alter the law by passing a new law [L. ob- (“toward; “against”) + rogare (“to ask”, “propose”, “propose a law”)]

Obsidional: of, like or pertaining to a siege [L. obsidēre (“beset”; “besiege”; “hem in”)]

Obsolagnium: waning sexual desire due to age [L. ob- (“in the way”) + –sol (?) + Gk. -lagneía (“sexual predilection”) ]

Obtenebrate: to cast a shadow over; to darken as if by shadowing [L. ob-(“to”; “toward”; “over”) + -tenebrae (“darkness”)] (cf. Obumbrate: to overshadow)

Obvert: to turn; to alter; to change the appearance or seeming of [L. ob- + vertere (“to turn”)]

**Obvert:** like the chameleon (source: The Indian Express)

Occlusion: closing or blocking off of an opening, passage or cavity [L. -ob (“in the way”) + -claudere (“to close or shut”)]

Ochlarchy: mob rule [Gk. ochlo (“mob”) + -archy (“rule”)]

Octamerous: having parts in eights [Gk. okta, okt (“eight”) + -meros (“part”)] (cf. Octan: recurring every eight days)

Octothorp: hash sign/tag (also called number sign or pound sign) #️⃣ [Gk. octō- (“eight”) + (?) –thorpe (“field”; “hamlet”; “small village”)] (Word apparently coined by staff at Bells Telephone Labs, late 1960s)

Odalisque: female slave or concubine in a harem (esp of the Ottoman sultan’s) Fr. from Turk. odalık, (orig.) oda (“room”)]

**Odalisque:** painting by Henri Matisse

Odontalgia: toothache 🦷 [Gk. odóus (“tooth”) + –álgos (“pain”)]

Oecist: founder of a colony [Gk. from oîkos house + -istēs (“-ist”). The oíkistēs was the citizen chosen by an ancient Greek polis as the leader of any new colonisation quest

Oecodomic: of, like or pertaining to architecture [(?) Gk. oec (“house”) + L. –dom (“house”) + -ic(?)]

Oenologist: a person who studies wines and winemaking [Gk. oînos (“wine”) + -logia (“study of”)] 🍷

Ogee: a double curve, resembling the letter S (or serpentine shape or sigmoid shape); S-shaped [MidEng ogeus (?)]

Oikofugic: a desire to leave home; an urge to wander or travel [Gk. oîkos (“household”) + L. fugere (“to flee”); coined by psychologist G Stanley Hall, 1904 (cf. Obambulate: (“to wander about”) 🧳 (cf. Oikotropic: the desire to stay put at home)

Oikology: the science of houses and homes, especially in respect of their sanitary conditions [Gk. oîkos + -logy] 🏠

Oikonisus: desire to start a family [Gk. oîkos + -nīsus (“planting one’s feet firmly on the ground”)]

Oleaginous: oily; resembling oil: marked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality [Gk. elaia (“olive”) + -ous]

Olecranon: a bony prominence at the elbow, on the upper end of the ulna; the tip of the elbow; the funny bone [Gk. ōlenē (“elbow”) + -kranion (“skull”)]

Olent: having a scent; fragrant [L. olere (“to smell”)]

Oligophrenia: feeble–mindedness [Gk. olígos (“few”; “scanty”) + -phrēn, (“diaphragm”; “mind”; “heart”)]

Olio: miscellany; potpourri [L. olla (“cooking pot”)]

Ollamh: (or Ollam) (hist) in ancient Ireland, a man of science or learning, considered equivalent to a university professor [Old Irish ollam (“doctor”)]

Ololygmancy: fortune-telling by the howling of dogs 🐕 [Gk. ololuzō (“howl”) + -manteia (“prophecy”)]

**Ololygmancy** (source: mediastorehouse.com.au)

Ombiblous: a person who drinks everything, alcohol/non-alcohol 🍸 [Gk. om (?) + –bibere (“to drink”) coined by HL Mencken]

Ombrophilous: tolerant of large amounts of rainfall [ómbros (“rain”) + -philos (“love”)] 🌧️

Omneity: state of being all; allness [Gk. ómnis (“all”) + -ity]

Omnify: to make large or universal [Gk. ómnis + –fy]

Omniloquent: speaking on all subjects [Gk. ómnis + loqui (“to speak”)]

Omnivert: a personality trait that alternates between introvert and extrovert polarities [L. omnis (“all”) + –versus, -vertere (“invert”)] (cf. Ambivert: similar, but more of a balance between the two extremes)

Omphaloskepia: navel-gazing; the contemplation of one’s navel as an aid to meditation [Gk. omphalós, (“navel”) + sképsis, (“perception”; “reflection”)] (cf. Omphaloslopsychite) 👁️

Omphalos: the navel; a boss; the centre or hub of something [Gk. omphalós (“navel”)]

Onanism: masturbation; gratify oneself through sexual self-stimulation NewLat. onanismus, from Onan, son of Judah (Book of Genesis)]

**Onanism** (image: from R. Crumb’s Illustrated comic Book of Genesis)

Oniomania: uncontrollable urge to shop; a retail therapy preoccupation and compulsion [Gk. ṓnios, (“for sale”) + -mania]

Oneirodynia: nightmare; unpleasant or painful dream [Gk. oneiros (“dream”) + -odynē (“pain”)] (cf. Oneirology: the scientific study of dreams)

Onomasiology: study of nomenclature [Gk. onomázō (“I name”) +‎ -logy]

Onomatous: bearing the author’s name [Gk. onomat, onoma (“name”) + -ous]

Ontocyclic: returning to an infantile state or character in old age [Gk. ont + -kuklós (“circular”)]

Ontological: based upon being or existence [Gk. ontós (“existing”; “being”) + –logia (“study”) + -al] (cf. Ontology: (metaphysics) science of pure being; the nature of things)

Onychophagia: practice/habit of biting one’s fingernails [Gk. ónux (“nail”) + –phagos (“eater”)] 💅

Onymous: having a name [back-formed from “anonymous”]

Ophelimity: economic satisfaction; the ability to please another [Gk. ōphelimos “useful”; “helpful”. Coined by Italian polymath Prof Vilfredo Pareto]

Opiniaster: (someone) obstinately attached to their opinion; (obsol.) an opinionated person [MidFr. opinionastre, opiniatre, from L. opinio (“opinion”; “conjecture”) + -aster]

Opisthosomal: of, like or pertaining to the posterior region of the body [New Latin, from opistho– (“back”; “rear”; “behind”) + –soma (“body”)]

Oppidan: an urbanite, a resident of a town, townsman; (formerly) an inhabitant of a university town not a member of the university or a university student residing in the town but not in the college [L. oppidum (“chiefly walled or fortified town”)]

Opsigamy: one who marries late in life [Gk. opsi (“late”) + –gámos (“marriage”)]

Opsimathy: learning or education that occurs late in life [Gk. opsi + –manthanein (“to learn”)]

Opsiproligery: the ability to still have children late in life [Gk. opsi + (?) -proligery(?)]

Opsomaniac: a person with an extreme enthusiasm for a particular food, esp a delicacy [Gk. opson (“rich food”; “delicacy” + -mania] (cf. Opsophagy: the eating of delicacies)

Orarian: coastal; a coast-dweller [L. ōrārius (“ora”, “of or belonging to the coast”)]

Orgulous: proud; haughty [Anglo-Fr. orguillus, from orguil “pride” of Germanic origin]

Ornithoscelidamania: an obsession with dinosaurs 🦖 [Gk. ornís (“bird”) + –celida(?) + -mania]

Orthographer: a person who is skilled in orthography (the conventions of the spelling system of a language); an expert speller [L. orthós (“straight”) + LateLat. -graphus (“grapher”) + -er]

Oryzovorous: rice-eating 🍚 [Gk. óruza (“rice”) + -vorare, -vorax (“devour”)]

Oscular: of, like or pertaining to the mouth or to kissing [L. ōscul(um) kiss”; “mouth”) + -ar]

Ostiary: doorkeeper; doorman; porter 🚪 [L. from ostium (“door”; “mouth of a river”) + -arius (-ary)]

**Ostiary:** the Porter in *Macbeth* (image: gsaarchives.net)

Otiose: lacking use or effect; producing no useful result; idle, reluctant to work or exert oneself [L. ōtiōsus (“idle”), from ōtium (“ease”)]

Outlier: (orig.) a person whose residence and place of business are at a distance; something (someone) that lies outside the main body or entity; person or thing that is atypical within a particular group, class, or category [Eng. (17th. out + -lier (“to lie”)]

Ovine: sheep-like 🐑 [L. ovis (“sheep”) + -ine]

Ovivorous: egg-eating 🥚 [L. ōvum (“egg”) + –vorare (“to devour”)]

Oxyacaesthesia: extreme sharpness of senses [Gk. oxús “sharp”; “pointed”) + -aisthēsis (“sensation”)] (cf. Oxyblepsia: extremely keen sight/ Oxygeusia: extremely keen sense of taste/ Oxyphonia: sharpness or shrillness of voice)/Oxyesthesia: being extremely sensitive to touch)

Ozostomia: bad breath [Gk. ózein (“smell”) + –stóma (“mouth”)]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “N” Words

December 20, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”Bring your N” game

The 14th letter in the alphabet is “N” (pronounced en). It is the sixth” most-common letter in the English alphabet. The written form of “N” (“n”) traces its genesis to Egyptian hieroglyphics and the symbol for snake 𓆓 . N’s etymological ancestors are the Semitic letter Nu n and the Greek letter Nu. N-words are especially germane to the compilation of the topic of this blog series – including as they do, nomen (meaning “name”), nomenclature (the devising or choosing of names for things) and nomenclator (lexicon; word-list; one who assigns names).

Nacket: meaning>(hist.) a ball-boy at tennis (16th. ; a pert or smart child; snack; light lunch derivation>[Obsolete Scots nacket(t) “caddie at tennis”, from MidFr naquet “valet”)] 🎾 👦🏽

Naiant: (of a fish or marine creature) swimming horizontally [L. natare (“to swim”)] fish 𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Nanoid: dwarf-like [Gk. nanos (“dwarf”) + -oid]

Napoo: to destroy; something finished, ruined, inoperative or dead [from Fr. “there is no more”; “it’s over”]

Narcoleptic: a sudden, involuntary deep sleep; pathological drowsiness [Gk. nárkē (“numbness”) + -, –lēpsia, (“seizure”)]

Naskin: prison [origin unknown] ⛓️⛓️

Nassologist: taxidermist [origin unknown]

**Nassologist** (image: classroomclipart.com)

Nasute: keen-scented; critically discerning; having a big nose [L. nasus (“nose”)] 👃🏽

Natation: the act or art of swimming [L. natare (“to swim”)] (cf. Natatorium: swimming-pool) 🏊‍♀️

Nates: the buttocks [L. natis (“buttocks”)]

Naucify: to despise; to hold in low esteem [L. naucum (“a trifling thing”)]

Naufrageous: in a state of danger or ruin; threatened [L. naufragium (“a shipwreck”) from navis (“ship”)] (cf. Naufrague: shipwrecked person)

**Naufrageous** (photo: live science.com)

Naumachy: mock sea battle [L. navis (“naval”) + Gk. -makhē (“a battle”; “fight”)]

Naupathia: sea sickness [Gk. naus (“ship”) + -pathos (“suffering”)]

Naupegical: of or relating to shipbuilding [Gk. naus + -pegical(?)]

Nautics: art of navigation [Gk. nautēs (“sailor”) + -ics]

Naviform: boat-shaped [L. navis (“ship”) +‎ -form] ⛵

Neanic: of, like or pertaining to the adolescent period: young [Gk. neanias (“young man”) + -ikos]

Neanimorphism: looking younger than one’s actual age [L. neanias (“young man”) + -morphic (“shape”; “form”)] (cf. Nearomatria: a young mother)

Nebbich: colourless; inconsequential person [Yiddish. nebekh (“so what”; “whatever”; “who cares?”)]

Nebulochaotic: a state of being hazy and confused [L. nebulosus (“mist”) + Gk. -khaos (“abyss”; “that which gapes wide open”; “is vast and empty”)]

Nebulist: artist whose style comprises indistinct lines [L. nebulosus + -ist]

Necrographer: obituary writer (cf. Necrologue: obituary) [Gk. nekrós (“dead body”) + –graphos]

Negaholic: habitually pessimistic [neg (from “negative”) + -aholic]

Nelipot: someone who is walking without shoes; going barefoot [dubious (?) – origin unknown] 👣

Nemophilist: one who loves the woods (cf. Nemoricolous: living in forests and groves [Gk. nemos (“grove”) + -philos (“affection”)] 🌳

Neogamist: newlywed [Gk. néos (“new”; “young”) + -gamy]

Neolagnium: puberty [Gk. néos + ?]

Neoteric: recent in origin; modern [from Gk. néos + -teric(?)]

Nephalism: 💯% abstinence from alcohol [Gk. nēphein (“to be sober”; “drink no wine”) + -ismos]

**Nephalism** (image: campaignlive.co.uk)

Nescience: lack of knowledge; [ne- (“not”) + -scire (“to know”)]

Nesiote: living on an island [Gk. (“of islands”)] 🏝️

Nettlesome: irritable; difficult [Old Saxon netila (?) + OE. sum (“one”; “as one, together with”)]

Neutrologistic: expressing neither praise nor disapproval [L. neutralis (“neuter”) + Gk. –logos (“speech”; “word”) +‎ -istic]

Newspaperacious: of a form or style usual in newspapers [coined 1843; first appeared in Fraser’s Magazine]

Nexility: compactness of speech [L. nexus (nectō) (“bind”) + -ity]

Nimrod: a skilful hunter [Hebrew. Nimrōḏ (from hunter-warrior biblical personage in Book of Genesis]

Nippaitaty or Nippitatum: particularly good and strong liquor, esp good good ale [origin unknown] 🍺

Niveous: snowy; white [L. niv, nix (“snow”)] ⛄️

Noctambulist: someone who walks late at night [L. nox, noct (“night”) + –ambulare (“to walk”) + -ist] (cf. Noctivagant: wandering in the night; a night-walker)

Noctidiurnal: comprising one day and one night [L. nocti (“night”) + -dies (“day”) + –urnus (denoting time)]

Noisant: harmful; troublesome; grievous [OF. nuisant (“harmful”; “hurtful”)]

Nomiatrist: a lawyer who specialises in medical cases [Gk. nomos (“law”; “arrangement”) + –iatris (“physician”; “heal or cure”; “treat”; “medical healing”)] ⚖ 🚑 ☤

Nomic: customary; conventional [Gk. nomos (“law”; “custom”) + -ic]

Nomographer: a writer of laws 📝 [Gk. nomos (“law”) + –graphos (“write”; “scribe”)]

Nonage: legal infancy; legal minority; time of immaturity [L. non + -age]

Nonparous: a woman without children; not having given birth [L. non (“not”) + –parus (“bearing”)]

Novenary: based on the number 9 [L. novenus (“nine”) + –arius (“ary”)]

Nosism: use of the Royal “We”; assumption of role of group mouthpiece [L. nos (“we”)]

Nosocomium: (hist. an ancient hospital; hospital (cf. Nosocomial: of, like or pertaining to a hospital) [Gk. nósos (“disease”; “suffering”) +‎ –koméō (“to tend”)] 🏩

Nostrum: medicine of secret composition recommended by its preparer but usually without scientific proof of its effectiveness; a quack medicine or dubious remedy [L. noster (“our” or “ours”)]

Novercaphobia: an irrational fear of one’s step-mother [from L. novus (“new”) + -phobia] (cf. Novercal)

Nudiustertian: relating to the day before yesterday [L. nū̆diū̆stertiānus (“taking place the day before yesterday”) coined by Nathaniel Ward (1647)]

Nullibicity: the state of being nowhere [LateL. nullibi (“nowhere”) (from L. nullus (“null”) + -ibi (“here”; “there”) + -icity] (cf. Nullibiquitous: existing nowhere)

Nullifidian: having no faith or religion; one who is faithless [L. nullus (“null”) + -fides (“faith”) + -an)

Nulliverse: universe devoid or any plan or organising principle [L. nullus + (adapted from) universe. Coined by William James, American philosopher)]

Numinous: arousing spiritual or religious feelings; emotional; mysterious or awe-inspiring [L. numen (“nod of the head”; “divine will”) + -ous]

Numismatist: a person who collects and studies coins and paper currency [L. numisma (“coin”) + -ist] 🪙 💴

**Numismatist** (corporate finance institute.com)

Numquid: an inquisitive person [ L. num (“whether”; “if”) + –quid (“something”)]

Nuncius: messenger (“long”; “large”) + –biota (“life”; “living”)] 🏤

Nuncle: to defraud; to deceive; to claim to be one’s uncle” [ME: modification of “mine uncle”]

Nundinal: of, like or pertaining to a fair or market [L. nundinae Nundine (market day every 9 days in Ancient Rome) + -alis -al]

Nurvill (or Nyrvyl): a little man; dwarf [poss. Norw. nurv (?)]

Nutrice: wet nurse; nurse [ L. nūtrīcem (“nurse”)] (cf. Nutricial: relating to nurses) ℝ☤ℕ

Nyctalopia: night-blindness [Gk. nyct- (“night”) + -al(aós) blind + –ōpia-opia] 🌌

Nycterent: a hunter who hunts at night; a nocturnal hunter [Gk. nycti (“night”) + -ent]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “M” Words

December 11, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Dial “M”

We arrive at “M”, lucky letter number 13, the midway or median point in the Latin alphabet. “M” is also the Roman numeral for 1,000. The “most powerful letter in the world”, according to those renowned linguistic authorities, BMW car manufacturers! “M”’s etymological antecedents are the Semitic mem and the Ancient Greek mu (M). M-words don’t tend to go in for half-measures, there’s a million of them and they are inclined to span the full gamut of dimensions…from “mini” or “micro” up the scale to “macro” or “maxi”.

Mabsoot: meaning>happy derivation>[Arabic/Urdu: mabsut (“happy”; “content”; “satisfied”; “extendedness”)]

Macarism: a beatitude; taking pleasure in another’s joy [Gk. makários (“happy”) + -ism]

Macaronic: muddled or mixed-up (Macaronic Latin is jumbled-up Latin) [It. maccarone (“dumpling”)]

Macerate: to emaciate (someone who fasts and becomes emaciated is a Macerator) [L. macerare (“soften by steeping and soaking”)]

Macilent: lean; excessively thin [L. macer (“meager”; “poor”)] (cf. Marcidity: “great leanness”)

Macrobiote: long-lived organism [Gk. macros (“long”; “large”) + –biota (“life”; “living”)]

Macrocephalous: having a large head [Gk. macros + -keptos, kephalē (“head”; “headed”) + -ous] (cf. Multicapitate: many-headed)

Macrology: much talk but saying little; redundancy; pleonasm [Gk. macros + logós (“talk”)]

Macropodine: of, like or pertaining to kangaroos [Macropod (“Marsupial family”) + -ine] 🦘

Macroscian: one with a long shadow; an inhabitant of polar regions [Gk. macros + -skia (“shadow”) + -an] 👤

**Macroscian** territory (photo: Adobe Stock)

Macrotous: (zool.) having great big ears 👂 [Gk. macros (“long”; “large”) + -ous (“ear”)]

Maculation: the act of spotting or staining [L. macula (“spot”; “stain”)]

Madefy: to moisten or make wet [L. madēre (“to be wet”) + facere (“to make, do”) (cf. Madescent: growing damp; Madid: wet; dank)

Maffick: to celebrate exuberantly and boisterously, esp for a victory [Brit. from the Siege of Mafeking in 2nd Boer War, 1899-1900]

Magnality: a great or wonderful thing; a marvel [L. magnus (“big”; “large”; “great”; “important”)]

Magnicaudate: having a long tail [L. magnus + –cauda (“tail”)]

Magniloquent: speaking in a grand or pompous style [L. magnus + loqui (“to speak”)]

Maidan: open plain; open space near a town [Pers. maidān (“town square”/“field”)]

Maicutician: midwife [origin unknown]

Mainour: stolen goods discovered on a thief’s person or in his or her possession [Old French manœuvre (“manual labour”)]

**Mainour** (image: dictionary.langeek.co)

Malacophonous: soft-voiced; gently spoken [mala(?) + phōnē (“sound”; “voice”)]

Malapert: bold; forward; impudent; saucy [L. male (“badly”) + MidEng. –apert (“insolent”)]

Malfeasance: evil-doing; illegal activities, esp by a public official [L. malus- (“bad”) + -feasance (“doing”; “execution”)]

Malloseismic: suffering from frequent and severe earthquakes [Gk. mallós (?) + -seismic]

**Malloseismic** (image: sms-tsunami-warning.com)

Malversation: corruption in office; corrupt administration; misconduct [L. malus (“bad”) + –vertere (“to turn”)]

Mammetry: idolatry; paganism; idols in collective sense [orig. from Arabic. Muhammad]

Mammiferous: having breasts [L. mamma (“a breast”) + Gk. –ferous (“bearing”)]

Mammothrept: spoiled child [Gk. mámmē (“grandmother”) + –tréphō (“to bring up”)]

Manal: relating to the hand [L. manus (“hand”)]

Mandament: a command or order [L. mandare (“to command”)] (cf. Mandative: of, like or pertaining to commands and government and Mandarism: government with a large bureaucracy)

Mandriarch: founder or leader of a monastic order [Gk. mandare(?) + –arch (“rule”)]

Manducate: to chew or eat [L. mandūcarē (“to chew”, “eat”)]

Manège: the art of horsemanship [It. maneggiare (“to control (a horse”;)]

Manochlous: (also Monoculus) one-eyed person [origin unknown]

Manqué: having had unfulfilled ambitions; failing to achieve expectation [L. manco (“having a crippled hand”; “lacking”; “left-handed” Manicism(?))]

Mansuetude: meekness; tameness: sweetness of temper [L. manus (“hand”) + -suescere (“to accustom”)]

Mansworn: perjured [OldEng. mān (“crime”; “guilt”; “sin”; “false oath” + -swerian (“to swear”)]

Mantology: fortune-telling [Gk. mantis (“prophet”) + -o +-logy]

Manuduction: careful guidance; leading by hand [L. manus + –ductio (“action of leading”)]

Mappemond: medieval map of the world [L. mappa (“map”) + -mundi (“world”)]

Maricolous: living in the sea [L. mar (mare) (“sea”; “ocean”) + -cola (“inhabitor”) + -ous] (cf. Marigenous: produced by the sea) 🌊

Maritodespotism: ruthless domination of one spouse by another within a marriage (usually by the husband) [L. marītus (“husband”) + –despótēs (“lord”; “master”; “owner”) +-ism]

Martymachlia: sexual arousal resulting from having others watch a sexual act being performed (a form of paraphilia) [origin unknown]

Mascaron: grotesque, frightening (usually human, sometimes chimeric) face on a door-knocker, originally to supposedly ward off evil spirits [LateLat. mascara (“mask”) + -on]

Maskirovka: (hist.) Soviet use of deception or camouflage as military stratagem [Rus. mácka (“disguise”; “mask”)]

Mattoid: (Psych.) a person displaying eccentric behaviour and mental characteristics that approach the psychotic; someone bordering between sanity and insanity [It. matto (“insane”) + -oid (“likeness or resemblance”)]

Maturescent: becoming mature [L. maturus (“ripe”) + -cent]

Matutinal: of, occurring in or relating to morning [LateLat. matutinalis (Roman goddess of morning — see following entry)]

Matutolagnia: antemeridian (am) sexual desire [L. Mātūta, (Roman goddess of morning or dawn) + Gk. –lagneía (“sexual predilection”)]

Matutolypea: getting up on the wrong side of bed; the state of being in a bad mood and easily annoyed, esp in the morning [L. Mātūta, from Gk. lúpē (“sadness, suffering, affliction”) ]

Mechanolatry: worship of machines [Gk. mēkhanikós (“pertaining to machines or contrivance, mechanic”; “ingenious”; “inventive”) + –latreía (“service”; “worship”)]

Medianic: of, like or pertaining to spiritualists, mediums and prophets (origin unknown)

Medicaster: quack doctor; “charlatan” [L. medicus (“a doctor”; “a physician “; “a surgeon”) + –aster (“little”; “petty”; “partial”; “incomplete”]

**Medicaster** (source: wisconsinhistory.org)

Megathermic: surviving only in tropical climates [Gk. mégas (“great”; “large”; “mighty”) + –thermal (“to heat”; “warm”)]

Mehari: a type of fast-running dromedary camel, used for racing or transportation [Arab. mahara, (“to be deft or skillful”)] 🐪

Meliorism: the belief that human progress is a real concept, improvement in the world can be made by human intervention and effort [L. melior (“better”) + -ism]

Melliloquent: speaking harmoniously or sweetly [L. mel, mellis (“honey”) + –loqui (“to speak”)] cf. Mellisonant: pleasing to the ear; sweet-sounding[L. –sonare (“to sound”)]; cf. Mellivorous: honey-eating) 🍯

Melomania: abnormal fondness for music [Gk. mélos (“musical phrase”; “melody”; “song”) + -mania] 🎵 🎶

Mendaciloquence: lying speech [L. mendācitās (“falsehood”) + -loquor (“to speak”)]

Mensal: of, like or pertaining to the dinner-table; monthly, occurring once a month [L. mensis. (“month”)]

Mercedary: a hirer, one who hires staff; pertaining to the giving or receiving of wages [L. mercēdārius (?)]

Meretricious: apparently attractive, esp in a flashy or vulgar way, but having no real value; characteristic of a prostitute [L. meretrīx (“harlot, prostitute”) from mereō (“earn, deserve, merit”) + -trīx (“female agent”)]

Mésalliance: unsuitable marriage; marriage with a socially-inferior partner [Fr. mésallier (“to misally”)]

Mesomorph: person with a compact, muscular build [Gk. mesos (“middle” ) + -morphē (“form”; “shape”)]

Metagnostic: incomprehensible; beyond understanding [Gk. meta (“beyond”) + –gnōstós (“known”)]

Metempirical: beyond the scope of knowledge [Gk. meta (“after” or “beyond”) + –empeirikós “based on observation (of medical treatment”; “experienced”) + -al]

Methomania: morbid craving for alcohol; alcoholism [Gk. méthu, (“wine”) +‎ -mania] (cf. Methysis: drunkenness) 🥃

Métier: profession; occupation; calling; business [OldFr. mistier, mestier (“duty”; “craft”; profession”)]

Metonym: (descriptive) name used instead of the (proper) name, as a substitute because it is close associated with it (eg, the White House for the US Presidential (POTUS) Residence/Office of the Executive [Gk. meta (“among”; “with”; “after”) + –onyma (“name”)]

Metoposcopy: foreign-telling or judgement of character divined by the lines of the forehead [Gk. meto (“measure”) + –scopéō (“examine”; “inspect”)]

Metronym: system of kinship and naming that follows the female line [Gk. mėtēr (“mother”) + -name]

Micropolis: small city [Gk. mikros (“small”) + –polis (“city”)]

Microsomatous: having a small body; small-framed [Gk. mikros + sōma (“body”)] (cf. Macrosomatous) (cf. Mignon: small and dainty)

Mien: air or look; manner; bearing [ME. demean (“ to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner”)]

Militaster: soldier without skill or ability; pretender to possess military expertise but lacks actual experience or knowledge. [L. militaris (“of soldiers”; “warlike”) + –aster)]

Milquetoast: very timid; very unassertive person [from character Caspar Milquetoast of the comic strip The Timid Soul (1920s on)…fictional name derived from US dish “milk toast”]

Minatory: threatening; having a menacing quality [L. minari (“to threaten”)]

Mimetic: imitative; of, like or pertaining to mimicry [Gk. mimos (“mime”)]

Minutious: (or Minutiose) paying undue attention to minutiae [L. Latin minutia (“thorough”; “detailed”) + -ous]

Miothermic: of, like or pertaining to temperature condition on earth at the present time [Gk. mi + -therm (“heat”) +-ic] 🔥

Mirabiliary: miracle worker [L. mīrābilis (“wonderful”; “marvelous”)] (cf. Mirabilia: wonders)

Misocainea: hatred of new ideas [Gk. miso (“hatred”; “hater”) + –kainos (“new”; “recent”)]

Misocapnic: an aversion to smoking, tobacco and its smoke [miso- +‎ capno- (kapnós (“smoke”)] 🚭 (cf. Acapnotic: someone who doesn’t smoke; a non-smoker)

Mizmaze: labyrinth; bewilderment [miz + poss. OE. maes (“to confound”; “confuse”)]

Mnemonist: one from whose memory nothing is erased; someone who can memorise long lists of data [ Gk. mnēmē (“memory”; “a remembrance”; “record”) + -ist]

Mofussil: provincial; rural; non-urban regions [Bengali mophośśol (“to divide”; “classify”]

Moiety: each of two parts into which a thing can be divided; a part or portion (esp lesser) [L. medius (“middle”; “half”)]

Moirologist: professional mourner; a hired wailer [Gk. moîra (“fate”) + –lógos (“speech”; “oration”)]

Mollescent: softening; tending to soften [L. mollis (“soft”) + -cent]

Momus: satirist; critic [Gk. Momus (Greek myth. personification of satire and mockery)]

Mongery: the trading or trafficking of some commodity of a specific type (eg, “ironmongery”; “fishmongery”); a person who tries to stir up or spread something usually of a petty or discreditable nature (eg, “scandal-mongery”) [Gk. mánganon (“contrivance”; “means of enchantment”)]

Mononym: a person’s name consisting of the one, single word, typically a first name sans a surname [Gk. monós (“alone”; “only”; “sole”) + -name]

Monopolylogue: dramatic work in which one actor plays many roles [neologism coined from “monologue” Gk. monólogos (“speaking alone”) + –poly (“many”)]

**Monopolylogue** (photo: internetshakespeare.uvic.ca)

Mopsical: short-sighted; mope-eyed; purblind; (fig.) stupid [origin unknown]

Mouchard: a police spy, esp in a Francophone country; an undercover investigator [Fr. mouche (“a fly”) + -ard] 🪰

Motherlode: (alt. Mother lode) a rich source of something; (geol.) a principal vein of an ore or mineral [L. māter + MidEng –lode (“a burden” (orig. “a way”; “a course”)

Mournival: a set of four things; (arch.) a hand of four (aces, kings, queens, knaves) in card game Gleek [MidFr mornifle (?)]

Mugwump: (hist.) dissident Republicans (1884); one who politically-neutral, aloof or independent of party politics [from Amerindian (Massachusett) “war leader”]

Mulctuary: punishable by a fine [L. mulcta (“fine”)]

Muliebrile: womanly; feminine [L. mulier (“woman”) (cf. Muliebrity: womanhood)

Multanimous: having a many-sided mind [L. multus (“many”) + –animus (“mind”)] (cf. Multeity: manifoldness; very great numerousness)

Multifarious: having great diversity; manifold [L. multi + -farius (“diverse”)]

Multiloquence: talkative; garrulous; using many words [L. multi– + –loquēns (“speaking, talking”)]

Multiparous: (of a woman) having given birth to multiple offspring [L. multi + -parere (“to give birth to”; “bring into being”)]

Multipotent: having the power to do many things [L. multi + -potis, pote (“able”)] (cf. Multivious: offering many different pathways; leading in many directions; and Multivocal: having many meanings]

Mumpsimus: adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language out of habit or obstinacy; a person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice [coined erroneously by an illiterate mass-priest in place of the correct Latin term sumpsimus…despite being corrected he stubbornly refused to change his choice of words]

Munificence: magnificent liberality in giving; bestowing great generosity [L. munus (“gift”; “duty”; “service”) + -cence]

Mussitation: murmuring; grumbling [L. mussitāre (“to mutter”)]

Mycterism: sneering; rhetorical sarcasm or irony [Gk. muktērízō, (“I sneer”) + -ism]

Myrmecoid: ant-like, resembling an ant [Gk. -myrmēk (“ants”) + -oeidēs (“oid”) / Myrmex, Gk goddess of ants] 🐜

Myrmidon: a follower or subordinate of a powerful person; one who carries out orders unquestioningly (typically unscrupulous) [Gk. Myrmidon (from Greek myth.) eponymous ancestor of the Myrmidons]

Mysophobic: someone with a pathological fear of contamination and germs; a germophobe; a compulsive hand-washer [Gk. mýsos (“pollution”; “defilement”)] + -phobia] 🦠

Mysteriosophy: system of knowledge concerning secrets and mysteries [L. mustḗrion, (“mystery”) + -sophy (“knowledge or wisdom”)]

Mythogenesis: origin of myths [Gk. mûthos (“myth”) + –génesis (“origin”; “source”; “beginning”)] (cf. Mythoclast: destroyer of myths; Mythopoeic: giving rise to myths)

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🄰🄳🄳🄴🄽🄳🅄🄼

Malaxophobia: a morbid fear of seduction, love play or love games (esp in women)[Gk. malax– (?) (cf. Sarmassophobia)

Matronolagnia: an attraction to older women, esp women who have children [L. māter (“mother”) + –lagneía (“lust”)]

Microlipet: someone who gets upset about trivial stuff [micro (“small”) + ME -lippē(?) (“a little bit”(?)]

Misopolemiac: a hater of war and strife [miso (“hatred”) + pólemos (“war”)]

Misoxene: one who hates strangers [miso (“hatred”) + xénos (“stranger”)] (cf. Xenophobe)

Monomath: someone who knows all about a single subject and nothing else [Gk. monós + –máthēma (“that which is learnt”)]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “L” Words

December 5, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”L”’s bells

“L” is the twelfth letter of the alphabet while doubling as the Roman numeral for 50. The letter “L”’s ancestors can be traced to the Semitic lamedh, which may have derived from an earlier symbol representing an ox goad, and the Greek lambda (λ), itself adopted from the Phoenician letter lamed. In English “L”/“l” represents a voiced alveolar lateral continuant. “L” is for “logomaniacs”, “logolepts”, “logophiles”, “logonik”, call them by whatever label you prefer, the following are some worthy additions to the vocabulary of word aficionados from the unorthodox “L” word department.

Labeorphilist: <meaning> a collector of beer bottles, but also of their accoutrements – brand labels, can openers, books on the topic <derives from>[Gk. origin unknown] (cf. Tegestologist who collects beer mats)

Labiomancy: lip-reading; a form of divination by reading lips [MedLat. labiālis (“pertaining to the lips”) + -manteíā (“divination”)] (cf. Labrose: having large or thick lips)

Laconicum: sauna, specifically a dry sweat room; a room in an ancient Roman baths used for hot-air or a steam bath [L. laconicus from Gk. lakōn (“laconic”)]

Lactiferous: forming or conveying milk [LateLat. lac (“milk”) +‎ –fer (“carrying”; “bearing”)] 🥛

Lacuna: an unfilled space; a gap; a cavity especially in the bone [L. lacus (“lake” & lacuna (“pool”)]]

Laeotropic: turning to the left or anticlockwise [Gk. laiós (“left”) + –tropḗ, (“turn”; “solstice”; “trope”).] (cf. Laevoduction: movement leftwards)

Lagostoma: hare-lip [Gk. lagos, (“hare”) + –stoma, (“mouth”)]”; “emotion”; “therapy”)]

Lairwite: (also Legruita) (hist.) fine paid to the lord of the manor by his villein in instances where the serf’s daughter committed adultery or fornication (in medieval times it was a punishment for sexual misconduct while maintaining the lord’s authority over his female villeins) [origin unknown]

Lambent: flickering; softly radiant; marked by brilliance of expression [L. from lambere (“to lick up”)] (cf. Lucent: glowing; giving off light)

Laodicean: being lax or lukewarm in one’s religious beliefs; indifferent to religion or politics [L. from Laodicea (“a city in Asia Minor”) +‎ -an]

**Laodicean:** the ancient city of Laodicea

Lapidate: to stone someone to death [L. lapidātus (“to throw stones at”)] 🪨

Lapidicolous: living under a rock (or stone) [L. lapis (“stone”) + -colere (“to inhabit”)]

Latrocination: the act of robbing or pillaging from someone; overcharging people [L. Latrocinium (“highway robbery”)]

Lavacultophilia: the desire to stare at someone in a bathing suit [L. lavere (“to bathe”) + –culto (uncertain) + -philia] 🩱

Lecanoscopy: to hypnotise yourself by staring into a pool of water, eg, in a basin [Gk. lekane “dish-pan” + –scopein (“examine;” “look at”)]

Lector: a lecturer or (academic) reader at university (UK); a reader of lessons in a church service [L. legere (“reader”)] (cf. Letrice: a female reader in church)

Leguleian: like a lawyer; underhand and legalistic; a petty and argumentative lawyer [L. lēguleius (“pettifogger”) from lēx, lēgis (“law”)]

Lethologica: inability to recall a precise word or name for something or someone [Gk. lḗthē (“forgetfulness”) + -lógos “word”]

Levirate: marriage of a widowed woman to her deceased husband’s brother (practiced in particular cultures) [L. levir (“brother-in-law”)]

Lexiphanicism: showing off by using pretentious words or language (in fact what this blog post may be accused of doing!) [Gk. Lexiphanes (a character in the works of Lucian) +‎ -ic]

Libidinist: a lewd or lustful person; oversexed lecher [L. libidinor (“I indulge”) {🔜 “libido”} +‎ -ist] (cf. Donjuanism: (esp of a man) exhibiting compulsive sexual behaviour)

**Libidinism** AKA Donjuanism (image: classical-music.com)

Librocubucularist: someone who likes to read in bed [L. liber (“book”) + cubiculum (“bedroom”), from cubō (“lie down”)] 📕 🛌

Limbate: possessing a border [L. limbatus (“bordered”) + -atus (“-ate”] (🔙 Limbus: border)

Litterateur: professional writer; a person interested in and knowledgeable about literature [L. littera (“letter”; “writing”)] ✍️🪶

Logicaster: a person who is pedantic in argument; a petty logician [Gk. lógos (“speech”; “reason”) + -aster (“little”; “petty”; “partial”; “incomplete”)]

Logodaedalus: artificer in words; one manipulates words with skill or cunning; skilled in coining words [Gk. logos (“word”) + –daidalous (“cunning worker; “skilful”)]

Logomachy: a battle about words; a verbal war [Gk. logos (“word”) + –machesthai (“to fight”)]

Logorrhoea: extreme and overwhelming prolixity; verbal diarrhoea [Gk. logos (“word”) + –rhoe (“to flow”)]

Longanimity: capacity to suffer patiently; forbearance [LateLat. longanimis (“patient”; “forbearing”) +‎ -tās]

Longiloquent: extremely long-winded [L. longus (“long”) + loquent (“talking”)] (cf. Loquacious: characterised by excessive talk; wordy; garrulous)

Lotologist: someone who collects lottery tickets as a hobby [origin unknown]

Lubberland: a mythical paradise reserved for the lazy [poss. from Swed. lubber (“fat lazy fellow” + -land] (cf. Cockaigne: an imaginary land of plenty, supposedly a medieval paradise of extreme luxury, comforts and easy life)

Lucubrator: a person who studies during the night [L. lūcubrō (“work by candlelight”) + -or] 🌃

Lupanarian: pertaining to a brothel [ L . lupanar (“brothel”), from lupa (“prostitute”; literally “she-wolf”), from lupus (“wolf”)](cf. Lupine: pertaining to wolves) 🐺

Lustrum: period of five years; (hist.) a ceremonial purification of the people of Rome undertaken every five years [L. lūstrum (“a purificatory sacrifice”)]

Lychnobite: a person who works at night and sleeps during the day [Gk. lúkhnos (“lamp”) and bíos (“life”)🏮

Lygerastia: a condition of someone who is amorous only when the lights are turned out [Gk. lyge (“twilight”) + –erastes (“lover”)] (cf. Amaurophilia: a preference for having sex blind-folded or in total darkness)

Lysistrataphobia: (path.) a fear that women will subvert men and take over the world [Gk. from Lysistrátē, (“Army Disbander”), 5th cent. BC play by Aristophanes about a woman (Lysistrataphobia) who hatches a plan to have Athenian and Spartan women withhold sexual privileges from their men-folk until the men bring the Peloponnesian War to an end]

**Lysistrataphobia** (image: Era Journal)

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “K” Words

December 1, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Kafkaesque “K’s”

The letter “K” is derived from the Semitic letter kaph, possibly from an earlier Egyptian hieroglyph for a hand. In Greek it became “kappa”, and in that form passed into the Roman alphabet. In English it generally represents a voiceless velar plosive consonant with the same sound as the “hard” form of “c”, as in kitten. That’s the skinny on how the letter “K” found its way into the English alphabet, now for word nerds here’s a selection of uncommon, archaic, quirky, even strange and weird words which begin with “K”.

Kakistocracy: <meaning>government by the worst, less qualified and most unscrupulous citizens <derived from>[Gk. kákistos, (“worst”) + -cracy]

Kalogram: a monogram which uses the person’s full name [origin unknown)

Kalokagathia: combination of good and beautiful [Gk. kalós kaì agathós (“beautiful and good”)] (cf. Kalopsia: the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are)

Kareeza: sexual intercourse which avoids climax (a method of coitus reservatus) [It. carezza (“caress”) neologism coined 1896 by US obsterician Alice Stockham]

Katabasis: (myth.) Ancient Greek hero journeying to the underworld; a downward journey; a retreat especially a military one [Gk. katá “”downwards”) + –baínō (“go”)] cf. Anabasis (a going or marching up; esp a military advance (from book by Xenophon)

Katoptronophile: a person aroused by having sex in front of mirrors [Gk. katopron (“mirror”) + –phile] 🪞

Katzenjammer: confusion; uproar; a severe headache due to a hangover [Germ. katze (“cat”) + –jammer (“distress”) (19th. popularised by American cartoon “Katzenjammer Kids”]

Kenodoxy: the love, study or desire of vainglory [Gk. kenos (empty” + -doxy]

Kerdomeletia: an excessive desire for material wealth [Gk. kerdo (“gain”; “profit”) + unknown origin]

Kinesipathy: the practice of treating illness with exercise [Gk. kinēsis (“movement”; “motion”) + -pathy (“suffering”; “emotion”; “therapy”)]

Kirkbuzzer: someone who robs churches [Nth MidEng. Kyrie (“church”) + -buzzer)] ⛪️

Klebenleiben: a pathological reluctance to stop talking about a particular subject [Germ. kleben (“to glue”) ?+ unknown]

Kleptocracy: government by thieves; government by people who exploit their hold on power to steal the country’s resources [Gk. kleptēs (“thieves”) + -cracy]

Korophilia: an attraction to young men or boys [kóros (“boy”; “youth”) + -philia]

Kosmokrator: (also Cosmocrator) the ruler of the world [Gk. kosmo (“world”) + –kratos (“the god and personification of power and strength”)]

**Kosmokrator:** a mantle ascribed to Alexander the Great

Kouros: statue of young Greek nude male [Gk. kouros (“youth”; “boy, esp of noble rank”)]

Kraken: enormous, legendary sea monster (said to have appeared off the coast of Norway) [Norway. krake (“malformed or overgrown, crooked tree”)]

Kritarchy: rule by judges in Ancient Israel [Gk. kritēs (“a judge”)]

Krukolibidious: a person who’s aroused by staring at someone’s crotch [origin unknown]

Ktenology: science of putting people to death [Coined by US psychiatrist and neurologist Leo Alexander, etymology unknown)]

Kurveyor: (South Africa: a trader who transports goods by ox cart); a travelling merchant who sells dry goods from a cart [Dutch. origin unknown)]

Kyle: narrow strait or channel of water between two separate formations of land [Scot. Gaelic. caol (“narrow”; “thin”; “strait”) ]

Kyphorrhinos: humped nose [origin unknown] 👃🏽

Kyriology: (also Kyriolexy) the use of literal or simple, expressions rather than figurative or obscure ones [Gk. kúrios (“literal”) + -logy]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “J” Words

November 28, 2023Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, World history,Ancient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”J”-curve words

The letter “J” (pronounced “Jay”), the 10th letter of the Latin alphabet, has got an interesting history as a Johnny-come-lately “bookend” of sorts…”J” is the English alphabet’s “Hawaii”, the last to achieve letterhood. This 26th and final letter was introduced as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing “I”. Phonetically, the vowel “I” and the consonant “J” used to sound the same and were interchangeable until a clear phonetic distinction between the two was made by an Italian grammarian (GG Trissino) in 1524. When Roman numerals were in their heyday “J” or “j” were used on the end of a sequence of numerals…so for “123”, instead of writing CXXIII, it be could rendered as CXXIIJ. Here’s a scattering of “J” words unlikely that you will find popping up in everyday intercourse.

Jabberwock: nonsense; gibberish [from “Jabberwocky”, dragon-like creature in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1871)]

Jactancy: boastfulness; vainglorious boasting [L.jactare (“to throw”; “speak out”; “boast”)]

Janiform: having two faces looking in opposite directions [L. Janus “”Roman god”) + –fōrmis (“having the form of”)]

Janizary: (also Janissary) a follower or supporter; (hist.) member of Ottoman Turkish infantry, (14—(19th. [Turk.Yeni (“new”) + -çeri (“troops”)]

Jargonaut: one who uses excessive jargon [comb. Of “jargon” and Gk. -naut (“sailor”)]

. Jejunator: one who fasts [L. Jejunus (“fasting”) + -ator]

Jejune: dull; insipid; lacking in substance; superficial; naive; simplistic (of writing or ideas) dry and uninteresting [L. Jejunus (“fasting” – ie, being empty in a figurative sense)]

Jentacular: relating to breakfast; specifically to one taken early in the morning or immediately upon getting up [L. from ientō (“to have breakfast “) 🍳

Jeremiad: prolonged complaint; angry or cautioning harangue; lamentation; catalogue of woes [Fr. jérémiade, after Biblical prophet Jeremiah (Old Testament)]

Jesuitical: cunning; equivocating; quibbling [Fr. jsuitique (pertaining to the Jesuits)] (behaviours once attributed to the Jesuits)

Jovialist: a convivial person [L. ioviālis (“relating to the Roman god Jupiter”) + -ist]

Jumboism: admiration for bigness [(19th. circus elephant, Jumbo + -ism]

Jumentous: smelling strongly of horse urine or of some similar beast of burden [L. jumentum (“yoke-beast”)]

Jurisconsult: legal expert [L. jus (jur) (“law”) + consultus (“skilled”)]

Juvenescence: state of growing younger [L. juvenis (“young”) + -cence (?)]

Juvenilia: the works (literary, artistic, musical) of one’s youth (cf. Juvenal: a youth) [L. iuvenīlia (“of or pertaining to youth”)

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “I” Words

November 24, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

The odd word and “I”

I, that single vertical stroke, is the most selfish letter in the entire English alphabet. It’s all about “I”, “I”,”I”! By which we mean “me”, “me”, “me”. The opposite of “U”, its more outward-looking brother vowel. No surprise we get “individual”, “idiosyncratic”, “intransigent” and “IPhone” from the letter “I”…”I” is all about “Isness”. Linguistically, “I” corresponds to the Semitic yod (early symbol for hand?) and the Greek iota (I). Anyway, having impugned I’s reputation, let’s accentuate the positive side of the letter—also the Roman numeral for “1”—by feeding the word-maniacs and lexical tragics out there with a sampler of I-words almost none of which succumb to the pitfall of self-centredness.

Iamatology: <meaning> study of remedies [<derivation>Gk. iama (“remedy”) + -logy]

Iatrarchy: government by physicians) [Gk. iatros (“doctor”; “healer”) + –arkhein (“to rule”)] (cf. Iatramelia: medical neglect)

Ichthyic: of resembling or pertaining to fish [Gk. ikhthús (“fish”) + Eng. -ic]🐠

Ichnogram: footprint [Gk íkhnos (“foot imprint”) + -gramma (“that which is drawn”)] 🐾 👣

Iconolagny: sexual stimulation from pictures or statues [Gk. eikon (“likeness”; “image”, “portrait”) + –lagnia (“lust”)]

Ideocrassis: intrinsic peculiarity or unique feature [Gk. ideo + uncertain (poss. Pre-Greek)

Ideopraxis: one compelled to carry out an idea [Gk. ideo (“idea”) + –praxis “doing”)] 💡

Idioglossia: private, idiosyncratic language developed between children [Gk. ídios “own”, “personal”, “distinct”) + -glôssa (“tongue”)]

Idiolect: distinctive, individual form of speech [Gk. ídios “own”, “personal”, “distinct”) + légō (“I speak”)]

Impecunious: little or no money [L. pecūnia (“money”) + -ōsus (“full of”)]

Imperator: ruler; military commander [L. imperare (“”to order”; “command”)]

**Imperator** source: http://www.roman-empire.net/army/army-pictures.html

Ineluctable: irresistible or inescapable [L. in (“not”) + -eluctari (“struggle out”)]

Incivism: neglect of duty as a citizen [Fr. incivisme (“non-compliance”; “anti-social behaviour”)]

Incondite: not well assembled; poorly constructed; unpolished [L. un (in) (“not”) + -conditus (“to put in”; “restore”)]

Incult: uncultivated; coarse [L. in + –cultus (“to till”; “cultivate”)]

Incunabulist: (cf. Incunabulum) one who collects early books [L. in (“into”) + -cunae (“cradle”) + Eng. -ist] 📚

Infelicious: unhappy, unlucky [Gk. in (“not”) + L. -felicitas (“happiness, fertility,”)]

Infonaut: a voyager in cyberspace/virtual reality; a frequent or habitual user of the internet [ “info” from “information” [L. īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”) + Gk. –nautēs (“sailor”)]

Infracaniniphile: someone who champions or favours the underdog [Neologism, L. infra (“below, under, beneath”) + -canino (“dog) + -phile (“to prefer”)

Interamnian: situated between or enclosed by rivers [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) +‎ amnis (“river”)]🏞️

Intercolline: situated between hills [L. inter “between”; “amid”) [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) +‎ coll (“hill”) + Eng. -ine]

Intercrural: the area between one’s legs [L. inter (“between”; “amid”) + -crūs (“leg”)]

Interstices: small spaces (figuratively as well as literally) [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) +‎ –stes (“standing”)

Irenic: peaceful; conducive to peace; non-confrontational (cf. Irenology: the study of peace [Gk. eirēnē (“peace”) from Eirene, Greek goddess of peace] ☮️

Iridal: of, like or pertaining to the rainbow [origin unknown]

Irresiant: having no residence [origin unknown]

Irrison: the act of laughing at another [origin unknown]

Isagogic: introductory (cf. Isagoge: academic introduction to a subject, chiefly to do with Christian theology) [Gk. eisagōgē (“lead-in”) + -ics)]

Isorropic: (geom.) of equal value [Gk. isos (“equal to”; “the same as”; “equally divided”) + –rropic (?)]

Ithyphallic: indecent; immoral; esp a statue with the representation of an erect penis [Gk. ithúphallos, “Bacchic phallus,” lit. “straight penis” + -ic)]

Itinerarian: traveller [Neologism: Late Lat. Itinerari (“to journey”) + an]

Ivresse: drunkenness; intoxication [OldFr. ivre (“drunk;” “inebriated”) + –esse (fem. form of noun)]

Izzard: an archaic word for Z [OFr. et zede (lit. “and zed”)]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “H” Words

November 23, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

”H” days are here again

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “H” Words

H, the whispering onomatopoeic sound whose pronunciation is debated by different tribes of Anglophone peoples…is it “Aitch” or “Haitch”? Well, it depends to some extent on your linguistic-cultural sub-group and which national flag you fly under. “H” came to the Latin alphabet from the Semitic cheth via the Greek eta (Η), which possibly derived from an early symbol for a fence. Words starting with the letter “H”, however you say it, can run the gamut of extremes, at one pole they can be “hyper” (high, beyond, above normal, excessive), at the other end they can be “hypo” (beneath, below normal, under) Here’s some seldom-uttered “H” words you may not have not encountered before.

Habilatory: <meaning> of, like or pertaining to clothes or dressing (cf. Habile: dextrious; adroit) <derivation> [MedLatin habitualis (“pertaining to habit or dress”)]

Habromania: a form of delusional insanity characterised by cheerful or joyous imaginings [ Gk. habros (“graceful”? + -mania]

Haemathermal: warm-blooded (cf. Haematic: blood-coloured) [Gk. haîma “blood” + –therme (“heat”)]

Hagiocracy: government by holy men (cf. Theocracy) [Gk. hagios (“holy”; “saint”) + -cracy]

Hagridden: worried or tormented, as by a witch; affected by nightmares or anxieties [OldEng. hægtesse, hægtis (“a fury”, “witch”) + -ride (“that has ridden”)🧙

Halibiotic: like or pertaining to the entirety of life under the sea [Gk. hali (“indication of salt or the sea” + bio (“life”) + -ic (“like”)](cf. Halieutics: the study of fishing) halieutikós (alieutikós), (“of or about fishermen”)] 🐠 🎣

Hamartia: a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine (Gk tragedy, Aristotle Poetics) [Gk. hamartánein (“to miss the mark”)]

Hamlet’s **Harmartia** (source: themarginalian.org/)

Hapax: word or expression which occurs only once within a given context (eg, in an author’s oeuvre; in a single text) [Gk. translit. from “being said once”)]

Haptic: of, like or pertaining to the sense of touch [Gk. haptesthai “to touch”)]

Haussmannize (or Haussmannise): to destroy the old in order to build the new; to rebuild an area , esp on a massive scale [coined after Baron Haussmann, 19th. French public official]

Hawkshaw: detective (cf. Shamus) [19th. coinage, from play “The Ticket of Leave Man”] 🕵🏾

Hebdomadally: every week [Gk. hepta (“seven”) (Hebdomad = period of 7 days) [

Hebetic: of, like or pertaining to puberty [Gk. hēbē (“youth”) + –tēs (“agent”) + –ikon]

Hecatomb: slaughter of 💯 (people, animals, etc); (hist.) in Rome and Ancient Hellas, a public sacrifice of 100 oxen [Gk. hekaton (“hundred”) + –bous (“ox”)

Hedonics: part of ethics or psychology dealing with pleasure (cf. Hedonism) [Gk. hēdon(é) (“pleasure”) + –ikon]

Heliolatry: sun worship (cf. Heliosis: exposure to the sun; sunburn) [Gk. hēlio (“sun”) + –latry (“worship”)] 🌅

Helixophile: someone who collects corkscrews [Gk. hélix (“something twisted or spiral”) + -phile]

**Helixophile:** collector-mania for the humble corkscrew

Hellion: a rowdy or mischievous person, esp a child who behaves thus [Nth Eng/Scot. hallion (“scamp, worthless fellow”)]

Hemiolic: based of a ratio of 3:2 [Gk. hēmiolios (from hemisus “half”) + Eng -ic)]

Henotic: tending to unify or reconcile; promoting harmony [Gk. henōtikós (“serving to unite”)]

Heptamerous: divide into parts of seven [Gk.heptá (“seven”) + -merēs (“having parts”)]

Heresiarch: leader of a heretical movement [Gk. hairesíarchēs (“leader of a school or sect”) + –archēs)

Hereticaster: a petty or contemptible heretic [heretic + L.-aster (“little, petty, partial, incomplete”) cf. Criticaster (“a petty or contemptible critic”)]

Hermetic: of, like or pertaining to sorcery and alchemy (mod. sense: (1) seal or close completely airtight) (2] solitary) [Gk. From mythological god Thrice-great Hermes, via MedL hermeticus]

Heterist (alt. Hetaerist): one who indulges in extra-marital sex; a general system of temporary and continued sexual relations outside wedlock (concubinage) [Gk.hetaira (“female companion”) + -ismos]

Heteroclite: one who deviates from the ordinary forms or rules; irregular; an abnormal thing or person [Gk. héteros (“other”; “different”) + –klinō (“lean”; “incline”)]

Heterophemy: accidental use of word different to that meant [Gk. héteros (“other”; “different”) + –phemia (“speech”; “talk”)]

“Arthur Daley” from TV’s *Minder*: a skilful exponent of the art of **Heterophemy**

Heterotrichosis: having hair of varied or mixed colours [Gk. héteros (“other”; “different”) + -trichōsis (“growth of hair”)]

Heuristic: enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves [Gk. heuriskein (“find”)]

Hexamerous: divide into parts of six [(Gk. hexa (“six”) + -merēs (“having parts”)]

Hibernaculum: winter retreat; (zool.) a place where an animal seeks refuge from winter (eg, a cave for members of the Ursidae family) [L. hibernāculum (“tent for winter quarters”)

Hidrotic: causing or exuding sweat [Gk. hidrōs (“sweat”)]

Highbinder: a scheming or corrupt politician; a swindler or gangster; a ruffian [Amer. Highbinders, Chinese gang in NYC (19th.]

**Highbinders** gang depicted in comic book form

Hipparchy: rule or control of horses (cf. Hippoid: equine, Hippodamist: horse-tamer) [Gk. hippo (“horse”) + –archy (“rule”)]🐎

Hirci: armpit hair [Proto-Finnish. hirci, poss. from L hirtus (“hairy”, “shaggy”)] (cf. Hircine: “goat-like”)]

Hodiernal: of, like or pertaining to the present day [L. hodiernus from hodie (“today”) + Eng. -al].

Hodometry: measurement of the distance of a sea voyage (cf. Horometry: time measurement) [?uncertain + –metrein (“to measure”)]

Hodophile: a lover of travel; a travel aficionado [Gk. hodos (“journey”; “road”; “travel” + -philia (“love”)]🛬

Holobenthic: passage of entire life in the deep ocean [Gk. holo (“whole”) + -bénthos (“the depths”)]

Holocryptic: inscrutable; undecipherable [Gk holo (“whole”) + –krúptō (“to hide”)]

Homiletics: the art of preaching [Gk. homilein (“converse with”; “consort”] (cf. Eng Homily)

Hominiform: shaped like a human; of human form [L. homo (“male human”) + -form]

Homnivorous: eating humans [L. homo + –vorous (“eating”; “devouring”)]

Homuncule: little artificial person [L. homunculus (“little person”) + –culus, (“diminutive”)]

Houghmagandy: fornication [Scot. origin uncertain]

Hoyden: tomboy [prob. Middle Dutch heiden (“heathen”; “gypsy”)]

Humgruffin: terrible or repulsive person [neologism, blending of “hum”; “gruff”; “griffin”]

Hybristophile: someone who is sexually attracted to individuals who have committed crimes, particularly cruel or outrageous ones [Gk. hubrizein “to commit an outrage against someone”, from hubris + –phil (“preference for”)]

Hyoid: having a “U” shape [Gk. hyodeides (”shaped like the letter Upsilon (U)”

Hypalgesia: diminished susceptibility to pain (cf. Hyperalgia: extreme sensitivity to pain) [Gk. hypo (“under”) + -algos (“pain”) + -ia

Hyperacusis: abnormally good sense of hearing 👂 [Gk. hupós (“over”) + -ákousis, (“hearing”)]

Hyperborean: an inhabitant of the extreme north [Gk. hupós (“over”) + –borean (“northern”)] (cf. Heteroscian: inhabitant of a temperate zone [Gk. hetero + –scian “shadow”(?)]

**Hyperborean** dwellers in the Arctic (source: reindeerherding.org)

Hypermetropia: long-sighted person; can see objects far away but not up close (cf. Hyperope: far-sighted person) [Gk. hupós (“over”) + metron (“measure”)]

Hyperosmia: very keen sense of smell [Gk. hupós (“over”) + osmē (“odour”)]

Hyphaersis: omission of letter or sound from a word (eg, “around” becomes “round”) [origin unknown]

Hypnogogic: sleep-inducing; drowsiness (cf. Hypnomogia: insomnia) [Gk. hypnos (“sleep”) + -agōgós (“leading”)]

Hypocorism: informal short version of a name [Gk. hupo (“under” + -korē (“child”) + -ism. lit: (“play the child”)]

Hypogeal: underground [Gk. hupo (“under” + L. -gelare (“to freeze”; “congeal”)]

Hypometropia: myopia or near-sightedness; near objects are clear but far away objects are blurry [Gk. hupo (“under” + metron (“measure”)]

Hypotrichosis: hairlessness 👩‍🦲 [Gk. hupo (“under”) + -trichōsis (“growth of hair”)]

Hypotyposis: vivid and picturesque description of a scene [Gk. hupo (“under”) + typos (“impression”; “cast”)

Hysteromania: nymphomania [Gk. hystera (“uterus”) + -mania]

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “G” Words

November 21, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Lexicons, Phonetics, Vocabularydemonymonic

Hits the “G” spot!

G-words, words starting with the letter “G”, like “G-men” can be gritty, exacting and uncompromising…sometimes they salaciously and lustfully invoke “the beast with two backs”. Here’s some fairly unorthodox, non-mainstream “G” words you quite possibly have not encountered before.

Gallimaufry: a mixture of different things; a hodge-podge [MFr galimafree (“a kind of stew concocted from various ingredients)]

Galluptious: (or Goloptious) wonderful, delightful, delicious; provocative and sexually alluring [origin uncertain, perhaps alteration of “voluptous]

Gamic: carnal or sexual; requiring fertilisation (biol.) [Old Nth Fr. gam (from “animal’s leg”)]

Genoph: a pickpocket [origin unknown)

Geophilious: live in or near the ground [Gk geo (“earth”) + -phil (“love”)]

Gewgaw: a showy trifle; a trinket; useless, worthless [ME. giuegaue (orig. meaning uncertain)]

Gigantology: the study of giants [Gk. “giant” + -logy]

Glabrous: without hair; smooth [L. glaber (“smooth”; “bald”; “hairless”)] 👨🏾‍🦲

Glossoid: like a tongue [Gk. glōssoeidēs + -oid] 👅

Gnomic: a phrase that’s short, catchy and clever; puzzling, enigmatic and ambiguous yet seemingly profound [Gk. gnome (“an opinion”)]

Goliard: a learned person, esp in the humanities; (hist.) a wandering, fun-seeking scholar/clerical student in medieval Europe who wrote goliardy (irreverent , satiric Latin verse) [MF, origin uncertain)]

**Medieval Goliards** (Image: faculty.sgc.edu)

Grallator: someone who walks on stilts (taking quite long strides); an ichnogenus dinosaur [L. grallotores (“stilt-walker”)] 🦕

Gremial: pertaining to the lap or bosom; intimate [L. gremium (“lap”)]

Gymnogynomania: urge to rip women’s clothes off [Gk. gymnos (“naked”; “bare”) + gyn (-“wife”; “-woman”) + -mania

Gymnophoria: the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you [Gk. gymnos (“naked”; “bare”) + -phoria (“to bear”)

Gynotikolobo-massophilia: a proclivity for nibbling one’s earlobes [Gk. gyn + –lobos (“earlobe”) + -masáomai (“to chew”) + -phile] 👂

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd ”E” Words

November 16, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureDictionaries, Greek and Latin roots, Language, Lexicons, Logolepsy, Vernacular words, Vocabularydemonymonic

“E” does it!

The fifth letter and second vowel in the modern English alphabet, “E” can trace its ancestry to the ancient Greek letter epsilon, which in turn has its source in the Semitic letter hê. Words beginning with “E” can be positive and affirmative—energetic, empathetic, etc—but they can also exclude, excise and excommunicate. Here’s some fairly unorthodox, non-mainstream “E” words you possibly have not encountered before.

Eccendentesiast: an insincere person who fakes a smile [L. ecce (“I present to you’) + –dentes (“teeth”) + –iast (“performer”)]

Ecdysiast: a striptease artist; erotic dancer [Gk. ekdysis (“a stripping or casting off”). Coined 1940 by HL Mencken]

Ectomorph: a person with a lean and delicate build of body; also can refer to someone with an introverted, thoughtful personality [Gk. ecto (“outside”, “external”) + –derm (“skin”) + –morphē (“form”; “shape”). Coined 1940 by WH Sheldon]

Eleemosynary: relating to or depending on charity; charitable [Gk. eleos (“mercy”; “pity”; “compassion”; (pertaining to alms)]

Encomium: a speech or piece of writing which praise someone or something highly (cf. eulogy) [Gk. en (“within”) + –komos (“revel”)]

Endomorph: a person with a heavy, rounded (big-boned) build of body [Gk. endon (“in”; “within”) + –morphē (WH Sheldon 1940)]

Endonym: (also known as Autonym) the native name for a national group, an individual, geographical place, language or dialect; used inside a particular group or linguistic community for self-identification [Gk. endon (“within) + –ónoma (“name”)]

Ennad: any group of nine; orig. a group of 9 deities in Egyptian mythology [Gk. ennea (the number 9)]

Epeolatry: the worship of words [Gk. epos (“word”) + -latry (“worship”)]

Epicrisis: something that follows a crisis, specifically a secondary crisis; a critical or analytical study, evaluation or summing up, esp of medical case [Gk. epíkrisis, (“determination”, “judgment”, “award”)]

Epigamic: attractive to the opposite sex, esp in zoological context [Gk. epi (“upon”; “on”; “near”) + –gamus (“wedding”; “marriage”)]

Epistolographer: a writer of epistles (elegant, formal didactic letters); a letter writer [Gk. epistellein (“send news”) + –graphe (“write”)] ✍️📝

Ergatocracy: rule by the workers [Gk. ergátēs (“workman”) + –crazy]

Eschatological: theological considerations relating to death, judgement and the finality of the soul and humankind [Gk. éskhatos (“last”) + -logy]

Excoriate: to denounce or berate severely; verbally flay; to strip or remove the skin (Gk. ex (“out”) + –coríum (“skin”; “hide”)

Excursus: a diversion or digression in a book from the main subject which involves a detailed side-discussion [L. excurrere (“run out”)]

Exonym: (also known as Xenonym) the non-native name for a national group, an individual, geographical place, language or dialect [Gk. exo (“outside) + –ónoma (“name”)]; eg, the exonym for Deutschland (Germany) in Spanish is Alemania

Expiscate: to find out thru scrupulous examination or detailed investigation; fish out (something) (usage Scot.) [L. expicatus from Gk. ex (“out”) + –piscari (“to fish”)] 🎣 🐠

❘༻༺༻༺❘༻༺༻༺❘༻༺༻༺❘༻༺༻༺❘༻༺༻༺❘༻༺༻

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “D” Words

November 14, 2023Creative Writing, Literary & LinguisticsAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, Etymology, Language, Lexicons, Neologisms, Vernacular words, Vocabularydemonymonic

“D” day words

The letter “D” corresponds to the Semitic daleth and Greek delta (Δ). “D” is also the Roman numeral for 500. The form (D) is thought to derive from an early pictograph, possibly Egyptian, indicating the folding door of a tent. Later “D” got its more rounded shape, with which we are familiar, from the Chalcidian alphabet, which the Latins may have borrowed for their alphabet (https://www.britannica.com/topic/D-letter). Words beginning with “D”, numero quattro in the English alphabetical order, are an eclectic lot. They can be delightful, decadent or distasteful. Here’s a brief sampler of logophile-friendly “D” words for serious verbivores.

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

(word) Dacnomania
(meaning) a compulsive urge to bite
(derivation) Gk dáknō (“bite”) + -mania 🦷

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dactylogram
fingerprint
Gk Daktylos (“finger”) + –gramma (“that which is written/drawn”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Daedalist

aviator; pilot
Gk from Didalos, L Daedalus (“skilfully wrought”)

Daedalist (Photo: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dapifer
one who brings meat to the table (ie, a servant)
origin unknown 🍖

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Defenestration
throw someone through a window; remove or dismiss someone from a position of authority
L de “down from” + –fenestra (“window”)

The Defenestration of 1618 (Source: Habsburger.net)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Deimatic
pattern of behaviour of a bluffing character (zool)
Gk deimatóo (“to frighten”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Deipnosophist
learned amateur
Gk deipnon (“dinner”) + –sophistēs (“knowledgeable in the arts” (from Athenaeus’‘Deipnosophistaí’)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Deltiologist
someone who collects and studies postcards [Gk. deltion (“writing tablet”) + -ist]

Deltiologist (image: emaniuz-collection.blogspot.com)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Depontification
throw someone off a bridge
L de + –pons (“bridge), following pattern of defenestration

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Didascalar
Didactic; pertaining to teaching
origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Diddicoy
scrap dealer; Brit: group of caravan-dwelling travellers who adopt a Gypsy-like lifestyle
origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Diestrus
a period of sexual inactivity
New L dia + -estrus from Gk Oistros (“gadfly”, “sting”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Digladiator
swordfighter
origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dithyrambic
wildly irregular in form
Gk dithyrambos (unknown, pre-Hellenic?)

Diversiloquent
able to speak on different topics; in different ways
L. diversi (“diversus”) + –loquēns (“to speak”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Docent
an academic immediately below the professorial rank; a voluntary guide at a museum, zoo or art gallery
L docēns (“to teach”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Doctiloquent
speaking learnedly
L from doceō (“I teach”) +-loquēns (“to speak”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Domatologist
professional housekeeper
origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dontopedology
science of putting your foot in your mouth
Gk odoús (“tooth”) + –pes (“foot”) + –logos (“word”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Douanier
customs official
Fr, origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Doulocracy
rule by slaves
Gk doûlos (“servant”, “slave”) + –kratéō (“rule)

Doulocracy: Spartacus, slave army leader

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dragoman
interpreter, translator or guide
Gk dragumanus from Arab targuman (“interpreter”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dulciloquent
speaking in a sweet, pleasant and agreeable way
L. dulcis (“sweet”) + -loquēns (“to speak”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Durative
describing an action that is continuing, incomplete; transforming
L. durare (“to harden”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dysania
Difficult to wake up in the morning
origin unknown

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dyschromatopic
colour-blind
Gk dys (“bad”) + -chroma (“colour”) + -ops (“eye”)

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dysphemism
using an offensive word in the place of an inoffensive one
Gk dys (“bad”) + –pheme “speech”,

⍔⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍠⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍃⌼⍄⍔

Dystelology
doctrine of purposelessness
Gk dys (“bad”) + –télos (“end”, “purpose”, “goal”) + –logos

⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎⚗︎

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “C” Words

November 10, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureDictionaries, English alphabet, Language, Lexicography and dictionaries, Lexicons, Logolepsy, Vernacular words, Vocabularydemonymonic

“C” change?

Continuing the A–Z series of out-of-the-norm, non-mainstream quirky words…this time exploring lexical items starting with the ostentatiously curvy letter “C“, the third letter and second consonant of the modern English alphabet. “C” comes from the same letter as “G”. The Semites named it gimel. The sign is possibly adapted from an Egyptian hieroglyph for a staff sling, which may have been the meaning of the name gimel. Another possibility, contested by some classical scholars, is that it depicted a camel, the Semitic name for which was gamal. The utility of “C” extends to the Romans’ numeral system where it represents the number for “100”, “C” for century!

Word	Meaning	Derivation
Cacodoxy	bad doctrine or wrong opinion	*Gk caco* ("bad") + -doxia ("opinion")**
Cacogen	an anti-social person	*Gk caco* ("bad") + -genēs ("offspring")**
Cacophemism	a perjorative expression used instead of a mild one	*Gk caco* ("bad") + -logía ("speech")**
Cagamosis	an unhappy marriage	origin unknown
Calcographer	one who draws with crayons and pastels✍️	*L calco* ("thread", "trample on") + graphe ("write")**
Callpygous	having beautiful buttocks	*Gk kallos* ("beautiful") + -pūgē ("buttocks")**
Camelot	newspaper vendor ️	F origin unknown
Carpophagous	fruit-eating   	Gk karpós ("fruit") + -phágous ("eating")
Catapedamania	an impulse to jump from high places	*Gk cata* ("downward") + -ped ("ground") ⛰️**
Catchpole	sheriff's deputy, esp one who makes an arrest for failure to pay a debt	*OE cace* ("catch") + Med L pullus (a chick")**
Celerity	swiftness of movement 	*L celer* ("speedy"; "swift")**
Celsitude	loftiness, esp in rel. to position or standing	*L celsus* ("high"; "lofty")**
Cenobite	monk; member of religious order	*Gk koinos* ("common") + -bios ("life")**
Cereologist	someone who studies crop circles, esp one who believes they are not man-made or formed by other terrestrial processes ⭕️	*L Ceres* (Roman goddess of agriculture ") + -logy ("study")**
Chaetophorous	having bristles	*Gk khaítē* ("hair") + -phoros ("bearing")**
Chasmaphilous	fond of nooks & crannies	Gk chasma ("abyss"; "cleft") + phil
Chiliad	divide into parts of 1,000; Millennium	*Gk khilioi* ("thousand")**
Chorizent	someone who challenges the authorship of a major work, esp one who believes that the Iliad & the Odyssey were not penned by Homer ✍️	origin unknown
Chryosophist	a lover of gold ⚱️	*Gk chrys* ("gold") + -philos ("phile")**
Cicisbeo	male companion of a married woman	origin unknown
Cicerone	a guide for tourism information ℹ️	L from Cicero, agnomen of Roman orator, (2th BCE
Clerisy	class of the intelligentsia; group of learned & literary people	*Gk klēros* ("heritage")**
Concision	tenseness & brevity of speech & writing; saying much in a few words	*L concīsus* ("cut short")**
Consign	deserved & appropriate, esp a fair & fitting punishment	*L con* ("altogether") + -dignus ("worthy"; "appropriate"**
Copacetic	completely satisfactory; in good order	origin unknown
Coruscating	sparkling; glittering	*L coruscatus* ("to vibrate", "glitter")**
Cosmocracy	rulership of the world; global government ️	*Gk cosmo* ("universe") + -krátos ("rule"; "power")**
Coterminous	having the same boundaries	Eng, (18th.
Crepuscular	resembling or rel to twilight	*L crepusculum* ("twilight")**
Cruciverbalist	one who is skilled at or enjoys solving crosswords 里	*L cruci* ("cross" + -verbum ("word"). Neologism, 1977)**
Cryptarcy	secret government or rulership	*Gk kryptos* ("hidden"; "secret")**
Cryptogenic	(disease) of unknown origin	*Gk kryptos ("hidden"; "secret") + genēs* ("offspring")**
Cryptonym	a code or secret name	*Gk kryptos* ("hidden"; "secret") + -nym ("name")**
Cumbent	"lying down"; "reclining"	*L incumbere* ("lie or lean on")**
Curiosa	pornographic books	*L curiosus* ("curious")**
Curlicue	calligraphic twist or curl in the design object; decorative	Eng, (18th. "Curly" + "cue" ("pigtail")
Cursoril	limbs adapted to running (zool.)	*Med L cursorius* ("of running")**
Cyesolagnia	attracted to pregnant women	Gk cyeso(?) *+ -lagnia* ("lust")**
Cynoid	dog-like; canine 	*Gk kyn* ("dog") + oid ("resembling")**
Cynosure	anything that attracts attention; object of interest 	*Gk kunosoura* (lit. "dog's tail") an association der. from the shape of the constellation Ursa Minor**

Cereologist: pondering the enigma of the crop circle ⭕️

Chorizent: Not Homer!

Cynosure: all eyes on Ursa Minor, aka “the Little Dipper”

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “B” Words

November 5, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureDictionaries, English alphabet, Language, Lexicography and dictionaries, Lexicons, Logolepsy, Synonyms, Unusual words, Vernacular words, Vocabularydemonymonic

Now for plan B

The letter “B” has quite a backstory on route to its destination in the English alphabet. Its equivalent second letter in Phoenician, beth, was part of that ancient language’s alphabet more than 3000 years ago. It looked a little different, but it made the same sound as “B”/”b”. The shape of the letter resembled the floor plan of a house, and the word beth meant “house.” In Hebrew, the letter was called beth, bet or bayt which also means “house.” (‘The Letter B Once Had A Much Longer Name’, (2014), www.dictionary.com). Here’s a far from definitive selection of unusual, obscure and archaic words beginning with “B” – useful additions to the vocabulary of any budding lexiphile, logophile or verbivore out there.

Word	Meaning	Derivation
Babeldom	a confused sound of noise	ME babble + OE -dōm ('state')
Bacchanal	drunkard; reveller 	L bacchanalis (from the god Bacchus)
Bahadur	self-important official	Persian bahādur ('brave', 'valiant')
Balatron	joker; clown	L balatrō ('jester'; 'buffoon') 嵐
Barmecide	an insincere benefactor (someone who promises but doesn't deliver)	Per Barmeki ('The Arabian Nights', family name)
Barratry	inciting riot or violence	OF Barraterie (der from 'deceive')
Bathykolpian	deep-bosomed	Gk bathys ('deep') + kolpos ('breast')
Bedswerver	an unfaithful spouse 	Eng (17th, Shakespeare
Benedict	benign; a newly-married after being a long-time bachelor	L bene ('good') + -dicte ('speak')
Bersatrix	babysitter ‍	Fr berseaux ('cradle') + trix (fem. suffix)
Bibliognost	well-read individual: person with a wide knowledge of books 	Gk biblio ('book') + -gnōstēs ('one who knows'j
Bodacious	remarkable; unmistakable; sexy; voluptuous	Eng 'bold' + 'audacious'
Boursocrat	Stock exchange official	origin unknown
Brio	enthusiastic vigour	It 'mettle'; 'fire'; 'life'
Bromaphile	lover of food; a "foodie"	Gk brôma ('food') + -phile ('lover') 
Bromopnea	bad breath	Gk brômos ('stink') + nea
Brumal	wintry; of, like or pertaining to winter 略	L brūmalīs ('relating to the winter solstice')
Burrole	an eavesdropper 	origin unknown
Bywoner	agricultural labourer	Afrikaans from Mid Dutch bi + ('dweller')
ADDENDUM
Barbigerous	bearded; bearing a beard 倫‍♂️	L barbiger ("beard"; + -gero ('bearing')
Bavian	baboon; insignificant or unskilled poet	D baviaan 
Belliferous	bringing war	L bellum ('war') + *ferō* ('to bear')
Bloviate	talk at length in empty, pompous, inflated fashion	Eng (19th. 'blow' (as in boasting, orig. to describe politicians)
Brobdingnagian	immense in size; gigantic	Eng (18th. novel by Jonathan Swift ✍️

Appendage: from Ulrika M-Luck

Bellatrix: female warrior

Bellator: male warrior

<Latin origin>

Bavian

: even with the best quill in the world!

: Gulliver in Brobdingnag

A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “A” Words

October 30, 2023Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAncient Greek and Latin roots, Dictionaries, English alphabet, Etymology, Language, Lexicons, Unusual words, Vernacular wordsdemonymonic

The Big A! In the beginning was A.

“Words, Words, Words”, mused Shakespeare’s brooding and enigmatic eponymous protagonist in Hamlet [Act II, Scene II]. Indeed, for those wordsmiths, verbivores and aficionados in the grips of logolepsy (fascination or obsession with words), words, lexemes, morphemes, lógos, verba, call it whatever you like, are the very stuff of the world. If you are like me and take a delight in being exposed to new words, always looking to add to the building blocks of your vocabulary, then your interest might be piqued enough to browse the following list of words, a select lexicon with entries which include the obscure, the archaic, the unusual, the peculiar and (sometimes) the downright creepily weird. To begin at the beginning, the letter “A”, primus intra pares among the strictly-ordered glyphs. “A” in the Latin alphabet is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.

Word	Meaning	Derivation
Abactor	cattle thief or rustler	L Late Latin abigō ('drive away') 
Achloropsia [cf. Acyanopsia colour-blind blue]	colour-blind green	Gk a + clor ('green') + -podia (rel. to 'sight')
Acephalous	lacking a (clearly defined) head	Gk akephalous ('headless')
Acersecomic	one who has never had his or her hair cut	Gk akersekómēs ('young with unshorn hair')
Acrologic	pertaining to initials; using a sign to represent a word denoting its initial letter or sound, assoc with hieroglyphics & acronyms	Fr acrologique
Adelphogamy	a form of polyandry; marriage of 2 or more brothers & 1 or more wives (context: Royal marriages in Ancient Egypt, usually between siblings)	Gk adelphi ('brothers') + -gamus ('marriage') 戮
Adventitious	occurring as a result of an external factor or by chance, rather than by design or inherent nature; coming from outside, not native	L adventicious (coming to us from abroad")
Agelast	someone who never laughs; a humourless person	Mid Fr agélastos ('not laughing')
Agersia	not growing old in appearance	Gk a ('not') + geras ('age')
Agnomen	an epithet; an appellation appended to a name (eg, Rufus the Indolent)	Anc Rome a 4th name occasionally bestowed on a citizen in honour of some achievement
Agnosy	ignorance esp universal ignorance; unenlightened; bereft of spiritual understanding or insight	Gk agnōsia ('ignorance')
Aleatory	something dependent on the throw of dice or on chance; random; (esp in indurance)	L alea a kind of dice game 
Amanuensis	Iiterary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts	L a manu + -ensis ('slave at handwriting') + 'belonging to')
Ambivert	someone who a balance of extrovert & introvert features in their personality	L ambi ('on both sides') + vertere ('to turn')
Aneabil	unmarried; single	origin unknown
Anecdotage	someone with a tendency to be garrulous; anecdotes collectively	Gk anekdota ('unpublished') + -age
Anemocracy	government by the wind or by whim 	Gk anemo ('wind') + -cracy ('rule')
Anhedonia	inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities	Fr anhédonia+ ('without pleasure')
Animadvert	criticise or censure; speak out against	L animadvert-ere ('to notice or remark on a subject')
Antanaclasis	a literary trope whereby a single word is repeated, but in 2 different senses (for effect, a common form of punning)	Gk antanáklasis ('reflection'; 'bending back')
Antelucan	pre-dawn	L ante ('before') + luc ('light')
Antemundane	existing before the creation of the world 	L ante ('before') + Fr mondain ('of this world')
Antipudic	covering one's private parts	anti + L pudendum ('genitals'; shame')
Apodysophilia	feverish desire to undress (a form of exhibitionism)	origin unknown
Appurtenance	accessory associated with particular lifestyle, eg, luxury	OFr from L appertinere ("belong to")
Aptronym§	the name of a person which neatly matches or is amusingly appropriate to their occupation or character (eg, possessor of the highest-ever recorded IQ, Marilyn vos Savant; a Russian hurdler by the name of Marina Stepanova)	neologism, purportedly coined by US columnist Franklin P Adams
Archimage	great magician, wizard or enchanter 慄‍♂️	New Latin from Late Gk archimagus
Aristarch	a severe critic	after Aristarchus of Samothrace, a Greek grammarian, (2nd BC)
§ the concept of aptronym gives legs to the theory of nominative determinism which hypotheses that people tend to gravitate towards jobs that fit their surname, eg, a BBC weather presenter with the name Sara Blizzard ️	

ADELPHOGAMY

Moby-Dick and the Peculiar Pecuniary System of 19th Century Whaling

December 25, 2022Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics‘Moby Dick’, 19th century whaling, Herman Melville, Nantucket and New Bedford (Mass), US literary classicsfunambulator@live.com

༒🐳༒

Then on top of all this there were deductions from a crew member’s lay when he did finally get the money…anything an ordinary whaleman purchased from the ship’s store during the voyage—tobacco, boots, clothes, etc—was subtracted from his lay. The same if he was given an advance to send to his family. A crew member, especially one with a very long lay, could easily end up in debt to the ship’s owners at voyage’s end (‘Life Aboard’, New Bedford Whaling Museum, www.whalingmuseum.org).

𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪 𝄪
⚀ 50 miles south of Boston, from the early 1820s on it supplanted Nantucket as America’s foremost whaling port

Accounting for James Bond’s Eternally Enduring Mass Appeal

December 15, 2022Cinema, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture‘Dr No’, ‘Goldfinger’, ‘No Time to Die’, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service‘, ‘Skyfall’, 1960s-1980s Cold War, Barbara Broccoli, Britain postwar end of empire, Broccoli and Saltzman, Crime thriller literary genre, Daniel Craig, Eon Productions, Espionage adventure genre cinema, Ian Fleming, James Bond Agent 007, John LeCarre, Roger Moore, Sean ConneryE Curb Nottus

🇬🇧 🔫 🇬🇧
THE phenomena of James Bond in both book and movie form was meant to be purely escapist entertainment, bereft of the slightest pretension that they were anything remotely cerebral. Interesting then that Bond has gleaned so much serious academic enquiry and analysis over the years. A sample of articles on JSTOR reveals a feast of scholarly entries on the subject of James Bond — “Shaken, Not Stirred Britishness: James Bond, Race, and the Transnational Imaginary”, “The Marketable Misogyny of James Bond“, “Paradoxical Masculinity: James Bond, Icon of Failure”, “Why James Bond Villains Prefer Post-Soviet Architecture”, “The Spy Who Loved Globalization”, ”How safe do you feel?: James Bond, Skyfall, and the Politics of the Secret Agent in an Age of Ubiquitous Threat”, and so on it goes.

The James Bond film franchise is certainly sui generis among English-language movie series. October 5 this year marked the 60th anniversary of the introduction of James Bond to cinema screen audiences (Dr No, 1962), and the cinematic sequence remains as yet unbroken, notwithstanding ”the elephant in the room” of last year’s No Time To Die in which the indestructible James Bond actually dies! Virtually all other elongated movie series have ultimately reached a natural (or unnatural) termination point – even the long-running, prolific and increasingly unimaginative Carry On comedy series ran out of steam by the Eighties 🄰.

Box office El Dorado
Over a six-decade period the 25 movies🄱 constituting the James Bond industry made by Eon Productions (Broccoli and Saltzman’s production company) have earned a total somewhere north of US seven billion dollars. Boosted undoubtedly by the mass popularity of screen Bond🄲 the James Bond spy novels written by former WWII naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, on which the cinema franchise is based, have themselves racked up sales of more than 60 million copies.

If you came anew to the Bond movies looking for a healthy dose of gritty social realism based on the world of espionage a la John LeCarre, you’d be sadly disappointed. The franchise’s entries are all about fantasy and high-adventure escapism. Unlike the shadowy cloak-and-dagger characters that the real world of spies and secret agents (apparently?) inhabit, James Bond 007 in his public persona is an open book, he doesn’t use a fake name, he doesn’t try to disguise his appearance or furtively hide in dark corners. He’s direct, brash, brutal and recklessly undisciplined in his actions and antics, with a propensity to be easily distracted from the assignment at hand by the happy prospect of a spot of horizontal folk-dancing.

Though wildly successful at the box office over an extraordinarily long shelf life, James Bond is not everyone’s cup of tea. An early critic Judith Crist described the series’ first vehicle Dr No as “an updated comic strip of the Fu Manchu school, fast moving, faster shooting, utterly fantastic”. JB has been pilloried by feminists for his unrepentant chauvinism—especially in Sean Connery and Roger Moore’s interpretations of the character—and four decades of “Bond Girl“ objectification of women. The backlash against JB’s misogyny compelled producers to tone down the blatant sexism in the most recent incarnation of the most famous of all British secret agents played by Daniel Craig. Bond has also been excoriated as a “thug trained to wear a tuxedo”…007’s “license to kill” green-light unleashes the agent’s deep predilection for perpetrating extreme, lethal violence in cold blood.

Predictable Bondery
Then there’s the plots! The storylines are more than fanciful…James Bond’s arch-villains hatch mind-bogglingly ludicrous schemes which suggest that they have been maxing out on the Kool-Aid – such as nuking Fort Knox’s gold reserves; constructing a massive capsule-gobbling rocket to capture the space crafts of both superpowers; detonating explosives along the Californian fault lines to destroy Silicon Valley; ad nauseum. The franchise has also been lambasted for being BORING! Agent 007 has been called out for living “the same story over and over” (Elizabeth Winterhalter). Repetition is a constant motif…we see Bond right on cue rendezvous with a typically crotchety “M” to be briefed on his latest world-rescue mission, flirting with Miss Moneypenny in their regular tête-à-tête ritual, and getting a rundown on the very latest weapon gadgetry from an equally irascible “Q”. In every second scene, just about, JB is pursued by a posse of miscellaneous henchmen only to miraculously escape certain death by the barest of margins every time. The movies almost invariably end in the same formulaic fashion: Bond infiltrates the arch-villain’s impregnable lair, triumphs over the likes of Blofeld and Goldfinger and numerous assorted henchmen, and finishes by bedding his leading lady on an inflatable dingy, in space, a balcony, etc and signing off to “M” with a corny double entendre🄳.

Cultural relevance to the West
Some Bondphiles have an altogether different take on this Groundhog Dog trait in James Bond of repeating the same basic plot structure infinitum…they see it as a key ingredient of the franchise’s success: ”the simplicity of the plot arch allows the films to seamlessly transcend and become culturally relevant to the audience” (‘What is the Secret of James Bond’s Eternal Success?’, www.undandy.com). Another explanation of James Bond’s allure contends that the fictional MI6 spy instantly resonated with Western audiences in the climate of the Cold War, being seen as a kind of antidote to the prevailing morass of the social order (especially in the US). 007’s talent as a fixer of “global crises” casts him in the guise of a saviour salvaging the world from an inevitable downward spiral into chaos and discord (‘James Bond and America in the Sixties’, Drew Moniot, JUFA, Vol.28, No.3, 1976). Moniot also attributes JB’s popularity in America to the existence of a vacuum of real-life heroes in 1960s society, the emergence of 007, a mythological hero who was invincible, fulfilled that psychological need at that time.

Vicarious🄴 charm of the bon vivant lifestyle
Part of the appeal lies in the character of James Bond. Fleming visualised 007 as fit, sensual, with superior grey matter and a technical wiz, a model of “red-blooded heterosexuality”. He also emphasises Bond’s “Britishness” in the novels, JB’s 100% success rate on missions and in the romance stakes presents Bond as representing the “Best of British”… Fleming’s idea of an antidote to the sad realities of a declining Britain denuded of empire. Leaving aside the ever-present mortal danger to his very existence, Bond leads “a ridiculously good lifestyle (by) any man’s standards”🄵(Undandy), his appearance is akin to a “GQ cover model”; an endless supply of the best alcohol (which the MI6 agent knocks back with worryingly frequency); the best cars (trademark Aston Martin DB5); his apparently irresistible sex appeal to women (‘Bond by rules’, Tim Brayton, 2012, www.alternateending.com). As crime doyen Raymond Chandler neatly put it, “Every man wants to be James Bond and every woman wants to be with him”.

Tropeville central
Aside from JB’s personal magnetism, the series’ catalogue of recurring tropes helps to cement the franchise’s appeal. Familiar ingredients include the default opening sequence depicting 007 in action through the prism of a gun barrel; over-the-top hi-tech gadgets; a smorgasbord of diverse exotic locations; a brisk cocktail of action stunts (car chases, boat chases, ski pursuits, etc); the centre-stage presence of the Bond Girls and of a megalomaniacal arch-villain mastermind; all eagerly anticipated by James Bond‘s legion of rusted-on fans. Also adding value and lustre to the films are the high quality title-songs – like the utterly unforgettably iconic Goldfinger theme, and not far behind that Shirley Bassey classic, Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever, and You Only Live Twice, etc, etc.

Bond, tapping into the zeitgeist of the day
One (insider) view on the longevity of James Bond comes from those at the helm of the multi-billion dollar franchise today, Cubby Broccoli’s daughter Barbara and his step-son Michael Wilson. Broccoli’s heirs attribute the success to the family having managed to keep hold of the franchise’s reins throughout its entire history, and to JB’s and the franchise’s adaptability, 007 being able to change with the times🄶 (‘Why James Bond Has Endured For So Long, According to the Franchise Producer’, Joshua Meyer, Film, 8-Dec-2021, www.slashfilm.com).

Footnote: James Bond, books v films
The early James Bond movies kept pretty faithful to the plots of Ian Fleming’s crime thrillers, however as the series went on, the screen adaptations bore increasingly less resemblance to the novels (eventually everything except the Fleming titles were jettisoned). Other differences relate to the protagonist himself, 007’s proclivity for terminating with extreme prejudice (and without a skerrick of compunction) the various henchmen aligned against him increases tenfold from the books to the movies, as does his appetite for sexual conquests whilst on the job. Another point of departure from the novels for the films is the lack of story continuity from one picture to the next (eg, Bond in a grieving state at his wife’s murder at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service doesn’t get a mention in the follow-up Bond feature).

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🄰 probably the closest to it is the Star Wars franchise (1977 to the present)

🄱 there was in addition one non-Eon Bond film, Never Say Never Again, a Taliafilm production

🄲 even Bond’s snobbish swipe at the Beatles in Goldfinger at the height of Beatlemania in 1964 didn’t dent his appeal with the public

🄳 with one or two notable exceptions…On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ends with the death of Mrs James Bond and No Time To Die ends with the death of 007 himself

🄴 in creating the overachieving superspy Fleming was in fact acting out his own vicarious impulses…endowing 007 with the sort of ideal, action-man hero lifestyle that the writer dreamt of

🄵 one writer characterised it as “elegant lifestyle porn” (Brayton)

🄶 one example: in the rebooted Skyfall (2012), the film and JB concern themselves with the very real and very contemporary threat of the ubiquity of the internet and cyber-terrorism

The Astérix Series: High Comic Art with a Few Dark Shadows

November 19, 2022Creative Writing, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Memorabilia, Popular Culture, Public health,‘Pilote’ 1959, Albert Uderzo, Anthea Bell, Asterix & Obelix, Astérix in Belgium, Astérix in the cinema, Astérix le Gaulois, Baba (Black pirate lookout), Derek Hockridge, Franco-Belgian comic strip culture, Getafix, Jules César, Marcel Uderzo, Racial stereotyping, René Goscinny, Roman Gaul in ancient history, Sexual politics in media, TintinWolfgang Childerglas

“The year is 50BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely . . . One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders.”

𓆸✱ ✝ ✱ ✝ ✱ ✝ ✱ ✝𓆸

The “indomitable Gauls” in question are the tribe of Astérix, pint-sized Gallic hero of the long-running eponymous French comic strip with its legion of dedicated fans. Like all classic literary modes, be they of a pop cultural kind or more highbrow, the Astérix comic can be read on more than one level. On the surface the impossible but highly comical escapades of its principal cartoon characters (Astérix and his sidekick Obélix) are much loved and savoured by aficionados across the globe. On another level some observers have detected various allegorical meanings delving within the cartoon series.

The Astérix comic strip (in France known as a bande dessinée – literally “drawn strip”) made its debut in 1959 in the Franco-Belgian comic magazine Pilote under the the strip title Les aventures d’astérix. The Astérix phenomenon that followed that unassuming beginning was the result of a long and harmonious collaboration between writer René Goscinny and illustrator Albert Uderzo.

What a Gaul!
The basic plot of the comic is that Astérix and his XXL-sized friend Obelix reside in the sole remaining village in Gaul which has not been conquered by the might of the Roman war machine. The reason enabling its continued freedom is that Astérix has access to a magic potion supplied by the village’s Druid Panoramix (in English translations: Getafix) which gives him temporary, superhuman strength (Obelix is already endowed with extraordinary strength courtesy of having fallen into the cauldron of magic potion as a baby). The two companions, usually accompanied by Obelix’s little dog, Idéfix (English: Dogmatix), spend their time roaming around the countryside of Armorica (modern-day Brittany) bashing countless numbers of heads, mostly of the hapless and unsuspecting Roman legionnaires. In many of the books the magic potion-fuelled duo venture out on escapades to lands both far and near from Gaul.

Undisguised punnery
Much of the humour in Astérix revolves around Goscinny’s and translator Bell’s (see below) use of puns and in-jokes which abound in the character names, Astérix, the comic’s central protagonist is of course “the star” (for which “asterisk” is another word); the monolithic-like Obelix is a carter and shaper of menhirs which are also known as “obelisks”; Bell translated Obelix’s dog’s name as…Dogmatix – what else! A spy Druid in Astérix and the Black Gold with more than a passing resemblance to Sean Connery is given the name Dubbelosix.

Nomenclature of the dramatis personae
When sketching out the framework of their fictional First century BC Gaul Goscinny and Uderzo decided on a formula for the names of each of the groups of characters. The Gauls’ men’s names would end in -ix (the inspiration for this was the real-life Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix who revolted against Julius Caesar’s Rome in 52BC), so we have Vitalstatistix (chief of Astérix’s tribe) and his brother Doublehelix; Assurancetourixൠ (English: Cacofonix) (bard and scapegoat of the village); Geriatrix (oldest member of the village); Unhygienix (village fishmonger); Cétautomatix (village smith) (Eng: Fulliautomatix); Saingésix (wine merchant) (Eng: Alcoholix), etc. etc. The Romans mostly are identified by names with the suffix “-us” (although “Julius Caesar” (Fr: Jules César) appears as a fictional character under his own name)…as the “bad guys” the Romans all tend to have derogatory or demeaning names, eg, Pamplemus (Arteriosclerosus); Cadaverus; Caius Fatuous; Caius Flebitus …you get the idea!

Goscinny employed suffix-identifiers for other national groups in the books. For instance, the names of the fearsome Norman tribesmen were all given -af endings, so we get lots of joke names like Psychopaf, Riffraf, Autograf, Nescaf and Toocleverbyhaf, ad tedium…basically anything preposterous enough Goscinny and Bell could think of that would raise a laugh. The device extends to Britons (-ax)(usually puns on taxation, eg, “Valueaddedtax”), Germans (-ic), Greeks (-os) and Egyptians (-is).

Stereotyping and racial tropes
One of the preoccupations of the Astérix comics and the source of much of its humour is ethnic stereotyping. Uderzo and Goscinny delight in lampooning the perceived national traits of different groups of Europeans. The English are depicted as phlegmatic, love to drink lukewarm beer and tend to speak in a chipper, upper-class way. The Iberians (Spanish) are displayed as being full of pride and tend to have choleric tempers. The Normans (Vikings) drink endlessly and fear nothing. Goths (the Germanic tribes) are disciplined and militaristic, but are not unified and fight among themselves. This all reads as a bit problematic especially in this age of political correctness. In the case of the Spanish the generalisations are compounded by Uderzo’s unflattering drawings of them. But the most disturbing element of the books’ stereotyping of races exposing the creators to considerable criticism relates to the bigoted portrayal of Black Africans. Slaves in the series are always Black and sometimes they have have bones through their hair and other cliches (eg, Astérix and Cleopatra). Uderzo also introduced the character of a caricatured Black pirate (Baba)—notoriously depicted with exaggerated racial features, enormous, full red lips—who appears in several books including Astérix in Corsica and Astérix and Obélix All At Sea. For this reason American cartoonist Ronald Wimberly has described the Astérix comics as “blatantly white supremacist” in nature and thus unsuitable for children (’Race and Representation: Relaunching Astérix in America’, Brigid Alverson & Calvin Reid, PW, 19-Aug-2020, www.publishersweekly.com). In recent versions of the comic edited for the US market the overt racialist profiling has been toned down a bit (‘Asterix Comes to America‘, Jo Livingstone, Critical Mass, 17-Jun-2020, www.newrepublic.com).

Uderzo contra feminism
Similarly, Astérix has attracted criticism for its negative portrayal of women in the strips. Asterix and the Secret Weapon for instance introduces a female bard Bravura from Lutetia (Paris) who incites the women of the village to revolt against their husbands and the patriarchy. ’Secret Weapon’ unsubtly parodies feminism and gender equality. By 1991 when the album was published it might have been hoped that Uderzo would have expressed a more enlightened and nuanced perspective on sexual politics, but he and Goscinny were very much products of their time so it probably shouldn’t surprise that the artist/storyteller was still implacably fastened on to his old ideals of male chauvinism and hegemony.

The ludicrous amount of violence dished out in Astérix—the heroic Gallic duo are constantly bashing Roman skulls senselessდ—has also opened the comic strips up to criticism from some quarters. In 2007 the Swiss-based organisation Defence for Children International echoed Wimberly’s sentiments, saying that Astérix, Obélix & Co set a bad example for the young by constantly fighting with everyone, never at peace with their neighbours…adding that the comic series was “too monocultural” in its obsession with “invaders” (The Guardian).

With Goscinny’s untimely early death in 1977 Uderzo took on responsibility for the Astérix scripts as well as the artwork. Uderzo solo added another nine comic books to the Asterix oeuvre, although he retained the late M Goscinny’s name on the covers as co-creator. The Astérix‘s scripts written by Uderzo were not in the same class of storytelling as Goscinny’s—lacking René’s incisive wit and punchiness—but even so, the Uderzo-penned comic albums still proved bestsellers, such was the lustre of the Astérix brand.

Enter the new generation of Astérix comic artists
By 2011, Uderzo in his eighties, was ready to pass the Astérix baton on to two cartoonists who he had been mentoring. The new team, Jean-Yves Ferri (writer) and Didier Conrad (illustrator), having got the master’s nod of approval, produced Astérix and the Picts in 2013, followed by four more Astérix albums thus far. Ferri and Conrad have even introduced new characters with contemporary and topical resonance, eg, Confoundtheirpolitix, a muckraking journalist, spoofing Julian Assange (Astérix and the Missing Scroll). Unfortunately, since becoming custodians of the world’s most famous cartoon Gaul, Messieurs Conrad and Ferri have missed the opportunity to redress the earlier derogatory depiction of Africans drawn by Uderzo. Instead Conrad tactlessly reprised Uderzo’s Black pirate lookout character in 2015 in ‘Missing Scroll’) with the same racist depiction of Baba with bulbous red lips.

Astérix for Anglos
Translations into English of the iconic comic books began in 1969. Anthea Bell, in collaboration with Derek Hockridge, was the gifted translator who worked with the full sequence of Astérix creators. Bell’s distinctly English expressions and puns as translated won much praise “for keeping the original French spirit intact” (‘Anthea Bell’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org). Bell also shared with Goscinny a delight in the humour of historical anachronisms which filter through the various books.

The Astérix industry
As at 2021, with the publication of the 38th Astérix comic book Astérix and the Griffin, the books have sold a staggering combined total of 385 million copies worldwide. They have been translated into 111 languages and dialects including Afrikaans, Welsh, Hebrew, Occitan, Arabic, Urdu and even Latin. Astérix adaptation to the screen comprise 10 animated films and four live action films (of which only Mission Cleopatra merits any accolades at all). There’s the usual accompaniment of merchandising of course and even a theme park, Le Parc Astérix, north of Paris. The comic books’ following spans the globe, in their heartland, France and Belgium, in Germany, Britain, just about everywhere they have been in vogue with the notable exception of the US.

What’s the secret of the Asterix comics’ success?
To M Uderzo the endearing nature of Astérix’s popularity remained a puzzle that he couldn’t fathom, best left to others of which there has been no shortage of opinions aired over the years. Clearly, the character of Astérix is deeply rooted in French popular culture. Two-thirds of the French population had read at least one Astérix books according to a 1969 national survey (‘Going for Gaul: Mary Beard on 40 years of Astérix’, The Guardian, 15-Feb-2002, www.amp.theguardian.com . Some observers put the appeal down to the escapism the comics represented – providing “a world of joyful innocence born in the aftermath of (world) war” ‘My hero: Asterix by Tom Holland‘, The Guardian, 26-Oct-2013, www.amp.theguardian.com . This sentiment is echoed by those who have called the series ”the most brilliant antidote to (the catastrophe of) Vichy in French literature”. Many French people identify with the petit Gaul as a symbol of rebellion, standing up for the “little guy“ against Goliath. To them Astérix’s steely determination to defy the juggernaut of Roman power mirrors the impulse in the hearts of many modern-day French citizens to hold out and not succumb to the all-conquering globalisation driven by the United States⚘. While the French feel an inextinguishable pride in Astérix (“simply French”), to many outsiders the comics personify what they take to be the French character, such as the trait of “infuriating, occasionally endearing contradictions” (John Thornhill, Lunch with the FT: Asterix the national treasure’, Financial Times, 24-Dec-2005, www.financialtimes.com). Another take on Astérix’s popularity beyond the borders of France is that the idea of an heroic “native freedom-fighter” defying Rome struck a resonant tone in countries which had once been subjected to the tyranny of the Roman Empire (Beard).

Footnote: In Astérix in Belgium, the 24th volume in the series໒꒰, village chief Vitalstatistix, Astérix and Obélix head off to Belgae to tangle with an equally fierce tribe of Belgian Gauls. As usual, the comic is saturated with cultural references, Goscinny weaves in a series of gently digs at the Belgians, spoofing famous national celebrities like Walloon actress/singer Annie Cordy and cyclist Eddie Merckx. The comic’s battle scene is a riff on the historical Battle of Waterloo and Uderzo draws in a cameo appearance by fictional detectives Thomson and Thompson from Belgium’s most honoured cartoon strip Tintin (‘Asterix v24: “ Asterix in Belgium”’, Augie De Blieck Jr, Pipeline Comics , 25-Jul-2018, www.pipelinecomics.com).

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ൠ some sort of pun on “insurance”

დ although it should be noted that no one is actually killed in the comics

⚘ shared by Uderzo himself who said in 2005, “the more we are under the sway of globalisation, the more people feel the need to rediscover their roots”, which is what he hoped connecting with France’s ancient Gallic past via his cartoon creation might help achieve

໒꒰ Goscinny died during the comic’s production and this was also the last Astérix that Albert Uderzo’s artist brother, Marcel, worked on

A Linguistic Potpourri of Mondegreens, Mumpsimus and Eggcorns

April 19, 2022Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Music history, Popular Culture“Arthur Daley”, “Louie Louie” (Kingsmen song), “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, ”Purple Haze” (Jimi Hendrix), Eggcorn, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Folk etymology, Malapropism, Mark Lieberman, Mondegreen, Mumpsimus v Simpsimus, Neologisms, Spoonerism, Steven Connor, Sylvia Wright and “Lady Mondegreen”, Tony Abbottfunambulator@live.com

“Arfur D” Malapropising (Photo: ITV/Scope)

The chances are most folk with a passing interest in words and language have come across the odd Malapropism and Spoonerism in their travels. For these two terms for errors in natural speech (or if you prefer, modes of original linguistic inventiveness) we have the fictional “Mrs Malaprop” and the real life “Reverend Spooner” to thank. Myself, I tend to associate Malapropisms (the accidental substitution of a incorrect word in place of another, usually similar-sounding one) in fiction with Arthur Daley, the small-time, dodgy as-they-get wheeler dealer in TV’s Minder (“From now on the world is your lobster”, the “Arfur” Daley variation on “oyster”) and in real life with former Australian PM Tony Abbott (“the suppository of all wisdom” (should have said “repository”)). Spoonerisms are another type of verbal misstep where the speaker makes a “slip of the tongue”, accidentally transposing the initial consonants of two consecutive words, often with humorous results. One of the most referenced examples is “you have hissed my mystery lecture”, instead of “you have missed my history lecture”.

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Would the latte-sipping, smashed avocado inner city set recognise a Mondegreen, Mumpsimus or Eggcorn when they see one? Probably not, these three linguistic odd fellows are the domain of dedicated language buffs and word nerds. If the ABC conducted a vox-pop in Martin Place “Mondegreen” would likely draw a blank, however the concept itself is a different story…anyone exposed to popular music would have at some point either unknowingly committed a Mondegreen or observed someone else in the act. A Mondegreen is where you mishear or misinterpret a phrase—especially a song lyric but it could also be a line from a poem—with the result that you give it a new and different meaning. I can hear the ranks of the slightly incredulous intoning “I didn’t know there was a word for that!”

Given the associated factors of diction and high volume noise, Mondegreenisms in modern pop music are legion, one of the most iconic is the misinterpretation by untold number of listeners of Jimi Hendrix’s line, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” (“Purple Haze”) as “Excuse me while I kiss the guy“. Two more classic confusions warranting honourable mention are The Beatles’ “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes” transformed by an erring ear into “The girl with colitis goes by” (from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”) and Johnny Nash’s “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone”, reinterpreted as “I can see clearly now, Lorraine has gone”. As these examples indicate, where the lyrics come unstuck it’s a fair chance that the culprit is a quasi-hononym.

Coining of Mondegreen: the word (but not the act) originated in 1954 with American writer Sylvia Wright…as a girl listening to her mother readIng a 18th century romantic poem she erroneously heard “Lady Mondegreen” instead of the actual lyric, “layd him on the green”. On being advised of her error Sylvia thought her interpretation “better than the original” and stuck to it, even inserting a character named “Lady Mondegreen” into her published stories.

Incoherent or indecipherable words in a song can be the source of “great storms in a teacup”. The Kingsmen’s 1963 recording of “Louie Louie”—incomprehensibly vocalised by Jack Ely—prompted an avalanche of complaints from outraged parents of teenagers about a supposed litany of obscene and pornographic lyrics in the single. Knee-jerk misinterpretations abounded from the morally-incensed in mid-century Middle America. One irate father even wrote to US attorney general Bobby Kennedy moaning about the lyrics’ “moral degradation” leading bizarrely to the FBI investigating the song (while wasting public funds the Bureau failed to unearth any such obscenities)! All of which lends credence to the axiom that “people will hear what they want to hear” – which goes to the very heart of Mondegreens※.

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Mumpsimus are a different kettle of aquatic, craniate gill-bearing animals. Practitioners of Mumpsimus stubbornly insist on an incorrect usage…even after being proven wrong” (Fritinancy). Mumpsimustas obstinately cling to an error, bad habit or prejudice, even after the foible is exposed. Examples include the use of “all intensive purposes” in lieu of the correct phrase, “all intents and purposes”; the verbal substitution of “nuclear” with “nucular” (a proclivity of George W Bush)§.

The Eggcorn: slight of hand or sleight of hand?

Another, related form of expression that derives from mishearing and involves reinterpretation is “Eggcorn”. Eggcorns, like Mondegreens revolve around the near-homonym while differing from Mumpsimus in that their use is unconscious and unintentional. It often occurs when people are ignorant of the precise words in stock phrases and substitute what they erroneously believe to be the correct words or expression. Examples are manifold – saying “mute point” instead of “moot point”; “tenderhooks” instead of “tenterhooks”; “pass mustard” instead of “pass muster” etc ad nauseum. An essential feature of the eggcorn is that it must retain some of the original meaning as the speaker understands it (eg, Alzheimer’s disease is rendered into “Old-timer’s disease”). The term itself is an “Eggcorn”, it’s genesis can be traced back to a creative utterance from an anonymous individual who inserted the word “eggcorn” where the similarly sounding “acorn” would conventionally go (Mark Lieberman, 2003).

°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡°°°

※ Steven Connor suggests that cognitive dissonance is in train in the creation of Mondegreens – the brain is constantly trying “to make sense of the world by making assumptions to fill in the gaps when it cannot clearly determine what it is hearing” (‘Earslips: Of Mishearings and Mondegreens’, 2009)

§ the word Mumpsimus, a confused misinterpretation of the Latin term “Sumpsimus” (“we have received”), was accidentally coined by an old monk who doggedly persisted in using the invented word. Mumpsimus first appears in the correspondence of famous humanist scholar Erasmus Roterodamus, dating from 1516

Britain’s Tradition of Stage Censorship: The Lord Chamberlain and the Examiner of Plays, Arbiters of the Peoples’ Taste

November 19, 2021Creative Writing, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Regional History, Society & Culture‘A Patriot for Me’, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’, ‘Waiting for Godot’, ’Mrs Warren’s Profession’, Baron Cobbold, Deputy Examiner of Plays, Examiner of Plays, George Bernard Shaw, Georgian politics, Jacobites, Licensing Act 1737, Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Household, Oscar Wilde ‘Salome’, Queen Elizabeth II, Robert Walpole, Royal Court Theatre, Tennessee Williams, Theatre Royal, Theatres Act 1843, Theatres Act 1968, Whig PartyE Curb Nottus

The Lord Chamberlain (LC) is the most senior member of Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Household retinue. The office has been around in Britain for over 600 years, the incumbent is usually a peer and traditionally has always been male. Today, the LC handles the organisation for the Queen’s attendances at garden parties, state visits, looks after HM’s thoroughbred horses and he supervises the annual upping of the Royal swans. For much of its history though the LC had another, controversial role, censor of the British Theatre with virtual dictatorial powers — he “was answerable to no-one, not even parliament, and was not obliged to justify his decision to playwrights or theatre managers” [NICHOLSON, Steve. Theatre Censorship in Britain (1909-1968) In: Les censures dans le monde: xixe-xxie siècle[online]. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016 (generated 17 novembre 2021). Available on the Internet: . ISBN: 9782753555495. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pur.45008.] A much aggrieved George Bernard Shaw characterised the LC as the “Malvolio of St James’ Palace” [‘The Censorship of the Stage in England’, G. Bernard Shaw, North American Review, August 1899, Vol 69, No 513, pp.251-262, www.jstor.org/stable/25104865].

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The politics of early Georgian drama
Theatre censorship had existed in England since the 16th century but institutionalising its practice as a function of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office (LCO) was a political manoeuvre by the ”First Minster“ Robert Walpole in the 1730s to blunt the weapon of satire which was being effectively used theatrically against his government. The 1737 Licensing Act handed the LC the “power of god” over the English theatre, remarkably this legislative arrangement stayed in force until as recently as 1968. Hitherto to the crackdown critics🄰 of the ruling Whig Party were relatively free to make satirical attacks through the theatre of the day to expose the political corruption of Walpole’s government. The LC’s new carte blanche powers were designed to silence a theatre increasingly hostile to Walpole and the Whigs🄱 [‘The Licensing Act of 1737’, Eliza Hay, www.ericsimpson.sites.grinnell.edu].

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Examiner of Plays
The LC was provided with two officers to put the spadework, a Examiner of Plays🄲 and a Deputy Examiner of Plays (the offices remunerated by yearly stipends of £400 and £200 respectively). The examiners’ task, assisted by secretaries and other auxiliary staff, was to read the plays that came before them (the LC himself did precious little of the actual reading of the plays) and write “Reader’s Reports” for the LC. They were also required to visit theatres to check on their safety and comfort and to ensure that the LC’s licensing rules were being observed. Theatres without a licence were liable for prosecution and financial penalties [‘Licensing Act 1737’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org]. Although the ultimate decision on a license rested with the LC, the recommendations to make or break a new play came from the examiners, little wonder then that Bernard Shaw called the examiner “the most powerful man in England or America”.

Above and beyond the spoken word and the text
Censorship was not confined to bowdlerising the texts and banning plays outright🄳, the scope of the Royal censors extended to the actors’ gestures, the costumes, the sound and lighting effects, the set and the stage directions (Nicholson).

The view from within the Lord Chamberlain’s Office bubble
The LCO saw themselves as licensors rather than censors. They never really grasped why any reasonable dramatist or manager could object to their control, concluding that playwrights who did so were just trying “to exploit an unsavoury incident or fact”. In the LCO’s Pollyanna-like world view authors of “ordinary decent plays” on the other hand had nothing to fear. The LCO took a disparaging and contemptuous view of the modern playwrights who would rail against their invervention (such as John Osborne and Edward Bond🄴). The LCO tended to justify its censoring role in patronising terms, seeing itself as a moral watchdog, protecting the average playgoer from unsavoury plays, custodians of good taste on the English stage (Nicholson).

Zero guidance for the artist
The Act’s vagueness placed playwrights in an additional dilemma, the office of the LC never really spelt out explicitly what constituted a play’s suitability or unsuitability for a licence, leaving dramatists and the actor-managers of theatres guessing as to the basis of the objection. Plays rejected for a licence or having their manuscripts blue-pencilled for wholesale cuts were usually generically herded under a non-specific catch-all of being either ”immoral or improper for the stage”.

An effort at codifying
The 1843 Theatres Act made a partial effort at codifying and limiting the LC’s powers, stipulating that a play could only be prohibited if “it is fitting for the preservation of good manners, decorum or of the public peace”. A joint select committee in 1909 advising the LC provided further clarification of the powers, the following were said to be “no-nos” in plays: indecent subject matter; (if a play contains) “offensive personalities”; (if it infers) “violence to sentiments of religious reverence”; “represents invidious manner of living persons”; “calculated to conduce crime and vice”; “impairs friendly relations with foreign powers”🄵 [‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Plays with British Library Curator Dr Alexander Lock’, People of Theatre, (Vlog, 2021), www.peopleoftheatre.com].

Plays that dealt seriously with contemporary issues especially sexuality were severely blue-pencilled, eg, prostitution in Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession. The continuing influence of religion saw the LC come down heavily on blasphemy, the portrayal of biblical figures were taboo (eg, Oscar Wilde’s Salome. Obscene language in plays was a serious infraction of the code. Into the 20th century the censorship of the LC maintained its prescriptive role, plays that earned the ire of the examiners included such classics of the modern theatre as Waiting for Godot (bodily functions or parts, even mere sexual suggestiveness) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (homosexuality) which had already had a successful run on Broadway in the US. Increasingly as a result the LC was seen to be out of touch with modern concerns and realities.

Self-censorship and censorship by proxy
The LC held such control over theatrical performances in Britain that it even prompted an element of censorship by proxy. Rudolf Weiss has noted that fear of the LC‘s wrath led some playwrights to self-censor their work to secure a license and thus a hearing in Britain. Some of the autocratic actor-managers—fearful of financial losses arising from an aborted production—have done the LC’s work for them [‘“Unsuitable for theatrical presentation”: Mechanisms of censorship in later Victorian and Edwardian London Theatre’, Rudolf Weiss, www.ler.letras.up.pt].

End of the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship authority
Opposition to censorship was in the air in the 1960s with the emergence of a permissive society…a new generation of young playwrights like Osborne, Pinter and Bond were exploring increasingly polemical subjects in modern society. The Arts Council of Great Britain described the LC’s veto power as having “a contraceptive effect on the development of British drama” (Nicholson). The coup de grâce for theatre censorship came from the reformist Wilson Labour government🄶. The 1968 Theatres Act was part of a broad sweep of modernising legislation during the Sixties, along with the end of capital punishment, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the introduction of the pill and the legalisation of abortion [‘50 years after Theatres Act, censorship has evolved’, Sandra Osei-Frimpong, Index on Censorship, 14-Aug-2018, www.indexoncensorship.org]. The repeal of stage censorship opened the floodgates for creativity and bold innovation – just one day after the ban ended, the controversial US counterculture musical Hair (New Age nudity, drug-taking) opened on London’s West End.

G Bernard Shaw (Source: thefamouspeople.com)

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Footnote: Loophole in the system
The LCO’s net was wide but there were ways to get round the expurgator’s ban…when one Shaw play was banned in Britain for perceived profanity, the Irish playwright simply resorted to staging it in Liverpool and then Dublin. Later on some playwrights avoided the public theatre circuit altogether and put on their work exclusively at (private member) club theatres around the country. Even British drama institutions, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre, frustrated by the LCO’s persistent interference, “threatened to turn themselves into private clubs for specific productions to evade the LC’s rulings” (Nicholson), which contributed to the groundswell of groups and individuals campaigning to end theatrical censorship.

Arts Theatre Club production, 1955 (Photo: V & A Museum)

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🄰 with dramatist Henry Fielding in the forefront along with the Jacobite opponents of the Whigs
🄱 in theory the LC’s authority was limited to Westminster but effectively its jurisdiction applied to all Theatre Royal playhouses [‘Theatrical Oligarchies: The Role of the Examiner of Plays’, Oxford Scholarship Online, www.oxford.universitypressscholarship.com]
🄲 sometimes called ‘Comptroller’, in the 20th century they have mainly been military men-turned courtiers
🄳 each year relative few plays actually got banned, expurgation was the common recourse
🄴 whose play Saved was one of the last to be banned
🄵 these grounds would prove very controversial in the 1930 when the LC Lord Cromer banned a number of English plays which were hostile towards Nazi Germany (a manifestation of London’s appeasement approach to relations with Berlin). Cromer even send some scripts to the German Embassy for their ‘approval’! [‘Theatre of War: how the monarchy suppressed anti-Nazi drama in the 1930s’, Steve Nicholson, The Guardian, 22-Jul-2015, www.theguardian.com]
🄶 the previous Labour (Attlee) government had unsuccessfully tried to pass an anti-censorship bill in 1949

𓂀 𝕒𝕓𝕔𝕕𝕖𝕗𝕘𝕙𝕚𝕛𝕜 𓂀 ꧁༒𝓪𝓫𝓬𝓭𝓮𝓯𝓰𝓱𝓲༒꧂ ⓐⓑⓒⓓⓔⓕⓖⓗⓘ ǟɮƈɖɛʄɢɦɨ

The Law of Jante: Scandinavian Anti-exceptionalism and the Wealth and Social Status Taboo

September 5, 2021Comparative politics, Creative Writing, Inter-ethnic relations, Literary & Linguistics, Regional politics‘A Fugitive Crosses his Tracks’, ‘Jante-ism’, ‘New Britons’, ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome‘, 10 Rules of Jante, Aksel Sandemose, Anti-exceptionalism, Australia and New Zealand, Cultural codes and myths, Denmark, Exo-group influence, Finland, Iben Sandemose, Iceland, ideological egalitarianism, Jante laki, Jantelagen, Jantelögin, Janteloven, Laws of Jante, Nordic cultural norms, Norway, Nykøbing Mors, Scandinavia, Social media, Sweden, World Happiness IndexSloane Snodgrasse

(Image: Scandinavian Standard)

Contemporary Scandinavian society is rich and appetising fodder for sociologists and behaviouralists. The peculiar strain of egalitarianism that runs through the Nordic countries manifests itself in a concept known as Jantelagen in Swedish or Janteloven in Danish and Norwegian⊡. The origin of the word ‘Janteloven’ comes from a 1933 satirical novel by a Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose. A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks, set in a fictional Danish town called ‘Jante’, is “a thinly veiled roman à clef about his hometown Nykøbing Mors”, Denmark, in which he skewers the inhabitants for their foibles – “pettiness, envy, backbiting, gossip, inverted snobbery and small-mindedness” [‘The Law of Jante’, Michael Booth, Paris Review, ‪11-Feb-2015 ‬www.parisreview.org]. One small portion of En flyktning krysser sitt spor (the Norwegian title) is of lasting significance, the “Laws of Jante”⊞, the list of ten principles designed to put non-conformists in Nordic society in their place. Sandemose’s so-called ‘Laws’ draw on long and widely held, deeply engrained Scandinavian attitudes⊟.

The 10 Laws of Jante

A society devoid of exceptionalism and ‘oneupmanship’
Janteloven/Jantelagen is a concept which celebrates Nordic self-restraint, “stoic humbleness and modesty”. Any sense of individual superiority and ambition is actively discouraged, as is talking about one’s personal success. The Jante laws are cultural codes which eschew declarations of a self-congratulatory or immodest kind. Nordic “Jante-ism” offers no haven for those seeking to stand out from the crowd. The benefits for adherence, Scandinavians assert, are collective ones, good for the nation as a whole, resulting in enhanced quality of life, a contribution to the “GNP of happiness” enjoyed by its citizens⊠ [‘Jantelagen: The Law of Jante Explained’, Swedes in the States, 22-Feb-2021, www.swedesinthestates.com].

The Jante Law instructs on what citizens need to do to fit in to the community, but it has a punitive purpose too…if an individual fails to fit in, it provides a way of “socially stigmatising anyone who break the rules”. According to author Michael Booth, it affects the everyday choices Scandinavians make, what clothes you wear, what car you buy, etc [‘Forget hygge: The laws that really rule in Scandinavia’, (BBC Ideas video, 2018, www.bbc.co.uk].

“We are all equal!”

Swedish comparisons are odious: The taboo on money and status
Jantelagen is deeply rooted in the Swedish psyche, it is de rigeur for all stratum of society never to talk about one’s wealth or income. Jantelagen also prohibits people from boasting about their social status, firing off a warning shot to allay any notions they may harbour about climbing the social ladder (the codes act as a handbrake on citizens not getting above their station). The reinforcement of the appearance of an egalitarian society helps to keep the balance (ie, serving as a control mechanism, maintaining homogeneity and societal harmony). Stephen Trotter’s study of Janteloven in Norway concludes that it operates as a “form of structural censorship (where) symbolic power is exerted (in the task of) nation-building” [‘Breaking the law of Jante’, SR Trotter, Issue 23 Myth and Nation, www.gla.ac.uk].

(Source: mbastudies.com)

Anything north of average is a win!
The claimed benefits of “Jante-ism” has also been explained in terms of a state of decreased expectations – living by the ten rules installs a sense of average expectations from life, so anything that comes your way “above and beyond the average” will be a welcome bonus, value-adding to your existing store of happiness (Lindsay Dupuis)[‘The happiness of the Danes can easily be explained by 10 cultural rules’, Lila MacLellan, Quartz, 29-Sep-2016, www.qz.com].

Stockholm’s poshest precinct (Photo: Alxpin/Getty Images)

A Millennial challenge to the Law of Jante?
The fabric of Jantelagen in a society like Sweden remains firmly intact despite the reality of growing inequalities in income since the 1990s – the top 20% of workers in Sweden earn four times as much as the bottom 20% (OECD). There are some signs in the Scandinavian countries however that the fabric is coming under strain, especially from the changing expectations of the countries’ youth. The inexorable rise of social media presages a Millennial backlash against the Law of Jante… University of Bergen academic Cornelius Cappelen points to the pervasive influence of online platforms to effect behavioural change and undermine the Jante mindset, ie, bragging on Facebook, Instagram, Vlogging, etc, all promoting “rampant individualism” (Cappelin) [‘Law of Jante’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org; ‘Jantelagen: Why Swedes won’t talk about wealth’, Maddy Savage, BBC, 18-Oct-2019, www.bbc.com].

(Photo: Sveriges Radio)

Exo-group influences
Aside from pushback from a social media-fuelled Scandinavian youth, challenges to the unspoken social norms of ”Jante-ism” may emerge from other sectors of society. Sweden is increasingly a migrant society, estimates put the proportion of Swedish citizens with a foreign background at around 25%…this growing diversity exposes the community to the influence of outside cultures, many of which have very different socio-cultural norms to the ‘native’ ones, such as the celebration of achievements, skills and talents of the individual (Savage).

Helsinki: Vanha kaupunki (Source: Multi Briefs)

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Sandemose’s stern image on a Norwegian jet

Endnote: TPS
Scandinavia’s Jante Law evokes similarities with other cultural phenomenons such as the (albeit less institutionalised) “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. This millennia-old cultural phenomenon—deriving from Ancient Greek and Roman sources—is conspicuously present in but by no means unique to the cultural ethos of Australia and New Zealand. Having freed themselves of the status of British colonies far away in the South-west Pacific, Australians and New Zealanders created through war and statehood a new and separate (mythic) identity for themselves as a ‘superior’ type of Briton…one in which “Jack was as good as his master”. This sustained myth of classlessness, sometimes described as a kind of “ideological egalitarianism down under”, was a conscious attempt to distance these “New Britons” from the rigid class system of the mother country.

͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡° ͡°° ͡

⊡ Jante laki in Finnish and Jantelögin in Icelandic

⊞ a sort of mock “informal Scandinavian Ten Commandments” (Booth)

⊟ Sandemose himself by all accounts was hardly a model Nordic citizen, irritable of nature, of questionable morality and thoroughly unpleasant to family according to his granddaughter Iben, also a writer (Booth)

⊠ UN World Happiness Report (2018) ranked the top three countries, in order, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Previously in 2016 Denmark topped the world poll

Theatre of the Absurd: Anti-Realism, Anti-Language, Anti-Play?

August 22, 2021Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Performing arts‘The Bald Soprano’, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, ‘The Rhinoceros’, ‘The Zoo Story’, ‘Theatre of Derision’, ‘Ubu Roi’, ‘Waiting for Godot’, Albert Camus, Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Edward Albee, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Martin Esslin, NF Simpson, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Samuel Beckett, Surrealism, Theatre of the Absurd, Tom Stoppard, Tristan TzaraE Curb Nottus

A term you don’t hear much these days, even among the literati, is the Theatre of the Absurd. I first heard about this theatre genre in the Seventies, when I was introduced to the plays of Beckett and Pinter, and saw the AFT film version of Ionesco’s play The Rhinceros. Even then the Theatre of the Absurd had a kind of Fifties/Sixties feel to it. So where did it come from? Well, we have drama critic and scholar Martin Esslin to thank for the expression. In the late Fifties Esslin drew the dots between the work of various, otherwise disparate and unconnected contemporary playwrights who shared a particular world view and a number of traits and preoccupations. Esslin circa 1960 wrote that these ‘Absurdist’ playwrights were attacking the “comfortable certainties of religious and political orthodoxy, shocking audiences out of their complacency, bringing them face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation”, ie, that it is essentially absurd.

The philosophical framework for Absurdism and the Theatre of the Absurd was laid by French Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus. In his 1942 essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ Camus defines the human condition as basically meaningless and therefore absurd, arguing that “humanity had to resign itself to recognizing that a fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe (in Camus-speak = “formless chaos) was beyond its reach; in that sense, the world must ultimately be seen as absurd” (Crabb). Once we accept this inevitability we can get on with life. Camus’ existentialist view of the universe would go on to strike a receptive chord with the absurdist generation of dramatists.

The emergence of a new theatre in the Fifties which staunchly rejected the realism of status quo postwar theatre and whose calling card was the statement life is meaningless was a reaction to the atrocities and unimaginable inhumanity of the Second World War. Interestingly, Esslin, following Camus, did not feel that the message of the Absurdists—the profound state of despair of humankind—was reason to be pessimistic about the world. Accepting the “mysteries of existence”—that we live in an irrational and “hostile universe” (Camus’ term), for which there are “no easy solutions” leaves (you) with “a sense of freedom and relief” and “the laughter of liberation” (Esslin).

(Image: redbubble.com)

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Theatre of the Absurd antecedents
Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play Ubu Roi is often thought of as “proto-Theatre of the Absurd”…bizarre, controversial, revolutionary, paper-thin plot, scatological scatterings, the characters speak in staccato sentences, Ubu Roi also highly influenced the Dadaist art and literary movement which along with Surrealism took its turn in passing the anti-realism torch on to the Theatre of the Absurd. Dadaism like the Absurdist plays was a reaction in part to war (WWI in this case)…as one of its main exponents Tristan Tzara explained: ”if human logic can lead the world to global war then art should abandon all logic and sense“. Likewise, Surrealism’s desire to shock audiences and its descent into the world of human dreams also anticipates some of the preoccupations of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Eugène Ionesco (Image: David Levine/NY Review)

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A theatre movement disassociated from its creators
Unlike Surrealism and other arts genres, the Theatre of the Absurd was not a conscious movement. Despite Esslin identifying the Parisian avant-garde as its centre and Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and Adamov the leading figures of the Absurdist movement, there was no organised school of playwrights who identified themselves as its practitioners. Some like Ionesco in fact strongly objected to the label, preferring in his case the term “Theatre of Derision” to delineate his work. The exponents of this form of theatre were disassociated, each of the dramatists arrived independently at a similar style and a vision of the futility of human existence.

Beckett (Source: samuel beckettsociety.org)

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A revolutionary and subversive Theatre of the Absurd
Playwrights like Beckett and Ionesco were committed to exploring absurdism in all its manifestations – philosophical, dramaturgical, existential, emotional, a radical form of drama that pushed the boundaries of theatre to the extremes (Dickson)…it’s distinctive features and innovations subverting the established theatre of the day. The Theatre of the Absurd radically departs from traditional theatrical conventions…dispensing with the conventional narrative of the “well-made play” with a beginning, a middle and an end, plots are typically disorganised, often with a non-linear or cyclical approach (“ever diminishing concentric circles”), nothing happens or if it does, it’s in a unmotivated way. Much use is made of ritual. Mysteries go unresolved and order is not restored at the end. Characters have no clear identities and have a homogeneity to them (eg, The Rhinoceros), they are not consistent even interchangeable (eg, Genet’s The Maids), characters don’t develop and are devoid of motivation or purpose.

(Source/ Exeunt NYC)

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Estragon: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful”.

Eternally waiting for Godot
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was one of the earliest and best known plays to be so designated, becoming an exemplar of Adsurdist theatre. It was controversially received when it premiered in 1953, later famously described by critic Vivian Mercer as “a play in which nothing happens, twice”. ‘Godot’ is a bleak tragi-comedy soaked in “existential despair”. The bleakness of the play is reinforced by the setting: no recognisable time or place❅, sparse set, minimally furnished. Stylistically the play is repetitive, open-ended almost empty of action but with snatches of vaudeville and philosophy. Characters utter illogical and circular dialogue while they wait…and wait for the title character (who never appears). Beckett’s later plays became more and more reductionist, language pared back towards “Endgame” silence.

Beckett’s ‘Endgame’ (Photo: New York Times)

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The war on language
The breakdown of language is a preoccupation in Absurdist Theatre. In Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano language disintegrates rapidly, demonstrating its failure as a tool of communication. Nonsense dialogue, characters speaking in gibberish, absurdist dramas often abound in cliches, slogans and non-sequiturs. The plays of Ionesco and NF Simpson also specialise in satirising “the modern prostitution of language corrupted by salesmen and politicians”. Ionesco distinguished between the way he and Beckett assailed language: “Beckett destroys language with silence. I do it with too much language, with characters talking at random, and by inventing words“ (Interview, Paris Review, 1984).

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Source: LA Times)

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Representing British colours in the Club de l’Absurde were Harold Pinter (The Dumb Waiter) and Tom Stoppard…the latter’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead involves a “Godotesque” waiting game with a similar sense of anticlimax. ‘Ros’ and ‘Guil’, relocated from Hamlet, are interchangeable characters who pass the time engaging in philosophical musings and mind-numbing circular discourses with each other.

Camus, ‘godfather’ of Absurdist Theatre (Photo: The Telegraph, UK)

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Footnote: Trans-Atlantic Absurdist
Although essentially a European movement, Esslin (less convincingly) includes American Edward Albee into the collection of Absurdist dramatists on the basis that his plays (eg, The Zoo Story, The American Dream, The Sandbox) attack “America’s foundation of optimism”.

‘Zoo Story’ (Photo: Front Row Center)

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❅ a feature of Theatre of the Absurd plays is a sense of timelessness

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Bibliography:

Martin Esslin, Theatre of the Absurd (1961)

Jerome P. Crabb, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, Theatre Database, 2006, www.theatredatabase.com

‘Nonsense talk: Theatre of the Absurd’, Andrew Dickson, Discovering Literature: 20th century, 07-Sep-2017, www.bl.uk

‘Absurdity in Theater: Ubu Roi’, Nermin Büsra Kirisik, Artil, www.artilmagazine.com

‘Beckett, Ionesco and the Theater if the Absurd: Crash Course Theater #45′ (Video, 2018)

Fortress Moskva for Bibliophiles: The State Library, Depository for Everything Published in Russia

August 4, 2021Heritage & Conservation, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Old technologyArbat neighbourhood Moscow, Guinness Book of Records, Library of Congress (US), Ottoman collection, Russian republic, Russian State Library, USSR, VI Lenin LibraryE Curb Nottus

A quieter side of Moscow to visit—a diversion away from the tourist central of St Basil’s, GUM and the Kremlin¹—can be found at the Russian State Library (RSL) in Vozdvizhenka Street in the Arbat neighbourhood. Moskva’s huge public library (founded 1862) back in the USSR days was called with Soviet originality the VI Lenin Library (with the nickname the ‘Leninka’ or the ‘Leninski’). The library’s facade has the standard CCCP look, monolithic and imposing.

(Photo: rsl.ru)

Modern security, antiquated catalogue
Once inside the entrance we are faced with a surprising level of security…a security cordon more in keeping with Fort Knox or at the very least a central bank, rather than a library – electronic gates and guards in police-type flak jackets. The way the culturally-proud Moscovites look at, it is a house of treasures that can’t be valued in roubles! The Guinness Book of Records ranks RSL as the largest in Europe and the second-largest library in the world behind the Library of Congress, Washington DC². RSL holds upward of 30 million book items (books, magazines, periodicals and other publications (a smaller but very significant number are in other than the Russian language)³.

(Photo: Pinterest)

But everything is big in RSL, collections of rare, historic maps, musical scores, art folios, etc, 36 separate reading rooms, the card catalogue system. Card catalogues? Yes RSL is holding 21st century technology at bay by clinging to row upon row of wooden card catalogue cabinets (Gen Ys and Millennials must puzzle over this furniture from Mars?)…some may scoff at the retention of the “old school” system but I found it quaint, a nostalgic throwback to less sophisticated methodology (although it should be added that the library maintains a digital catalogue system as well).

RSL is part library, part book and document museum. The 160 thousand item-strong maps collection is a cartographer’s “wet dream”, rare historic maps dating back to the 16th century. Rare books, early printed editions, are RSL’s forte, including manuscripts of ancient Slavonic codices.

RSL’s Ottoman collection (Photo: TRT World)

As Russia’s national library–a status comparable to the Library of Congress–RSL has a special role as the nation’s book depository (the recipient of legal deposit copies of all publications in Russia). No cost to enter RSL but tourists have to get a visitor’s badge at the entry gate, cameras and photography inside the library are “no-nos”.

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¹ actually not far at all from the Kremlin walls, but out of sight and earshot of the throng of tourist queues

² measured by catalogue size (number of items)

³ all holdings and collections in the library amount to over 47 million items

City Lights Bookshop: Shakespeare and Company’s “Symbiotic Sister”

July 27, 2021Biographical, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Old technology, Popular Culture, Regional History, Social History, Society & Culture‘Howl’ trial, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, City Lights, George Whitman, Gregory Corso, Independent bookshops, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paperback book revolution, Paul D Martin, Pocket books and pocket poems, San Francisco North Beach and Chinatown, Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia BeachBonza Rottwheeler

In 1953, two years after George Whitman resurrected Sylvia Beach’s famed Shakespeare and Company in Paris, the bookshop that was to become its trans-Atlantic soul mate, City Lights, opened its doors in the North Beach area of San Francisco🄰.

(Photo: Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)

Two landmark ‘indie’ bookshops
The story of Shakespeare and Company’s evolution into an legendary bookshop has been sketched in a previous blog piece: ‘Hanging Out at Shakespeare and Company’, 21-July-2021. On the other side of the Atlantic another distinctive stand-alone bookshop was staking it’s undeniable claim for iconic status in the world of independent booksellers.

A literary community
Lawrence Ferlinghetti envisaged City Lights as “a literary meeting place”—just like Whitman and Shakespeare and Company—a haven for aspiring writers to hangout and find creativity. A poet himself, Ferlinghetti attracted an emerging group of fiction writers and poets that coalesced into the “Best Generation”, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Gregory Corso. The Beat writers and poets found themselves a comfortable niche hanging out together in the basement reading room of City Lights.

(Image: Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)

Not only that, Ferlinghetti was proactive in his support for the Beats’ budding careers by starting a publishing arm at City Lights, bringing to the public collections of poetry, offbeat and radical books ignored by the mainstream press. Ferlinghetti’s disavowal of the commercial mainstream saw him promote alternative newspapers and magazines as well (‘Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and founder of City Lights bookshop, dies aged 101’, Sian Cain, The Guardian, 23-Feb-2021, www.theguardian.com).

(Image: citylights.com)

Maverick bookseller
City Lights was always an innovator in the bookselling biz. It arose with the onset of the paperback revolution, a wave that the San Fran bookshop happily rode. Hard covers were expensive so City Lights became the first all-paperback bookshop in the US (co-founder Paul Martin’s idea). The bookstore bucked the bookselling status quo – before City Lights came along readers could only buy paperbacks from drugstores, bus stations and newsstands (‘The Beat Generation in San Francisco’, Bill Morgan, www.citylights.com). Ferlinghetti’s store was a democratising force in US bookselling, City Lights’ paperbacks were cheap, all budgets could afford their quality pocket books. City Lights’ innovativeness extended to opening hours. Unlike the bulk of mainstream American bookshops who usually closed early in the Fifties, City Lights stayed open seven days a week and late into the night.

🔺 the ’emperor of City Lights

Bookshop outreach
The bookshop extended outreach activities to the local community. The store maintained a community bulletin board, disseminating info for the North Beach literary set, thus helping to foster the local counterculture community. Ferlinghetti also furnished the City Lights store with letter racks for itinerants who frequented the triangular storefront to collect their mail.

The ‘Howl’ episode
In 1956 Ferlinghetti published and distributed a poem by an unknown Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Police in an undercover sting operation confiscated Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’🄱 collection and arrested Ferlinghetti who was charged with selling “obscene material and corrupting America’s youth”. The subsequent trial became a cause celeb in the industry. The judge found that the publication had “redeeming social significance” and therefore was not obscene🄲. The trial publicity was great for Ginsberg’s poetry and for City Lights. ‘Howl’ became an underground best-seller and a symbol of both the counterculture and the Beat Generation🄳 (Morgan).

🔺 Ferlinghetti outside City Lights, 1950s

Political poetics
The character of City Lights reflected Ferlinghetti’s own political and social activism. The “philosophical anarchist” was a bulwark for left causes, eg, using the bookshop venue to host many sit-ins and protests against the Vietnam War (“books, not bombs”). Ferlinghetti believed that poetry was a social force capable of raising the consciousness of the people.

Precarious business model?
Profitability was not City Lights’ raison d’être. Staying out of “the red” was a constant challenge. To stay afloat sometimes the publishing side needed to bail out the retail sales which was losing money and at other times it was vice versa (Cain). What didn’t help matters financial were the activities of shoplifting gangs in the Seventies which targeted the bookshop. And if it wasn’t them it was insiders like poet Gregory Corso helping himself liberally to the till (Morgan).

Whitman & Ferlinghetti (seated) in 2002 (Photo: Mary Duncan/Paris Writers Press)

Footnote: the extent to which Shakespeare and Co and City Lights can be called sister bookshops comes down largely to the personal visions of their founders Whitman and Ferlinghetti🄴 who were both lifelong book tragics🄵, “(sharing a) love of literature and poetry (and a) devotion and commitment to the power of words” (‘The Beats go on…’, Alix Sharkey, The Guardian, 02-Mar-2002, www.theguardian.com). For Whitman and Ferlinghetti however, the bookshop was more than a receptacle for selling books, it filled the roles of haven and incubator in nurturing new writers as well as a hub for the local literary community. Sister bookstores they may be but they are clearly not identical twins when it comes to the interiors and decors of the two bookshops…City Lights’ book displays are neatly-ordered and arranged whereas Shakespeare and Co is clutter central to the max!

City Lights (Photo: Literary Hub)

Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti, poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights. The New York born, Paris educated, bookseller and publisher, died on 22nd February 2021, aged 101.

⊞⊟⊠⊡⊞⊟⊠⊡

🄰 City Lights’ address, 261-271 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco 94133, places it technically within Chinatown but the store identifies with the adjoining precinct of North Beach

🄱 ‘Howl’, ‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…’ was a thunderbolt against the conservative poetry establishment of Fifties America, the prototype for a new poetry which immersed itself in “wide-eyed truth-telling”

🄲 the basis of the acquittal was a precedent called on in later attempts to overturn bans on works like Tropic of Capricorn and Naked Lunch

🄳 although often associated with them, City Light’s publishing arm never confined itself to the beat writers, it also publishes the work of non-Beat luminaries like Charles Bukowski, Sam Shepard and Malcolm Lowry

🄴 strictly speaking Ferlinghetti wasn’t the founder of City Lights, that was sociology academic Paul D Martin but Ferlinghetti got into the business on the ground floor in 1953 and took sole charge of the bookshop within two years after Martin left

🄵 Whitman literally slept in a room in the store overflowing with books

Hanging Out at Shakespeare and Company: Modernist Literary Salon and Sanctuary for Aspiring Writers Rolled into one Parisian Bookshop

July 21, 2021Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Old technology, Society & Culture‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, ‘Ulysses’, ’Tumbleweeds’, “Lost Generation”, Adrienne Monnier, Allen Ginsberg, American expats in Paris, Anaïs Nin, Anglo/Irish expats in Paris, Beat Generation, Book retailing, City Lights, DH Lawrence, Djuna Barnes, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford, George Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Greg Corso, Hafiz of Shiraz, Henry Miller, James Joyce, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Man Ray, Martin Amis, Ray Bradbury, Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach, Sylvia Beach Whitman, TS Eliot, William S Burroughs, Zadie SmithBonza Rottwheeler

(Image: Aprendiz de Viajante)

Beach on the Seine
A must-visit in Paris for the literary and artistic set or even the mildly book-curious is the iconic “Shakespeare and Company” bookstore situated near the Latin Quarter and across from Notre Dame. It’s address is 37 rue de la Bûcherie 75005, V, but it wasn’t always there. Shakespeare & Co founder, American expat Sylvia Beach, started the legendary Left Bank bookshop at 8 rue Dupuytren in 1919. Within three years Beach moved the shop to the 6th Arrondissement at 12 rue de l’Odéan, across the street from La Masion des Amis des Livres owned by Beach’s future ‘bestie’ and amour Adrienne Monnier. This bookshop was the template Beach used for her own serious literature bookshop-cum-lending library.

𐅉 Ulysses – Joyce and Beach at Shakespeare & Co

Beach’s lifeline for Joyce’s untouchable manuscript
Beach is probably best remembered for giving James Joyce his big breakthrough in the literary world, publishing Ulysses in
1922 when nobody else would touch it…the abstruse, controversial novel went on to become a masterpiece of modern literature. Over time Shakespeare and Company acquired a more lasting fame as the hub of Anglo-American literary culture and modernism in Paris. Aspiring British, Irish and American writers, prompted by a post-WWI favourable pound and dollar exchange rate against the French franc, flocked to the creative milieu of Paris where they discovered the unique appeal of Beach’s Anglophone bookshop🄱 (The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses, Kevin Birmingham, 2014).

𐅉 Hemingway & Fitzgerald (www.pinterest.fr)

“The Lost Generation”
In the interwar years Beach’s bookshop became a haven for the Anglophone literati…habitués included the likes of TS Eliot and Ezra Pound, and the “Lost Generation” of American intellectuals, modernist writers and artists including Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Ford Maddox Ford, Man Ray, etc. Hemingway and other illustrious names belonged to the store’s lending library, borrowing books when they couldn’t afford to buy them. At the same time French intellectual writers such as Gidé and de Beauvoir also benefitted from Sylvia’s efforts to get their work better known in the US. The bookseller also gave crucial assistance to various avant-garde ‘little magazines’ in getting their publications off the ground by distributing their editions (Shakespeare and Co: The world’s most famous bookshop at 100‘, Cath Pound, BBC, 19-Nov-2019, www.bbc.com).

𐅉 a young George Whitman

Shakespeare and Company redux
In 1941 with occupied Paris under the Nazi swastika, the shop was closed down and Beach interned for a period after Sylvia refused to sell the last copy of Finnegan’s Wake to a German officer. The closure was permanent but the phoenix of Beach’s bookstore did rise again, reinvented by another American expat a decade later. In 1951 WWII veteran George Whitman opened a new, independent English-language bookshop – effectively “Shakespeare and Company Mach II“, though originally called Le Mistral. Later Sylvia Beach apparently anointed Whitman’s bookshop as the true and worthy successor to her original Shakespeare and Company (after Beach’s death in 1962 Whitman renamed the bookshop “Shakespeare and Company”) (‘Bookshop Shakespeare and Company. Paris’, by Els, www.flickr.com).

(Source: another mag.com)

“The Beat Generation”
Within a short time Whitman’s Mistral bookshop was fulfilling the same service to Paris-based Bohemians as Beach’s had for the Lost Generation of writers. Le Mistral, the second coming of “Shakespeare and Co”, became a mecca for a new literary generation in the Fifties, the ’Beat’ Generation and its writers including Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs and Greg Corso. Other English-language expats to frequent the bookshop at this time include Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Lawrence Durrell and Ray Bradbury (‘Shakespeare and a Company (Bookshop), Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org).

𐅉 Quote from medieval Persian poet Hafiz of Shiraz

Tumbleweed Hotel‘s quirky tariff
George Whitman maintained Sylvia Beach’s tradition of putting aspiring young writers up for the night (or several nights)…in return for a very basic cot or even a bench, the guests were required to work in the store, read a book and write a one-page autobiography🄲 (‘A Brief History of Shakespeare and Company, Paris’ Legendary Bookstore’, Alex Ledsom, Culture Trip, 26-Feb-2018, www.theculturetrip.com.

𐅉 Sylvia Whitman (Photo: nicethingspalomas.com)

Generation-and-a-half change
George Whitman died in 2011 at 98…the last 10 years of his life was a struggle of wills as the increasingly wildly eccentric George sought to push back against the attempts of his daughter Sylvia Beach Whitman🄳 to modernise the bookshop🄴. Since becoming sole proprietor, Sylvia has moved Shakespeare and Company forward with the times—web-based online transactions, modern accounting practices, the addition of a café, etc—but she still runs a lending library and a second-hand book section, hosts book launches and regular author readings by Zadie Smith, Martin Amis, etc in the shop (‘In a bookstore in Paris’, Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair, 21-Oct-2014, www.vanityfair.com).

(Photo: www.minute.net)

📚 📚 📚

Some takes by visitors on the physical layout of Whitman’s bookshop:

° “a Tardis – modest enough on the outside, a labyrinth on the inside” ~ Jeanette Winterson

° “Shakespeare and Company has the rambling lucidity of an unkempt boudoir” ~ Penny Watson, ‘A tale of two bookshops’ [SMH, Dec 1-2, 2007]

° “a literary octopus with an insatiable appetite for print, taking over the beat-up building … room by room, floor by floor, a veritable nest of books” ~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

📚 📚 📚

𐅉 Sylvia Beach (Source: ricorso.net)

Footnote: for the literary expatriates who frequented Shakespeare and Company, the bookshop served a number of purposes. It functioned as a sort of support network club where the expat writers could meet other members, could draw inspiration from its environs, they could read a wide range of quality literature including books banned in the US and UK, and they could write in its rooms🄵.The bookshop was a “sanctuary for progressive writers and a hub for innovative publishing” (Pound). Some of the expat artists and writers even used Beach’s bookshop as their postal box for receiving mail in Paris (Birmingham).

~~▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫~~

🄰 Joyce ‘repaid’ Beach by later defecting to a new publisher at a time the bookseller was in a financial jam

🄱 Beach couldn’t however replicate the triumph of getting Ulysses into print with DH Lawrence’s controversial Lady Chatterley’s Lover

🄲 the senior Whitman described these blow-in visitors as ’Tumbleweeds’, estimated to number around 30,000 since 1951

🄳 named in honour of the original Sylvia Beach

🄴 George was resistant to changing even one iota of the seemingly chaotic structure of the shop; he didn’t believe in phones or credit cards or computers (Handy)

🄵 Whitman gave the store’s rooms whimsical names like “Old Smoky Reading Room” and “Blue Oyster Tearoom”

DH Lawrence’s New Mexico “Shangri-La”

July 15, 2021Biographical, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Old technology, Society & Culture'Mornings in Mexico', 'Plumed Serpent', 'St Mawr', 'The Woman Who Rode Away', Aldous Huxley, American Southwest, DH Lawrence in Exile, Frieda Lawrence, Kandy and Ceylon, Kiowa Ranch/D.H. Lawrence Ranch, Lady Dorothy Brett, Mabel Dodge Sterne, Mexico, Native Amerindians, Pera-Hera, San Francisco, Taos New Mexico, USA, Western AustraliaSloane Snodgrasse

In his semi-autobiographical, Australian novel Kangaroo, DH Lawrence’s protagonist Richard Somers remarks that he’ll “probably repent bitterly going to America”. This echoes Lawrence’s own equivocation about America. In correspondence, Lawrence thought America “the land of his future” but this was tempered by a pessimism that the United States would be ‘barbaric’ and he would hate it⌖ (Letters IV:141, 151, ‘Manuscripts and Special Collections’, D. H. Lawrence Research – The University of Nottingham, www.nottingham.ac.uk).

The call of Pueblo lifestyle
In the end what clinched it for Lawrence was an invite from New York art patron Mabel Dodge Sterne to visit Taos, New Mexico. The promise of Taos captured DHL’s imagination…remote (7,000 feet-high, 23 miles from the nearest railway), 600 free Indians unspoilt by western capitalism and modernity, “sun-worshippers and rain makers” (D. H. Lawrence and the American Indians’, Jeffery Meyers, Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol 56, Issue 2, Spring 2017, www.quod.lib.umich.edu).

DHL was enchanted with the idea of the primitive lifestyle of native Americans, their spiritual faith and traditional connexion with the earth.

Lawrence envisaged that this could be the utopian community, the free and open, instinctive society, ‘Rananim’, that he had been trekking around the world trying to find. Mabel also lured Bert to Taos with the prospect of dazzlingly spectacular scenery.

In search of healthy air
DHL had another motive for choosing New Mexico, being potentially beneficial to his precarious health. His tubercular condition was not diminishing at allq. The climate in Taos—high and dry with famously good and clean air— was one that might bring about a cure for his infected lungs (‘Looking for Lawrence’, Henry Shukman, New Mexico Magazine, (nd), www.newmexico.org).

Desert Rananim?
As his letters show, Lawrence was in love with the desert landscape of New Mexico to an intoxicating degree – overwhelmed by the strangeness and beauty of the place, even a bit awestruck and fearful. When the writer visited the wilderness of Western Australia earlier, he experienced similar vibes from the bush environment (‘Looking for Lawrence’).

DHL waxed lyrical on the experience later, ” I think New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I have ever had. It certainly changed me forever …. the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul, and I started to attend”: he wrote how the person who lives there “above the great proud world of desert will know, almost unbearably how beautiful it is, how clear and unquestioned is the might of the day” (‘Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers is D. H. Lawrence’, (2017)).

At Taos Lawrence found himself the unwilling object of a love triangle with host Mabel vying with wife Frieda for his attention, which stiffled his creativity somewhat. He did however manage to finish the final chapter of Kangaroo during his initial sojourn in Taos.

Ranch life in the high country
Lawrence returned to England in 1923 keen on recruiting members of the British artistic fraternity for his New Mexico ‘Rananim’. He returned the next year but with only the one recruit, artist Dorothy Brett☼, whose presence added a further tension to the feminine rivalries at Taos. This led to Mabel giving the Lawrences their own ranch way up in the mountains (8,600 feet above sea-level) and about 20 miles from Taos—the only property the couple would ever own—the Kiowa Ranch (now the D.H. Lawrence Ranch)✪. When not beavering away on new manuscript projects, Bert kept busy at the ranch chopping wood and constructing log cabins, as well as taking hikes in the mountains.

Ambivalence towards Amerindian culture
Once Bert got to see Amerindian religious ritual and customs up close, much of his pre-visit enthusiasm dissipated (“not impressive as a spectacle”, he noted). He still admired the “Red Indian” but felt the native American culture had been debased by American ‘progress’ and modernity, reduced in Taos to that of a tourism attraction (essay ‘New Mexico’, (1928); ‘D.H. Lawrence and the American Indiana’s, Jeffery Meyers, Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol 56 Issue 2, Spring 2017, www.quod.lib.umich.edu).

Lorenzo’s literary output in the Southwest
DH Lawrence visited Taos, NM, three times during the period 1922-25 but only for a total of 11 months altogether. ‘Lorenzo’, as his patron and admirer Mabel Dodge fondly called him, never fulfilled the fervent hopes of Mabel by writing the great novel of the Southwest or even of New Mexico…but he did manage to produce a solid body of work while residing in NM including the novellas St Mawr and The Woman Who Rode Away, the travel book Mornings in Mexico, as well as writing part of the novel The Plumed Serpent at the ranch (after research conducted in Mexico).

Lawrence’s TB condition worsened in Europe and the novelist died in 1930 in the south of France, still proclaiming to friends a heartfelt desire to return to his beloved Taos. Frieda, who returned to live in Taos, afterwards had her late husband’s remains exhumed and shipped back to be interred on Taos soil.

End-note: Lawrence in the tropics
Lawrence’s global search for an alternative to modern, industrialised ‘civilisation’ landed him in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on route to America. Lawrence’s anticipation of a good time in Ceylon was dealt a harsh blow by reality. The Lawrences stayed on the edge of the forest in Kandy, their attempts to sleep plagued by unbearable heat—”the terrific sun … like a bell-jar of heat, like a prison over you”, and the local fauna —“horrid noises of the birds and creatures … hammer and clang and rattle and cackle and explode all the livelong day” (Letters IV: 214, 227 Notts U). The one bright spot was the Raj Pera-Hera festival which DHL enjoyed, inspiring him to write a poem, ‘Elephant’, the sole literary fruit of his five weeks in Ceylon.

Huxley & Lawrence in Taos

⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑⁌⁍⋐⋑

⌖ San Francisco, the Lawrences’ entry point to the US, Bert, pernickety as ever, found less than prepossessing – “noisy and expensive”

☼although writer Aldous Huxley did visit Lawrence in NM

✪ in return the Lawrences gave Dodge the MS for Sons and Lovers, which proved to be far more valuable than the ranch

DH Lawrence in Australasia, 1922: That Novel and Perceptions of People and Place

July 10, 2021Biographical, Literary & Linguistics, Old technology, Society & Culture'Kangaroo' novel, 'Rananim', Australia and New Zealand, California, Circular Quay, DH Lawrence in Exile, Egalitarian mateship in Australia, Frieda Lawrence, Illawarra Coast, Interwar politics – fascists v socialists, Jock Garden (model for 'Willie Struthers'), Manly Corso, Moral revitalisation by primitivism, Narrabeen Lagoon, Pacific Ocean, Royal Botanic Garden (Sydney), Taos New Mexico, Theory of modern civilisation degeneration, Thirroul NSW, Wellington NZSloane Snodgrasse

Next year marks the centenary of the visit of acclaimed writer DH Lawrence to the Antipodes … the author of Sons and Lovers and Women in Love spent some 99 days on the southern continent travelling from its west to its east coast and writing the bulk of his great Australia novel, Kangaroo. The 1922 visit by the English novelist and poet has attracted new interest both within Australian literary circles and the general public over the past couple of decades. The tortuous saga of the vicissitudes of Lawrence and his wife Frieda’s house in Thirroul, NSW, after the Lawrences departed Australia, has been canvassed elsewhere on this blog site – “Lawrence of Thirroul: Creating Kangaroo at ‘Wyewurk’”, November 10, 2014.

DHL at Taos (Source: New Mexico Magazine)

Lawrence”s Weltanschauung (World view and moral vision)
Lawrence’s unquenchable wanderlust emerged from a disavowal of the dehumanising and degenerating effects of modernity and industrialisation. To his moral eye, people’s natural feelings including sexuality had been “dulled by the mechanical routine of ‘civilisation'”, making their responses coldly cerebral, not warmly instinctive and spontaneous. Lawrence’s answer to the dilemma was for society to embrace the anima (vital energy or spirit force) to be found in primitive cultures (eg, among the ancient Etruscans)…only by doing this would modern civilisation achieve the necessary revitalisation (‘D.H. Lawrence World Literature Analysis’, upd.05-May-2015, www.enotes.com). Later after the Australasian leg, DHL believed he had discovered in Taos, New Mexico, the utopian place he had been searching for (“a new part of the soul woke up suddenly and the old world gave way to a new”)⌖.

Travels with DHL
DH Lawrence’s arrival in Australia was a stage in the writer’s global quest to find a new world in tune with his sensibilities. Dissatisfaction with his homeland had prompted voluntary exile from the industrialised rat race of Britain and launched Lawrence on a country to country “savage pilgrimage” across the world.

Coming to the southern continent, DHL’s hope was that Australia, free from the old society’s ills, would deliver the ‘nirvana’ he was seeking (a utopian construct he called ‘Rananim’) (D.H.Lawrence’s Australian Experiment’, Susan Lever, Inside Story, 21-Oct-2015, www.insidestory.org.au).

Deep dissolution down under
As the text of Kangaroo reveals, these hopes were swiftly extinguished during the sojourn in Australia. Taking an instant dislike to urban Sydney Lawrence swiftly escaped to the south coast town of Thirroul. Though the beauty and awe of the Australian bush and landscape (its “spirit of place”) left a deep impression on him, Lawrence found disfavour in what he took to be the Australian character. What galled Lawrence was the “profound Australian indifference” … “hollow, modern people, living in a society so democratic that it denied all superiority and depth of intellect and feeling”… “exemplifying the degenerative nature of industrial society” that DHL abhorred (David Game, DH Lawrence’s Australia: Anxiety at the Edge of Empire, 2015).

DH Lawrence, technophobe
Australians’ material modern-ness irked Lawrence, their slavish craving to be up-to-date with the most modern conveniences, be it electric lights, tramways or whatever (‘The beard of the prophet’, Tom Fitzgerald, Inside Story, 30-Oct-2018, www.insidestory.org.au). Australians, Lawrence/Somers opined, were too materialistic, too outward-looking, to the exclusion of their inner lives…”like so many mechanical animals” (“‘Harmless Eden”: Revisiting D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo“, Julian Hanna, 3:am Magazine, 28-Oct-2014, www.3ammagazine.com).

In Kangaroo, Richard Lovat Somers’ dalliance with the right wing paramilitary Diggers movement serves as a warning of the coming peril of fascism. But Somers is equally distrustful of democracy in modern, industrial society⧆ and is also alienated from socialist sentiments he encounters – embodied in the character Willie Struthers※. Typically contrarian (and at times contradictory) in his views, DHL was notorious for being what one journalist called “something of a world champion in hypercritical, hard-to-please invective (Fitzgerald)֎.

Lawrence in New Zealand, hit and run
The Lawrences left Sydney in August 1922 , sailing “four days to New Zealand over a cold, dark and inhospitable sea”. A minor run-in with an immigration official upon arrival in Wellington prompted in Bert an instant negative reaction to New Zealand. Spending just one day in “cold and stormy Wellington” and seeing very little of the place♤, the couple left abruptly for San Francisco via Rarotonga and Tahiti (also not to DHL’s taste, Papeete: “dead, dull, modern”). Lawrence’s parting shot at NZ/Aeotoroa (based on a single day’s stay in the capital city) was that he had no desire “to stay in a cold, snobbish middle-class colony of pretentious nobodies” (‘Katherine Mansfield: DH Lawrence’s “Lost Girl”. A Literary Discovery’, Sandra Jobson Darroch, Rananim, 2009, www.dhlawrencesocietyaustralia.com.au).

~~♠ ♠ ♠~~

A note on place names in ‘Kangaroo’
Lawrence freely identifies the various places the Somers come across on their travels—Manly, St Columb (Collaroy), Narrabeen, the Quay, North Sydney, Murdoch Street (Cremorne), Mosman Bay, Como, Bulli, etc—but he alters the names of where the couple live…Thirroul becomes ‘Mullumbimby’ and their beach-cliff bungalow on the Illawarra coast, Wyewurk , is renamed ‘Coo-ee‘ in the novel.

The Lawrences’ mini-Odyssey in Sydney through the lens of ‘Kangaroo’
In DHL’s Roman à clef Australian novel, Richard and Harriet Somers re-trace Bert and Frieda’s perambulations from the city to the Northern Beaches on their first full day in Sydney, before the escape to Thirroul .

Royal Botanic Garden
”A bunch of workmen were lying on the grass beside Macquarie Street … they had that air of owning the city that belongs to a good Australian”❧
Circular Quay ferry across the harbour
“The harbour … was an extraordinary place … like a lake among the land, so pale blue and heavenly, with its hidden and half-hidden lobes intruding among the low, dark brown cliffs”

The Corso, Manly
“You land on the wharf and walk up the street , like a bit of Margate with seaside shops and restaurants … at the end … is the wide Pacific rolling in on the yellow sand”

Narrabeen Lagoon, beach
”They seemed to run to leg … three boys, one a lad of fifteen or so, came out of the warm lagoon in their bathing suits, to roll in the sand and play … extraordinary like real young animals, mindless as opossums”

Footnote: what ultimately comes through in the pages of Kangaroo is an ambivalence about Australia. In the final chapter added when living in New Mexico, Lawrence talks about loving Australia but at the same time needing to rail against it. There’s a constant struggle in Somers’ mind, a tension between his love of the place (the bush)⌧ which is “in his marrow”, and the suffocating apathy of the people surrounding him.

▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫▪▫

⌖ Taos’ native pueblos, the “earth-centred culture”, Lawrence’s new ‘elemental’ civilisation, the wellspring of regenerative potential for contemporary civilisation (‘Looking for Lawrence’, Henry Shukman, New Mexico Magazine, (nd), www. newmexico.org)

※ possibly modelled on Australian communist agitator and unionist Jock Garden (Robert Darroch, Rananim, Dec 1999)

⧆ “a self-convinced opponent of the levelling-off effects of democracy“ (John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider 2005)

֎ DHL’s hyper-critical reflex was seemingly boundless – California on first impression was summarily dismissed as “a queer place…turning its back on the world (looking) into the Pacific void …absolutely selfish, very empty” (DH Lawrence, 1923 letter)

♤ the experience was mutual, Lawrence’s fleeting stopover in the “Land of the Long White Cloud” went unnoticed by the New Zealand press or public

❧ the overt egalitarian ‘mateship’ of workers in Australia was a trait that certainly got stuck in Lawrence’s craw

⌧ love, that is, mingled with a sense of dread of the bush both in Western Australia and the “bush-covered dark tor” of the Illawarra escarpment

For Lawrence an Freida’s sojourn in New Mexico, the next stop on the author’s global “savage pilgrimage’ see the article – https://www.7dayadventurer.com/2021/07/15/lawrences-new-mexico-shangri-la/

The Hitler Diary Forgeries: The Bonanza Scoop and a Need to Believe?

June 19, 2021Creative Writing, International Relations, Literary & Linguistics, Regional History, Society & Culture’Selling History’ mini-series, ’Selling Hitler’ (book) Robert Harris, Adolf Hitler, Alexei Sayle, Der Stern, Die Zeit, Felix Schmidt, Gerd Heidemann, Giovanni di Lorenzo, Great hoaxes, Herman Göring, Hitler Diaries, Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre), Konrad Kujau, Max Domarcus, Mussolini Diaries., Nazi memorabilia, Rupert Murdoch, Sunday Times (UK), Third ReichE Curb Nottus

Hitler-Tagebücher, the discovery of diaries, hitherto unknown, claimed to be written by Adolf Hitler, the most talked about man of the 20th century, who wouldn’t want to find out more about a scoop with such history revising ramifications?

The news, when it surfaced in the early 1980s, certainly caused quite a sensation internationally. After eminent historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre) declared the diaries legit on a first sighting (though later he walked that back a bit), newspaper editors in Germany and the UK unhesitatingly bought the ruse. Rupert Murdoch, after forking out £250,000 to buy the serialisation rights from Der Stern magazine for the diaries, ordered their immediate serialisation in the Sunday Times.

With everyone so enthusiastically “gung-ho” about them, the spoiler was that the diaries were fakes, the work of one Konrad Kujau, an East German petty crim and recidivist forger. Kujau’s “Hitler Diaries” were acquired by a ‘Naziphile’ journalist with a bent for Third Reich memorabilia, Gerd Heidemann❶, who was the go-between in selling the diary rights to Stern for somewhere in the region of $2–$3 M. In the transaction Heidemann purloined something considerably north of a tidy sum for himself.

Gerd Heidemann, subsequently jailed for fraud for his part in the forgeries ▼

An incredible lack of credibility
On the face of it the Hitler forgeries had the hole-ridden texture of Swiss cheese. The German Federal Archives eventually pronounces them “clumsy fakes” after two weeks of commotion, described as a “14-day historical mystery-thriller, in which experts changed their minds, Jewish leaders were horrified at an apparent attempt to whitewash Hitler”❷ (Schwarz and van der Vat). There was a “thoroughly incomplete vetting of the diaries” (McGrane). In the flurry of activity as interested parties competed for the diaries, no one thought to test the ink, paper and string of the supposed ‘personal’ seals of the Führer (when three volumes in the form of small notebooks were eventually examined it was shown that they dated from after WWII – Kujau used modern paper which he stained with tea to give it an aged appearance!). Nor did they think to scrutinise the text of the diaries more closely – if they did they would have detected the plagiarism, Kujau copied (word for word) large chunks of a book on Hitler’s proclamations and speeches by Max Domarcus (McGrane).

▲ Some of Kujau’s handiwork (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Then there’s the handwriting which didn’t match, an oversight not immediately picked up on. Initially Kujau produced some 27 volumes of the ‘lost’ diaries…the sort of money these fetched was irresistibly tempting, suddenly Kujau ‘discovered’ a whole new vein of Hitler writings, a further 35 diaries and a third volume of Mein Kampf, alarm bells still didn’t ring❸.

Likewise, the simple fact that there had been absolutely no previous record of the diaries’ existence, in an area of historical research which has been so inexhaustibly and copiously trawled for decades, somehow escaped all of those with their eyes on the prize. Another clue missed was Kujau’s careless labelling of each volume ‘FH’ in Gothic letters rather than ‘AH’. The editors of Stern fatally failed to press Heidemann to divulge his source for the diaries, the employee only giving up the name of the known fraudster when the jig was virtually up. The catch-up forensics, when they came, quickly verified the bogus nature of the ‘documents’.

Konrad Kujau (got four-and-a-half years jail for his crime) ▼

Clarity comes with hindsight
Self-recrimination for such egregiously bad judgement followed. With hindsight Lord Dacre reproached himself for being seduced by the find of such a historical treasure…”I should have refused to give an opinion so soon” (Schwarz and van den Vat). 30 years on, Felix Schmidt, one of the three editors-in-chief at Stern ❹, reflected that the very thought that Hitler kept diaries triggered “a kind of collective insanity in the upper echelons Stern’s editorial offices”, adding that “delusional secrecy” and “illegitimate mystification” about the affair prevailed.

(Source: Business Insider)

There was in such an intoxicating atmosphere “simply too much money at stake for anyone to come to their senses”.(McGrane). Clearly the newspapers were blindsided by the dollar (and Deutschmark) signs dangling before their eyes, hence their inordinate haste to rush in where cooler and wiser heads would have proceeded with great caution❺.

Postwar German generation
A persuasive argument for why the participants were so easily duped comes from Die Zeit editor Giovanni di Lorenzo, who attributes their ready acceptance of the flimsy evidence for the diaries‘ authenticity to generational fixation with Hitler of those who lived through the Nazi era. This fascination, Lorenzo concludes, would have been unimaginable to later German generations (McGrane).

PostScript: Hitler Diaries on the celluloid screen
The celebrated hoax has been translated twice to the screen, the first a 1991 British mini-series based on Robert Harris’ book Selling Hitler with the same title (Alexei Sayle is a comfortable fit as the cheerful and uncomplicated ‘Conny’ Kujau). The second, a satirical German-made film, Schtonk!, released in 1992.

▲ Dictator diarists, courtesy of their ghostwriters

⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯ ⌯⌯⌯

❶ Heidemann’s devotion to Nazi memorabilia extended to purchasing the late Field Marshal Göring’s yacht

❷ in the diaries Hitler is incredulously depicted as being almost blissfully unaware of the atrocities committed against Jews

❸ Kujau sold his first faux Hitler diary to a collector in 1978

❹ all three summarily sacked for their failings

❺ the Sunday Times especially should have been treading warily given it had been scammed before in 1968 when it spent $250,000 trying to get its hands on the equally fraudulent “Mussolini Diaries”

୭ ˚ ୭ ˚ ୭ ˚

Bibliography:

‘Diary of the Hitler Diary Hoax’, Sally McGrane, The New Yorker, 25-Apr-2013, www.thenewyorker.com

‘Hitler Diaries proved to be forged — archive’, Walter Schwarz and Dan van den Vat, The Guardian, 07-May-1983, www.theguadian.com

‘The Hitler Diaries: How hoax documents became the most infamous fake news ever’, Adam Lusher, Independent, 05-May-2018, www.independent.co.uk

Being “Ern Malley”, the Avatar Bard of Croydon, NSW, 2132

June 13, 2021Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture'Angry Penguins', 'Darkening Ecliptic', 'Ern Malley', 'Ethel Malley', AD Hope, Adelaide SA, Harold Stewart, Heide Circle, Hitler Diaries, intentional fallacy, James McAuley, Literary hoaxes, Mary Martin Bookshop, Mary Shelley, Max Harris, Peter Carey ' My Life as a Fake', Shakespeare, Sidney Nolan and 'Ned Kelly', Sir Herbert Read, TS EliotSloane Snodgrasse

Every age produces its share of literary hoaxes, it’s a practice to deceive that has been around for ‘yonks’. A Irish hack writer back in the 18th century claimed to have discovered (and subsequently published) a ‘lost’ play purportedly penned by Shakespeare. Jonathan Swift dabbled in it in his time, and in recent times we have seen the surfacing of false claims of a ‘lost’ autobiography of Howard Hughes and the emergence of the so-called “Hitler Diaries”.

▲ Pranker J McAuley

The Antipodes’ most celebrated entrant in the canon of great literary hoaxes occurred in 1944. The perpetrators were two nondescript conservative young poets serving in the Australian army, (Lt.) James McAuley and (Cprl.) Harold Stewart (both Fort Street High old boys), who “shared an animus towards modern poetry” (Lehman). The two desk soldiers, intent on “deflat(ing) the egos of the pretentious literary avant-garde“𝟙, honed in on the most conspicuous target, Max Harris, Adelaide publisher of the modernist literary mag Angry Penguins.

▲ Pranker H Stewart

McAuley and Stewart’s prank𝟚 was to write to Harris pretending to be one “Ethel Malley” from Croydon NSW, informing him of unpublished poems written by her brother Ern, a working class soldier whose life had been cut tragically short. Harris, taken in by the fraud lock, stock and barrel, called “Ern’s poems” modernist gems and was only too eager to publish the 18 “Ern Malley” poems in a 1944 volume of Angry Penguins. ⿻ ⿻ ⿻
▲ Cover art by Sidney Nolan

Malley’s “magnum opus“, entitled ‘The Darkening Ecliptic’, according to the hoaxers was written in a single afternoon in a random manner, a pastiche of fragments patched together from widely disparate sources of inspiration – Shakespeare, the classics, a dictionary, a book of quotations, a tome on tropical hygiene, a US Army treatise on mosquito infestation…all mixed in together with snatches of McAuley and Stewart’s own poetry. Consisting of abstruse, flowery, high-sounding verse, to the minds of the hoaxers they were simply creating nonsensical, bad modern poetry:

❝ Though stilled to alabaster

This Ichthys shall swim

From the mind’s disaster

On the volatile hymn. ❞

𓂎𓂎𓂎

❝ The swung torch scatters seeds

In the umbelliferous dark ❞

𓂎𓂎𓂎

❝ I am still

the black swan of trespass on alien waters. ❞

𓂎𓂎𓂎

▲ Max Harris with his Heide Circle friends (Source: literaturelust.com)⿻⿻⿻

After a Sydney tabloid exposed the poems as a hoax and McAuley and Stewart fessed up to the deed, the fallout for Harris was caustic, the publisher was publicly humiliated for being duped so completely. And to add insult to injury, he was charged, tried and convicted on obscenity grounds (“indecent advertisements” the police prosecution charged). The trifecta of misfortune for wunderkind Harris was that his publication Angry Penguins folded within two years of the episode. Harris relocated to Melbourne, becoming a bookseller (fronting the Mary Martin’s chain of bookshops).

⿻⿻⿻

Afterwards Harris reproached himself for not picking up on the several clues McAuley and Stewart embedded in the text, eg, “It is necessary to understand that a poet may not exist”; (alluding to earlier incongruous stanzas) “these distractions were clues” (Parezanović). Interestingly though, Harris never backtracked from his initial evaluation that the ‘Darkening Ecliptic’ poems were works of genius𝟛. Despite being pilloried by the press he also elicited support from the literary world for his stance, most notably from influential critic Sir Herbert Read who contended that “it was possible to arrive at genuine art by spurious means – even if the motive of the writer was to perpetrate a travesty” (Lehman).

▲ No. 40 Dalmar St Croydon: the Malleys’ supposed address, actually the home of Harold Stewart⿻⿻⿻

Read’s anti-clockwise take on the controversy points to a debate that continues to this day over the merit or otherwise of the “Ern Malley” poems. Critics at home and abroad praised ‘The Darkening Ecliptic’ for its literary merit – including Robert Hughes. American poets John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch both lauded the poems’ surrealist qualities and even taught Ern’s work in their college literature classes (Wertheim). Even a poet of the highest calibre, TS Eliot, had positive words, wiring his support for the poems.

⿻⿻⿻

Ern Malley and the intentional fallacy
The Ern Malley controversy focuses attention on the issue of authorship. Sasha Grishin argues that where an author is “unknowable” and the author’s intentions irretrievable and perhaps irrelevant…once a work of art has been created…it is largely a fruitless task…to try to determine what an author may have intended by it“. Michel Foucault gives credence to this perspective: “we can imagine a culture where discourse would circulate without any need for an author” – a prime example of this is Homer, the unknowable but putative author of western literature’s ur-canon. ⿻⿻⿻
Nolan’s “Ned Kelly” series ▲

Like the poems or loathe them, the Malley hoax continues to fascinate critics and writers. US poet and critic David Lehman calls it “the greatest literary hoax of the 20th century”. Sidney Nolan (who contributed the cover artwork for the Ern Malley volume) credits the phenomenon with giving him the nerve to embark on his iconic “Ned Kelly” series of paintings. Garry Shead is another artist who produced his own idiosyncratic visual take on the Malley poems. In Peter Carey’s My Life as a Fake the Malley hoax influence—along with the influence of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein— shows itself in the novel’s character ‘Christopher Chubb’.

▲ Garry Shead’s Ern Malley ‘Petit Testament’ interpretation

A cause célèbre with staying power
Undeniably, the creation of the fictitious Ern Malley far surpassed the literary significance of his creators (Grishin). As Lehman noted, “Malley escaped the control of his creators (enjoying) an autonomous existence beyond and at odds with the critical and satirical intentions of McAuley and Stewart”.

◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘

𝟙 Stewart late in life described the deception as “a wonderful jape (which would) absolutely slay Max Harris”

𝟚 some have suggested that the Australian anti-modern poet AD Hope was behind the prank to deceive Harris but Hope vigorously denied any involvement (McCulloch)

𝟛 Stephen Orr suggests that Harris’ eagerness to take the Ern Malley discovery at face value and run with it was in part due to his being on the lookout for something authentic and new to take the place of bush poetry in Angry Penguins, something “modern, anti-Adelaide, anti-Australia-as-a-talcum-scented tea shop”

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Papers and published pieces consulted:

‘The Ern Malley Poetry Hoax – Introduction’, David Lehman, Jacket, 17 — June 2002, www.jacketmagazine.com

‘The Poet Who Never Was’, David Lehman, Washington Post, 06-Mar-1994, www.washingtonpost.com

‘Garry Shead and the Ern Malley series by Sasha Grishin, 2003’, Gagprojects, www.gagprojects.com

“It is Necessary to Understand That a Poet May Not Exist: The Case of Ern Malley”, Tijana Parezanović, SIC – A Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation, Dec 2012, www.sic-journal.org

‘The Fall and Rise of Ernest Lalor Malley: The Poet who wasn’t’, Christine Wertheim, Cabinet, Issue 33, Spring 2009, www.cabinetmagazine.org

‘In Dialogue with A.D. Hope – Dialogue Three Politics & Poetics of Australian Literature’, Ann McCulloch, Double Dialogues, Issue 5 2003, www.doubledialogues.com

Sherlock Holmes’ Posthumous Copyright Case

May 31, 2021Cinema, Creative Writing, Law and society,, Literary & Linguistics, Performing arts, Popular Culture‘Enola Doyle’, ‘Sherlock’ BBC series, Andréa Milos Plunket, Arthur Conan Doyle, Baskervilles Investments, Jean Conan Doyle, Leslie S Klinger, Pfizer heiress, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sheldon Reynolds, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary EstateE Curb Nottus

The image stereotype of the Sherlock Holmes character (Source: Culture Livresque)

⌖

Few characters from modern literature pop up on cinema screens and TV sets as frequently as Sherlock Holmes does. Some observers have stated it more firmly. Christopher Redmond estimates that Sherlock Holmes is the most prolific screen character in the history of cinema (A Sherlock Holmes Handbook (1994)). Just how many different Sherlock Holmes screen adaptions have been made is too large and elusive a number to pin down accurately, but screen vehicles of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous super-sleuth and Mensa-alumni certainly number in the hundreds✱.

A publishing can of worms
When Arthur Conan Doyle (ACD) died in 1930 the author left his literary works in Trust to his widow (Jean Conan Doyle) and immediate family. But in excluding his daughter Mary from his first marriage, ACD opened the door to an ongoing family rift, decades of squabbles, strife and litigation by his heirs, descendants and their spouses.

As the intra-family ‘Barney’ over who controls the copyright to the Sherlock Holmes works deepened, the imbroglio entangled an investment company specifically set up to manage the windfall (aptly named “Baskervilles Investments”) and even the Royal Bank of Scotland (‘History of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Copyrights’, (2015), www.arthurconandoyle.com).

1954 Holmes TV series with Ronald Howard (Photo: dvdfr.com)

⌖

The upshot of the kerfuffle was that each of the competing parties claimed to be the rightful holder of the rights to ACD’s literary estate, and then attempted to sell it notwithstanding the prevailing uncertainty over ownership. American TV producer-director Sheldon Reynolds acquired a licence from two of Arthur’s sons to make a Sherlock Holmes series in the 1950s. When, 20 years later, Reynolds tried to get a licence for a follow-up series on TV, he found that the legal landscape had changed. The rights were now held by the Royal Bank of Scotland who had acquired them after the previous owner defaulted on a loan. Eventually, with funds provided by his Pfizer heiress mother-in-law, Reynolds secured the rights to the Holmes stories.

Culture of litigation
Since 1990 the main battle for control of the copyrights has pitted Reynolds’s ex-wife, Hungarian-born heiress Andréa Milos (née Reynolds, née Plunket) versus the Conan Doyle Estate and others. Plunket has doggedly claimed to hold the rights to the name “Sherlock Holmes” and the stories, despite a lack of legal support for the claims. Lawsuits were exchanged between her and the Estate. Plunket also threatened to sue the BBC over its Sherlock television series for allegedly infringing ‘her’ trademarks (‘The Scandalous Sherlock Holmes Copyright Issue’, Mattias Boström, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, 30-Jul-2015, www.ihearofsherlock.com).

The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate for its part has been particularly litigious in defence of its literary legacy. The Estate has consistently striven to maintain water-tight control over both the Sherlock Holmes stories and the characters. In 2013 it demanded author Leslie S Klinger pay a fee to license the Sherlock character for an anthology he was planning to do. Klinger’s response was to sue the Estate on the basis that most of the Sherlock material was in the public domain. In court the judge upheld Klinger’s position, while reaffirming that some late works were still covered under copyright (‘Sherlock Holmes Copyright: An overview’, Brogan Woodburn, www.redpoints.com). In 2020 it sued Netflix over its upcoming film Enola Holmes. The grounds? The film apparently depicts Holmes as having emotions and respecting women. This, the Estate contends, breaches Conan Doyle’s copyright (‘Lawsuit over ‘warmer’ Sherlock depicted in Enola Holmes dismissed’, Alison Flood, The Guardian, 22-Dec-2020, www.theguardian.com).

‘The Red-Headed League’ story (Golden Press edition, 1963)

⌖

End-note: An additional complication over the Holmes copyright issue is a demarcation between the UK and US laws. In the UK copyright lasts for 70 years after an author’s death (in Conan Doyle’s case, the copyright expired in 2000). Conversely in the USA some copyrights extend for 95 years from the date of the work’s first publication⍟. This has proved a stumbling block for TV series and film-makers trying to adapt one of the Sherlock stories in recent years (‘Sherlock Holmes And His “Copyrighted Emotions”‘, Copyright House, 28-Sep-2020, www.copyrighthouse.org).

…………………………………………..

✱ including works for film, music, radio, stage, video games, there are over 25,000 products that are related to the famous detective (Woodburn)

⍟ the last of ACD’s published work expires in 2023

Caedmon to Audible: From Spoken-Word LPs to Audio Book Bonanza

December 1, 2020Creative Writing, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Memorabilia, Old technology, Popular Culture‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’, ‘A Delicate Balance’, ‘Butley’, ‘Samuel Pepys’ Diary’, ‘The Third Policeman’, ‘Ulysses’, Amazon, Amazon Prime, American Film Theatre, Audible, Audio books, Barbara Cohen & Marianne Roney, Book publishing industry, Caedmon Records, Cædmon (Anglo-Saxon poet), CDs, Coronavirus 2020, Doomscrolling, Dylan Thomas, Facebook, Flann O’Brien, HarperCollins, Instagram, James Joyce, John Lithgow, Kindle, LPs, Netflix, Online streaming services, Print books v e-books, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Royal Blind Society, Social media, Stan, Talking books, Tape cassettes, TikTok, Twitter, Zoomfunambulator@live.com

The “Groundhog Day” existence of coronavirus, with people ‘sentenced’ to indeterminable periods of isolation and lockdown inside four square walls, has been a boon to the pursuit of leisure activities※. Social media platforms have gone “gang-busters” – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Zoom, and Snapchat and TikTok (for the Gen-Zs) among others. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Stan, ditto. In this year like no other, Audible tell us that audio books are more popular than ever – a trend promoted undoubtedly by Audible’s own deft marketing (eg, during Covid-19 they are streaming a selection of children’s stories free to the public). The uptake of Borrow Box loan activity in 2020 underscores this assertion.

Cohen & Roney 1952: taking the 1st steps for audio booksellers (Photo: Lib of Congress Blogs)

𖠜 𖠜 𖠜

Audio books (ABs) in one form or another have been around a long time, arguably the pioneer in the area of spoken-word records was Caedmon Records, the first to hit the mark with a mainstream audience. The Caedmon company evolved out of the initiatives in 1952 of two 22-year-old female college graduates (Barbara Cohen and Marianne Roney) in the US to record a poetry reading by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The popularity of the poetry album which included A Child’s Christmas in Wales laid the groundwork for today’s AB industry. The development of technology assisted the progression of “spoken books”… from the first LPs (Long-playing records), emerging in the 1930s, which gave way to tape cassettes in the 1960s and 70s, which in turn lead later still to compact discs [‘Caedmon Records and Audiobooks, (HarperCollins), www.200.hc.com].

My own personal history as a consumer of spoken-word records begins with the aforementioned Caedmon, circa 1977. In the mid-Seventies I had watched several films in a series of commercial releases under the title “American Film Theatre”, film adaptations of a number of well-known plays…the series which utilised Lord Olivier as its promotional face included Galileo (Brecht), Rhinoceros (Ionesco), Luther (Osborne), The Homecoming (Pinter) and The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill).

At the time I came across vinyl 78s of two of the plays-to-films in the series—Butley (Simon Gray) and A Delicate Balance (Edward Albee)—in a tiny spoken-word section of a second-hand record shop. Snapping them up, this marked my first foray into the (at that time) still embryonic world of collecting ABs.

Audio books then were pretty much unknown in retail record departments and shops… major book retailers were yet to cotton on to the potentiality of thus broadening the market for their products, and online goliaths like Amazon were yet to come into existence. I remember that I got my first spoken-word cassette by (pre-online) mail order from the Royal Blind Society in 1978. The RBS had more incentive than anyone else to embrace “talking books”⋓, an innovation which opened up a whole new world of leisure for the visually-impaired. The first (double cassette) AB that I purchased was a BBC recording of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.

Since that time the audio book industry has exploded with heavyweights like Hachette Audio, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster, all with significant “skin in the game”. Lording over all these competitors is Audible (Amazon), unchallenged as the dominant market leader. Even before the pandemic the global AB market was valued at US$2.67 Bn in 2019 (wwwgrandviewresearchcom/]. The coronavirus is sending that worldwide sales trajectory even higher (US audio unit sales are up 16% dwarfing the book market growth of the industry as a whole (wwwthenewpublishingstandardcom/)).

The success of audio books has been welcomed by the book industry as a positive addition (cf. the advent of Kindle and e-books which raised fears of ‘cannibalisation’ of the main product)⊞. The takeaway from the AB phenomena is that the aural experience is a different one, and that ABs (according to a Deloitte report) tend to attract a younger demographic that is less inclined to read print books [‘A word in your ear…why the rise of audiobooks is a story worth celebrating’, (Alex Preston), The Guardian, 02-Aug-2020, www.theguardian.com].

The versatility of audio books is behind its blossoming into an integral part of the literature landscape for ‘readers’. ABs can be integrated easily into one’s life in all manner of ways that are not confined to a sedentary or stationary state – while exercising, walking, jogging, cycling, in the gym, while cooking, doing housework, driving a car, commuting, etc [‘Audiobooks: The rise and rise of the books you don’t read’, (Clare Thorp), BBC, 06-Jan-2020, www.bbc.com].

For many buyers of audio books a factor in choosing a title is the reader itself. Having “A-list talent” and the “dulcet tones of a familiar voice” as reader certainly can add value to the product✦, but big names only work if they have a genuine connexion with the material (Thorp). Some ABs work better when the author doubles as reader, this particularly applies to memoirs and non-fiction titles. Having this can convey to the listener a more authentic experience of the subject’s journey. For myself, the AB experience that I most enjoyed was John Lithgow’s brilliant reading of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities. Character actor Lithgow brought such an energy to the reading, greatly enhancing the flavour and tone of Wolfe’s biting satire on greed and status in NYC (in marked contrast to the disappointing Tom Hanks movie version), probably my all-time favourite AB.

Another memorable audio book collection I would place high on my AB order of merit are the recordings of Samuel Pepys’ Diaries (readings by Kenneth Branagh and a BBC dramatisation). From both sets of recordings I got a real “living history” insight into Pepys’ thought processes and compromised behaviour—flaws and virtues, so redolent of that of the modern bureaucrat—and of the everyday life of an event-filled London in late Stuart Britain.

One of the reasons I took to audio books is that it offered me a way into critically acclaimed works of fiction that in print form I had found Sphinx-like and impenetrable. Back in the 1970s I made several attempts at reading the 754 abstruse and puzzling pages of Joyce’s Ulysses before raising the white flag in defeat. Ulysses’ emergence in the AB format in the, must be late Eighties/early Nineties (albeit in an abridged four-CD form) was the key I needed to unlock the stylistic labyrinth of Joyce’s prose. ABs also let me get a handle on that other Irish author of literary complexity Flann O’Brien, and his convoluted metafiction maze The Third Policeman.

Ftnote: Cædmon
Caedmon, the name chosen by Cohen and Roney for their revolutionary business enterprise, was the name of the first known English poet (flourished late Seventh century AD), a Northumbrian cowherd turned exponent of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) verse poetry.

※ another pastime, gaining impetus in the lockdown and perhaps capturing the zeitgeist of 2020 is doomscrolling – the social media practice of continuing to read long streams of news feeds which are disheartening in content

⋓ the term as I recall more in currency at the time than audio books

⊞ print books managed to repulse the challenge from e-books in part due to pricing strategies which disincentivised e-book purchasing [Amazon’s Audiobook Boom’, (Alex Shepard), The New Republic, O3-Jul-2018, www.newrepublic.com]

✦ the rise of ABs has provided a source of peripheral work for some actors, a very welcome and in some cases lucrative sideline

Recluse Deuces: Salinger and Pynchon, Two Modern Literary Outliers, Part II – TR Pynchon Jr

November 29, 2020Biographical, Comparative politics, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Politics, Popular Culture‘Gravity’s Rainbow’, ‘Tristram Shandy’, ‘V’, Absurdist fiction, Conspiracy theories, Fabulism and Magic Realism, JD Salinger, John Barth, Laurence Sterne, Peter Carey, Picturesque novel, Postmodernism, Reaganomics, Thomas PynchonE Curb Nottus

The second in our brace of reclusive authors of American fiction is Thomas Pynchon (see preceding blog on his the similarly publicity-shy JD Salinger). Long Island-born Pynchon came to the full-time vocation of fiction-writing via short stints in the navy and for Boeing as a technical aide. By the time Pynchon writes his first novel, V. in 1963, he is domiciled in México City, and the persona of Pynchon as an “Invisible Man of Letters” has already started to take root.

PYNCHON

If there were slim pickings for inquisitive fans of JD Salinger wanting more biographical information about their ‘fave’ reclusive writer, then comparatively there’s an absolute famine when it comes to the lack of ‘goss’ on Thomas Ruggles Pynchon! Pynchon has managed to weave an airtight web of mystery around his personal life – no interviews, no attendance of literary prize awards, no memoirs, no hobnobbing with fellow celebrities at ‘A’ list gatherings, no teaching post in academia. In Pynchon’s (very loosely based) historical novel Mason & Dixon one of the characters is castigated for “the least tolerable of Offences … the Crime they styl’d ‘Anonymity’” – the very state of existence that Pynchon craves. The reclusive and ubër-private New Yorker differs from the equally reclusive Salinger in not having had to suffer the ignominy of family ‘betrayal’ as Salinger was subjected to. Pynchon’s family (agent/wife, son, brother and sister) and friends have all closed ranks, drawing down the cone of silence on the subject of the famous recluse＊.

Pynchon very much belongs to the “why make it simple, when you can make it complicated” school of literary communication. His books, popularly subsumed under the labels ‘postmodern’ and metafiction are typically characterised by over-elaborate and often open-ended plots, dense and hard to follow, labyrinthine sentences (Mason & Dixon meanders a full 122 words before it reaches its first full stop on page 2!) Pynchon offers up a mixed grill of cultural references to sex, drug culture, science and tech stuff, historical info and comic-book fantasy (with a raft of quirky and zany characters), etc. Beginning with The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), the first of Pynchon’s “Californian trilogy” novels, the author turns a critical eye on the counterculture…although Pynchon evinces a consonance with its core values and communitarian ideals he voices a concern that the American counterculture may be an accessory of the dominant culture rather than a genuine reaction to it [‘American Modernity and Counterculture’, (The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon), www.litcharts .org]. In ‘Lot 49’ protagonist Oedipa Maas accidentally stumbles into Trystero, a shadowy world of convoluted conspiracies, unearthing a centuries-old conflict between rival mail distribution companies.

Political Pynchon?
A central motif that comes through in Pynchon’s novels is a distrust bordering on paranoia of government agencies and private corporations. In Gravity’s Rainbow he expresses deep suspicions about the motives of the military/industrial complex. But Pynchon seems also to distrust the established political left in its empirical authoritarian form. Instead, his natural orientation and sympathies seem to be towards the anarchists and the preterites (ie, those controlled by the elite). One scholar notes that anarchists or allusions to them are present in all of the Pynchon books … anarchism, Pynchon seems to suggest, might be the best non-authoritarian and non-hierarchical social configuration for the future [‘Riding the Interface: An Anarchist Reading of Gravity’s Rainbow’, (Graham Benton), www.pynchonnotes.openlibhums.org]. Politics also run through Pynchon’s next, Vineland (1990), a novel which some dismissively dispatched as “Pynchon-Lite”. Vineland is an absurdist fable— punctuated with numerous references to drugs, 1960s music and TV pop culture, especially Star Wars—through which Pynchon provides a commentary on several key issues of the Eighties (the culture war debates, reading, television and mass communications). Set against the backdrop of the Republican Party’s re-election in 1984, Pynchon also takes a hefty swipe at American politics in the age of Reaganomics with a warning to America about “encroaching fascism” [Meinel, Tobias. “A Deculturated Pynchon? Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland” and Reading in the Age of Television.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 58, no. 3 (2013): 451-64. Accessed November 26, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43485900].

❝ Then again, it’s the whole Reagan program, isn’t it—dismantle the New Deal, reverse the effects of World War II, restore fascism at home and around the world, flee into the past, can’t you feel it, all the dangerous childish stupidity—I don’t like the way it came out … someday, with the right man in the White House, there will be a Department of Jesus.❞

~ Thomas Pynchon, Vineland

While resolutely keeping his guard up Pynchon maintains control of his world by choosing when and what of himself he gives up to the world at large. Famously Pynchon has appeared (in animated form) on two episodes of The Simpsons (a clear sign that the couch-surfing literary hermit is up on mainstream pop culture※), having dictated the terms of his guest spot. Obviously the idea of the Simpsons gig tickled his humerus wildly, as he is shown(sic) wearing a paper bag on his head and gets to say that he loves Marge Simpson’s book “almost as much as he loves cameras”.

The “no selfies” author
Tom Pynchon has been incredibly successful over many decades—especially living in a metropolis of over eight million people—in scrupulously avoiding the lenses of the ubiquitous paparazzi. Until fairly recently there was virtually no new photos of the reclusive writer floating round⍟. Media outlets when running a story on Pynchon almost invariably fall back on the one or two photos taken during his navy days (when Pynchon was aged around 19 or 20!). Pynchon’s legendary antipathy to having his photo taken has been explained away as self-consciousness about his protruding buck teeth (something that a sequence of sessions in the dentist’s chair early on could surely have fixed). Whether this explanation holds water or not is of course, like everything else, a topic Pynchon is deafeningly silent on. On the issue of Pynchon hermetically sealing himself off from the world, a more plausible speculation is that it may be a reflection of Pynchon’s disapproval of the modern trend of writers embracing, even rejoicing, in the role of being celebrities, eg, Norman Mailer and Truman Capote et al [‘Thomas Pynchon Returns to New York, Where He’s Always Been’, (J.K. Trotter), The Atlantic, 17-Jun-2013, www.theatlantic.com].

A method in the madness?
The lengths Pynchon will go to avoid being photographed have a paranoia-like tinge to them, and some are legendary. Once in México during the Early Sixties V. period, when surprised by a random photographer, Pynchon apparently jumped straight out of his apartment window to escape being snapped [‘Hiding in Plain Sight: On the unobservable Thomas Pynchon’, (Alex Gilvarry), Topic, Issue No. 04, October 2027, www.topic.com]. The failure to pin down the identity of a famous but reclusive novelist contributes to the creation of myths … the enigma of an “invisible literary man” exudes more intrigue. Pynchon would understand that having a mystique about him, another layer of interest for his ‘gonzo’ fan base to engage with, would have a bonus marketable spin-off for the author’s sales [‘Meet Your Neighbor, Thomas Pynchon’, (Nancy Jo Sales), New York, 27-Jun-2008, www.nymag.com].

Pynchon Inc personnel: the ministry of silly names
Pynchon novels are typically peopled by a vast array of (usually odd) characters. In Gravity’s Rainbow, Pychon rolls out no fewer than 400 named characters in 760 pages (most with fleeting walk-on, walk-off parts). Pynchon also revels in preposterous nomenclature, inventing lots of outrageous puns like Joaquin Stick, Benny Profane and the Marquis de Sod (a Californian lawn-care specialist!), and an inexhaustible supply of downright silly names – including McClintic Sphere, Tyrone Slothrop, Rachel Owlglass, Weed Atman, Yashmeen Halfcourt, Mike Fallopian, Scarsdale Vipe, Doc Sportello, Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke and Pig Bodine. Counterculture names abound – Zoyd, Frenesi, Prairie, etc. Needless to say from the jokey nature of this Pynchon nomen-sampler that fleshing out a character’s multi-layered depths is not really the New Yorker’s bag [‘Gravity’s Rainbow’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

An orgy of exegesis: Conspiracy la-la land
As someone with a lofty literary profile in the US and beyond (regularly scores a mention in the mix of annual Nobel Prize contenders), the utter paucity of biographical information on Pynchon has given rise to some pretty wild speculation about who he really is? Outré theories abound on the internet about the novelist’s identity, one of the most persistent is that Thomas Pynchon is really JD Salinger! Presumably the germ of this notion was the commonalities between the two, both perceived as hermits with a pathological allergy to attention, and each shared a fierce insistence on their personal privacy. But what gave added weight to the imaginative coupling in people’s minds was Salinger’s early removal from the public gaze and the supposed drying up of his literary output as evidenced by the complete cessation of his published work post-1965. This baseless ‘theory’ holds that Salinger invented “Thomas Pynchon” as an “elaborate authorial personality” to hide behind (Trotter). Even more ludicrous was the allegation that Pynchon was in fact the Unabomber! Another speculation has him as an airline pilot in real life (motivated by Howard Hughes adulation perhaps?). Other theories, rather predictably, conclude that Pynchon has to be a drug smuggler or a CIA agent (“its all there in the stories!”) [‘Authors reveal their Thomas Pynchon conspiracy theories’, Bookish, 03-Oct-2013, www.usatoday.com]. And so it goes, with more and even crazier notions. There’s something very apt that so many loopy conspiracy theories circulate about the identity of an author whose fiction is littered with accounts of loopy conspiracy theories✫.

Footnote: Lost in Pynchon
Given my own often bewildered reaction to much of the fiction of Pynchon, and the palpable frustration that I see exhibited by others seeking despairingly to decode Tom Pynchon’s idiosyncratically personal brand of hieroglyphics◪, I often wonder why so many of us punters keep making the self-flagellating effort…I’m reminded of the cynic’s definition of a classic book, “something that everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read” (Mark Twain, who else?). Echoing this is one critic’s pithy summation of Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon’s most praised book, as the “least-read-must-read” book in American history (Sales). For the marginalised multitude denied enlightenment there is some comfort in mockery. The title of the 2009 “Po-Mo” take on TRP’s ‘gumshoe’ novel, Inherent Vice⍉, offers a pyrrhic get-square (‘Incoherent Vice’) [‘Incoherent Vice’, (Sam Anderson), New York, 31-Jul-2009, www.nymag.com].

PostScript: Absurdist and Fabulist?
Pynchon is a black belt when it comes to telling the “shaggy-dog” story. Early critics described his novels V. and Gravity’s Rainbow as “high-caliber shaggy dog stories, full of digressions and possibly pointless details converging to a climax that revolves little” [‘Thomas Pynchon: A Primer’, (Jack Joslin), 25-Apr-2012, www.litreactor.com]. This description also applies to the later Mason & Dixon, a long rambling tale full of rollicking in taverns and absurdly inconsequential humour. Pynchon concocts a mixture of fact and fiction, the actual historical personages of Mason and Dixon blended into the “obvious lies, rumours and outright fantasies of their travels” while surveying the boundaries of colonial North America [Thomas Pynchon: Novels & Concept.” Study.com, 25 June 2013, study.com/academy/lesson/thomas-pynchon-novels-lesson-quiz.html]. This shaggy dog, picturesque style of Pynchon brings to mind Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, but more contemporaneously it reminds me of Peter Carey (especially Illywhacker) and John Barth (The Sot-Weed Factor, Giles Goat-Boy) who both write in a Fabulist/Magic Realism vein.

＊ the scarcity of biographical material on Pynchon doesn’t stop the “Pynchon-curious” from trawling through the texts to turn up whatever “auto-fiction” they can find…the protagonist of V., Benny Profane, “a schlemihi and human yo-yo” is ex-navy, just like his creator

※ Pynchon, and for that matter, JD Salinger in his time, would undoubtedly have no trouble writing a treatise on daytime television had either wished to do so

⍟ even the odd photo supposed taken of the septuagenarian/octogenarian Pynchon out shopping can’t be confirmed as being genuinely of him

✫ Pynchon once famously said “every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength”

◪ one reviewer likened Pynchon’s cryptic first novel V. to a Hieronymus Bosch triptych

⍉ thus far the only Thomas Pynchon novel to make it to the silver screen

Recluse Deuces: Salinger and Pynchon, Two Modern Literary Outliers, Part I – JD Salinger

November 24, 2020Biographical, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture‘Catcher in the Rye’, ‘Dream Catcher’, ‘Franny and Zooey’, ‘Holden Caulfield’, ‘The Glass family’, Adolescent fiction, Celebrity assassins, Harper Lee, JD Salinger, Joyce Maynard, Literary recluses, Salinger family, Thomas Pynchon, World War 2E Curb Nottus

In the contemporary world of fiction-writing and publishing, maximising one’s media exposure in such a highly competitive market is considered essential for commercial success in the industry. A regime of TV talk shows, book tour circuits, getting your face out there, meeting and greeting the fans, is what authors do, its their bread and butter.

Two American novelists whose careers have followed an altogether different trajectory are JD Salinger and Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Junior. As modern writers of fiction, what Salinger and Pynchon have in common are a seemingly reclusive nature, or at the very least a pronounced aversion to publicity, or if you prefer to look at the obverse side, a fanatical even pathological commitment to guarding one’s own privacy from prying eyes.

SALINGER

❛What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.❜※

~ JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

꧁꧂ ꧁꧂ ꧁꧂

The ‘Catcher’: the unbearable heaviness of fame
JD (Jerome David, but went by the name of Jerry) Salinger had a remarkably slim output for a literary career that spanned over half a century. Between 1965 and his death in 2010 Salinger published nothing at all, although he continued to write in this time, prolifically it seems⚀. 1951 was the seminal year for Salinger with the dazzling success of his debut novel, Catcher in the Rye…the story of teenager Holden Caulfield struck a profound chord with American adolescence, articulating a sense of angst and alienation from adult (mainstream) society. The ensuing torrent of fame, the intense media and fan preoccupation with the book and in its author, drove Salinger to ground, relocating for good to a rural retreat in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Salinger, in the words of the New York Times, “elevating privacy to an art form”, bunkered down, refused interviews, and clammed up about his personal life and past – leaving the press and other interested parties to try to piece together the autobiographical parts of the novelist’s existence. Some observers have speculated that Salinger experienced some sort of identity crisis or nervous breakdown after ‘Catcher’, that triggered his publicity-shyness. As a result of Catcher in the Rye’s impact Salinger thereafter set a determined course to studiously avoid future publication, including no follow-up novel to capitalise on the success✧. Eventually a handful of shorter works were published, the most significance of which was his 1961 novella/short story collection Franny and Zooey (adventures of the Glass family). On the dust jacket of that book Salinger wrote, “a writer’s feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years”… elsewhere he has spoken of “the joys of not publishing” [‘Salinger, Pynchon & Co.: When writers are recluses’, (Scott Timberg), LA Times, 02-Sep-2007, www.latimes.com].

Salinger troppo bizarro
While Salinger kept schtum over the years, striving vigilantly to fend off unwanted attention, others within the author’s family and associates provided personal insights to whet the biography-starved appetites of the public. Both Salinger’s former live-in lover Joyce Maynard (who at 18 shacked up with the 50-something literary recluse in their New Hampshire hideaway) and the author’s own daughter Margaret wrote their own “tell-all”, unfavourable memoirs of Salinger (eg, “a scowling martinet who drank his own urine and clung to outmoded racial stereotypes drawn from old Hollywood movies”)¤ [Robert Schnakenberg, Secret Lives of Great Authors, (2008)]. Margaret’s hatchet-job on Dad provoked a sibling feud as Salinger’s son Matt (an occasional actor) rushed to his defence dissing Margaret’s memoir, Dream Catcher, as mere “gothic tales of our supposed childhood” [‘The odd life of Catcher in the Rye author JD Salinger’, (Martin Chilton), Independent, 01-Jan-2019, www.independent.co.uk].

A young Salinger (photo: AP)

Catcher in the Rye has consistently charted as a best-seller✪, but its critical reception has been controversial and reviews mixed. Some critics of the novel, taking a highbrow view have deemed it too pessimistic in its message, too obscene, sincere admittedly, but nonetheless mawkish (Joan Didion, George Steiner). Other readers, more low-key in their response, have wondered what all the fuss was about [‘J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly’, (Jonathan Yardley), The Washington Post, 19-Oct-2004, www.washingtonpost.com]. The ever-acerbic Gore Vidal questioned whether “Salinger’s enigmatic exile lent his work a seriousness it didn’t deserve” (Chilton). Salinger biographers Shields and Salerno saw ‘Catcher’ less as a coming-of-age story than allegorically as a “disguised war novel”◘ [‘Book Introduction to Salinger’, American Masters, 24-Dec-2013, www.pbs.org/].

A manifesto for the criminally unhinged
A notorious side-effect of the public’s (or sections of it’s) infatuation with Catcher in the Rye is that it has been the motivational vade mecum of choice for some assassins (or would-be assassins) of celebrities. The novel had an inspirational role in the (separate) shootings of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s. Mark David Chapman (who murdered Lennon) and John Hinckley Jr (who shot Reagan) both over-identified with Holden Caulfield to the point of being delusional and both were found to be in possession of a copy of ‘Catcher’ at the times of their crime.

◙◘◙◘◙

PostScript: How reclusive are these literary hermits?
Salinger and Pynchon et al have been described as “recursively reclusive”, and this seems to be the majority opinion among fervent Salinger and Pynchon-watchers [‘The People Behind the Pen – T. Pynchon, J.D. Salinger and J.R.R. Tolkien’, Cision, 25-Sep-2015, www.prweb.com/]. But this view has been challenged – in Thomas Pynchon’s case, by himself! In 1997 Pynchon told CNN (by phone) that he believed that ‘recluse’ was “a code word generated by journalists … meaning, ‘doesn’t like to talk to reporters’” – the “media-shy recluse as an invention of the media” [“The endangered literary ‘recluse’”, (Brian Joseph Davis), The Globe and Mail, 07-Aug-2009, www.theglobeandmail.com]. But if Pynchon—dubbed by the US media as the “Invisible Man”—is a recluse and a hermit, he’s one who is hiding in plain sight, having lived for about 30 years in the same apartment (the precise address can be openly accessed by a simple online search) in the dense metropolis of New York City!

In regard to Salinger, Shields and Salerno contend that he was never actually a recluse – their evidence? While in Cornish, NH, he travelled, he had friends, family, relationships, he consumed the popular culture of his day, he expressed political opinions (not necessarily positive ones…Reagan was “the outgoing dummy” and George HW Bush was “the incoming dummy”)(Chilton). Another biographer, Paul Alexander, asserts that Salinger played up the role of loner, that he was originally quite a keen socialiser when he lived in NYC…and in “another life” in his youthful pre-literary career, ‘Jerry’ had been “entertainment director” for a cruise liner, making the fun happen for 1,500 passengers on MS Kungsholm! As has been noted, Salinger and Pynchon (and Harper Lee and others) are “not recluses in the true sense of the word … they simply have different ways of being public figures” (Davis).

※ Salinger’s words proved incredibly prescient in light of his own literary career

⚀ in 2019 Salinger’s son indicated that the family will release much of his father’s large body of unpublished work

✧ from the 1950s on Salinger also refused all offers to sell the film rights to ‘Catcher’, backing it up with a ready willingness to sue in any instance of unauthorised use of his creations

¤ other allegations of ‘oddball’ behaviour directed at Salinger include his practice of glossolalia, his use of an orgasmatron, his dabbling in Scientology (and Vedantaism) and embrace of extreme homeopathy (Schnakenberg)

✪ to date the novel has sold somewhere in the vicinity of 70 million copies worldwide

◘ Salinger was a WWII veteran (active in D-Day, Dachau), had PTSD; postwar he was “perpetually in search of a spiritual cure for his damaged psyche” (Shields & Salerno)

Odysseus Beyond Antiquity: Myth, Hero and Anti-Hero, a Literary Archetype for Contemporary Story-Telling

October 31, 2020Cinema, Creative Writing, Geography, Literary & Linguistics, Performing arts2001: A Space Odyssey, Aegean Sea, Ancient Greece, Anti-heroes, Arthur C Clarke, Captain Kirk, Cattle of the Sun God, Classical World, Don Quixote, Epic of Gilgamesh, Greek mythology, Hamlet, Homer, Homeric heroes, Iliad, Ionian Greeks, James Joyce, Jesus and Gospel of Mark, Leopold Bloom, Lotus Eaters, Nausikaa, O Brother Where Art Thou, Odysseus, Odyssey, Paris Texas (film), Penelope, Polyphemus (Cyclops), Poseidon, Road movies, Sophocles, Star Trek, Sumerian culture, Telemachus, Tennyson ‘Ulysses’ (poem), The Penelopiad, The Sirens, Troilus and Cressida, Trojan War, Troy, TS Eliot, Ulysses (novel), Western Anatolia, Western canon, William Shakespearefunambulator@live.com

For scholar and layperson alike, the dawn of story-telling in the West if not the earliest literary text, coincides with Homer and his two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. Dating very roughly from somewhere around 700 BCE, Homer (traditionally thought to be a blind Ionian poet – see PostScript) composed his two (very) long poems in hexameter form to be read aloud at festivals and such public events. The Homeric epics were spread throughout the Greek world and beyond by professional reciters of poetry called rhapsodes (sort of travelling bards) [Beaty Rubens & Oliver Taplin, An Odyssey Round Odysseus: The Man and His Story Traced Through Time and Place, (1989)].

Epic of Gilgamesh

Homer’s works are generally considered the foundation point of what is commonly referred to as the Western canon※, though the Iliad and the Odyssey are predated by other foundation texts emanating from the earlier Sumerian civilisation, particularly the Epic of Gilgamesh (ca 2,100 BCE), comprising poems and tales, the first known work of fiction [‘What is the oldest known piece of literature?’, (Evan Andrews), History, 22-Aug-2018, www.history.com].

Cattle of the Sun

The second of the epic poems, the Odyssey, deals with the perilous and action-packed 10-year journey of its eponymous hero Odysseus back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War (the Iliad). In 2018 a poll by the BBC of over 100 international authors, academics, journalists and critics chose the Odyssey as the most influential work in Western literature. Some of the reasons given for making the Odyssey primus inter pares in such a vast array of august literary texts include: it is “one of the great foundation myths of Western culture…asking what it means to be a hero”; it is “properly epic”; it has “great female characters”; it “forces us to question the assumptions we might have about quests, war, and what it means to return home” (repatriation); it endorses a “streak of individualism”, etc [Homer’s Odyssey is Officially the World’s Most Influential Story’, (Tasso Kokkinidis), Greece. Greek Reporter,(2018), www.greece.greekreporter.com✪.

That the Odyssey has been massively influential in the arts ever since it first emerged in the rocky hillsides of Ionian Greece is indisputable. Other ancient Greek playwrights and poets who followed Homer, like Sophocles, produced their own versions of the iconic tale (and their own take on the elusive character of Odysseus). It has been suggested that the character of Jesus in the Gospel of Markspan class=”s2″ style=”font-size: 19.73px”> draws from Odysseus and his adventures, eg, the “feeding of the 500”, Jesus was a carpenter like Odysseus, who was the builder of the “Wooden Horse” [‘The Odyssey : An Overview, No Sweat Shakespeare, www.nosweatshakespeare.com].

⍐ 2nd century AD Tunisian mosaic of the Sirens (Book 12)

The Bard’s debt to Homer

It’s widely known that Shakespeare borrowed freely from many sources – plots, devices and imagery from the Bible, Plutarch, Seneca, Chaucer, from Holinshed’s Chronicles, from Boccaccio’s Decameron, etc. [‘Shakespeare’s Source Material’, (J.M. Pressley), Shakespeare’s Resource Center, www.bardnet.net/]. Like any educated Tudor man of the day Shakespeare voraciously absorbed the classics and Homeric influences are discernible in his plays – Odyssean themes like the phenomena of homecoming (Shakespeare’s Romances); the recognition theme from Odysseus’ reappearance in disguise in Ithaca (King Lear); the renewal theme (The Winter’s Tale) (No Sweat Shakespeare)⦿.

The Odysseus-Hamlet connexion

The Odyssey’s imprint on Shakespeare is most noticeable in the Bard’s most famous tragedy Hamlet. Several patterns emerge. Both literary opuses share a preoccupation with a troubled father-son relationship (Odysseus/Telemachus, King Hamlet/Prince Hamlet). Moreover, the Odyssey and Hamlet possess striking thematic similarities. Prince Hamlet and King Odysseus both employ deception to their advantage—the former dissembling madness and the latter physical disguises—to exact retribution against those who have wronged them. Both protagonists reveal a fatal flaw (hamartia)⊞ in the course of their trials and tribulations [‘Hamlet v. Odyssey’, (William Sheng), 12-Apr-2012, http://docs.google.com/].

⍐ Odyssey-lite Homer (Simpson)

Retelling the Odysseus myth anew

The influence of the Odyssey on various media has been recurring and pervasive, including on novels (Don Quixote: Quixote, like Odysseus, embarks on a ‘epic’ journey and inflates (or distorts) his tales of heroism and survival) or The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood’s feminist remaking of the myth as told from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’ long-suffering wife); on television animation (The Simpsons “Tales from the Public Domain” episode – a satirical travesty of the Odyssey, Homer (Simpson) as Odysseus on a decidedly unheroic journey [‘8 Novels Inspired by the Odyssey’, (Jessica Ferri), Early Bird Books, www.earlybirdbooks.com ; Economou Green, Mary. “The Odyssey and Its Odyssey in Contemporary Texts: Re-visions in Star Trek, The Time Traveler’s Wife,and The Penelopiad.” Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy. 1.1 (2014). Web.]; in poetry (Tennyson’s Ulysses (the Latinised form of ‘Odysseus’) is a kind of pessimistic postscript to the Odyssey with the aged hero unhappily stuck in his island kingdom lamenting the loss of his life of travel and adventure).

Odysseus by the River Liffey

Easily the most famous literary reinterpretation of the Odyssey is James Joyce’s “stream of consciousness✠ novel Ulysses, a work which tore up the handbook for writing novels in the modern age. T S Eliot summarised the revolutionary impact of Ulysses’ thus: “(Joyce) has made the novel obsolete by replacing the narrative method with the mythical method” [quoted in ‘James Joyce’s Ulysses: Remixing the Homeric Myth’, (James AW Heffernan), The Great Courses Daily, 02-Apr-2017,www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com].Joyce adapts the framework of Homer’s classic to 1904 Dublin, condensing the original’s 10-year journey into a single day, in which the protagonist, the “mock-heroic” and cod-ordinary Leopold Bloom, wanders around his various haunts in the city. In every chapter of Ulysses Joyce matches or parallels the actions of his characters with that of the Odyssey but presents them as banal and mundane. The scene in Homer where a lovely princess Nausikaa assists the shipwrecked Odysseus on the island of Scheria is reworked by Joyce to show the married cuckold Bloom as voyeur, spying on an attractive girl at Sandymount Strand while relieving his frustrations by masturbating [David Norris & Carl Flint, Joyce For Beginners, (1994)].

the 1967 film version of ‘Ulysses‘

Sci-Fi Odysseus: Trekking with Homer

Science-Fiction depictions on the screen, big and small, have mined an abundant seam of inspiration from the Odyssey. Kubrick’s and Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey repositions the story in the Solar System with a supercomputer named HAL-9000 filling the role of the Cyclops imperilling the life of Odysseus/Dave Bowman. Another cult classic that owes inestimably to Homer’s Odyssey is the long-running Star Trek TV series. The Odyssey parallels are more than translucent – Star Trek is replete with alien locations and weird and unworldly characters. Captain Kirk is “an intelligent, strong and charismatic leader, struggling to keep his crew together as they sail through the depths of space” [‘Greek Myth and Science Fiction’, www.greekmythandscifi.wordpress.com]. Kirk & Co leave the known world (Earth) to journey into the unknown (the Galaxy)❂, they “go beyond”, they problem-solve, they vanish aliens and monsters and “re-emerge into the world victorious in quest purpose and with knowledge to better the plight of humankind” (Economou Green).

Odysseus as anti-hero precursor?

Odysseus exhibits qualities that make him seem to our eyes very modern (or even post-modern). He heroically and valiantly combats the monstrous creatures which block his path, but there is another, deeply problematic side to his personality. Odysseus, the personification of guile and cunning (polumetis in the Greek), routinely acts in both the Iliad and the Odyssey without honour or noble intention – a trickster, a dissembler and “con man”, a cheat, a liar, Among his many misdeeds, he sleeps with Circe; he murders innocent maids; he displays arrogance such as in his encounter with Polyphemus (the Cyclops); he misappropriates the armour of the dead Achilles (causing Ajax to take his own life); he fails to protect his crew on the voyage home resulting in them all perishing. You can discern in the ‘complicated’ and ‘ambiguous’◪ character of Odysseus a model for the ascendency of the anti-hero in modern cinema since the 1960s (Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, etc) [Cook, E. (1999). “Active” and “Passive” Heroics in the “Odyssey”. The Classical World, 93(2), 149-167. doi: 10.2307/4352390].

Footnote: Odyssey, the prototype road movie

Homer’s classic is of course one of if not the principal fount of all subsequent travel/road stories in Western culture. This has proved nowhere more fecund than in modern cinema in films such as Easy Rider, Mad Max and countless others. Other road movies have been even more overt in referencing their debt to Odyssey and Homer – Paris, Texas, where the Odyssean protagonist charts a hazardous course which takes him from ruin and desperation to redemption [‘Wander Forever Between The Wind: A Tribute To PARIS, TEXAS’, (Priscilla Page), Birth, Movies, Death, 23-Sep-2017, www.birthmoviesdeath.com]. The Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou is unequivocally transparent in its pilferings from the Odyssey…the movie is variously peopled by a “Ulysses/Everett”, a “Penny”, a figurative “Cyclops”, “Lotus Eaters”, “Trojans/Ku Klux Klan”, a “Cattle of the Sun God”, “Sirens/laundry ladies”, a “Poseidon/county sheriff” and assorted other Homeric entities – all transposed to a 1930s Great Depression, Deep South setting.

PostScript: Authorship issue

Some scholars over the years have sought to debunk the custom of attributing the Iliad and the Odyssey to someone called ‘Homer’, about who there is virtually zero factual information, no biography to recount. Rather than a knowable or identifiable author this view attributes authorship to the whole Hellenic culture, tracing its genesis in fragments created before the supposed dates that ‘Homer’ flourished [‘Author Says a Whole Culture—Not a Single ‘Homer’—Wrote ‘Iliad,’ ‘Odyssey’’, (Simon Worrall), National Geographic, 03-Jan-2015, www.nationalgeographic.com].

ღ დ ღ დ ღ

＊＊ the books, films, etc referred to above are only a selection of the total works—literary, the arts, music, cinema—informed and influenced by the Odyssey

𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪𝄪

※ ‘classic’ works of literature, philosophy, music and art elevated into a band of select ‘membership’ in the firmament of high culture

✪ the claim of ‘official’ recognition should be tempered by the fact that if a different set of experts were asked, they might not necessarily agree with the choice

⊞ in Hamlet it is prevarication and indecision, failing to act when he should, in Odysseus it is hubris, by which Odysseus offends Poseidon with “god-like” arrogance

⦿ Shakespeare’s borrowings from the Iliad are more overt in Troilus and Cressida, he is indebted to Homer’s tale of Troy for the storyline and the entire Dramatis personae

✠ a method of narration in a literary work that describes happenings in the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters [www.literarydevices.net/]

❂ cf. Odysseus – the Underworld

◪ Emily Wilson/Erwin Cook

≡ ≡ ≡

Sifting the Devil from the Dragon: Dracula versus Vlad Ţepeş

October 13, 2020Biographical, Cinema, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional HistoryBalkans, Bela Lugosi, Blacula, Boyar class, Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Bran Castle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christopher Lee, Dracula, Duckula, Gothic novel, Horror film genre, House of Drâculeşti, Hungarian Empire, Irish folklore, Nosteratu, Ottoman Turks, Port Erroll (Aberdeens), Romanian folklore, Saxon merchants (Rom.), Sighişoara, Slains Castle (Scotld), Strigol, Transylvania, Vampire tourism, Vampires and the supernatural, Vlad II Drâcul, Vlad III Ţepeş, Voivode of Wallachia, Whitby (Yorks)Sloane Snodgrasse

(Image: Lonely Planet)

Romanians, especially those from the region of Transylvania, must view Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula with at best mixed feelings. On the one hand, the immense popularity of Stoker’s imaginative work of fiction helped put Transylvania on the international tourist map…on the other hand, its dark and ghoulish tale of chilling evil with its genesis in the mountains and forests of trans-silvae (“the land beyond the forest”), projects a negative and deceptively gloomy picture of the country. The association of one of the greatest heroes in Romanian history and a defender of Christianity, the Medieval ruler Vlad Ţepeş III, with the fictional Dracula, would be displeasing to many patriotic Romanians.

Dracula’s transformation into a classic of the Gothic horror genre captured the imagination of film-makers, inspiring numerous silver-screen interpretations of Dracula – from the silent German feature Nosferatu to countless Western film versions which made actors such as Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee famous – and typecast. The Dracula character’s pervasion of especially American popular culture has seen the trope extend to parody cartoon versions on TV (Duckula), to female teen “vampire-slayers” (Buffy) and even to “blaxploitation” movies asserting the emergence of a self-conscious black culture in the US (eg, Blacula).

Vlad’s signature punishment
In some screen interpretations of the novel, like the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the identities of Dracula and Vlad Ţepeş are presented as if they are one and the same person! (see also PostScript). Entirely fanciful of course but Stoker’s character did draw inspiration from the real-life Vlad Ţepeş III (or Vlad Împalatul). Vlad was the voivode✱ of Wallachia in the mid-15th century, infamous for impaling victims such as his own troublesome boyars or foreigners captured in conflicts (Ottomans, Bulgarians, Saxons, Hungarians▣). Such an horrific torture technique earned him the nickname “the Impaler”.

1499 woodcut: Vlad the Impaler, ⇩ (appetite undiminished)

Vlad Ţepeş, voivode and resident of Wallachia, not Transylvania
Stoker did get the name ‘Dracula’ from the Medieval Romanian prince, or at least from his family. Vlad’s father—Wallachian voivode before him—was Vlad II, also known as Vlad Drâcul…Drâcul (or Drâc) was a word for ‘dragon’ in the 15th century※, today in Modern Romanian it means “the devil” – something noted by Stoker in his research for the book as an apt descriptor for his fictional arch-nemesis. There is however a great deal of the character of Count Dracula that Stoker didn’t derive from the circumstance of Vlad Ţepeş. The Impaler had nothing to do with vampires or any supernatural beings and his associations with Transylvania were largely peripheral and tenuous. Vlad was supposedly born within Transylvania in Sighişoara although there are some doubts about this (an alternative view has his birthplace in Wallachia). Bran Castle, a Transylvanian tourist attraction identified with Stoker’s Dracula, has no connection with Vlad at all [Florin Curta, referenced in ‘The Real Dracula: Vlad the Impaler’, (Marc Lallanilla), Live Science, (2017), www.livescience.com].

⇩ Bran Castle (Photo: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images)

Constructing the Ur-vampire
Transylvania, being to outsiders, “a mysterious land of vampires and other supernatural things”, handed down a long tradition of folklore and legends, it’s not surprising that Stoker drew on this source for inspire and inform his vampire story. Superstitions and beliefs of Romanian peasants in Stoker’s time fuelled a plentiful supply of tales about vampiri (vampires), vârcolaci (werewolves) and other supernatural monstri. Stoker’s library research would also have acquainted him with the strigol, a Romanian figure of legend—“a reckless spirit that returns to suck the lifeblood from his relatives”—the type of vampirish “undead souls” that would find a place in Stoker’s horror novel [‘The Use of History in Dracula Tourism in Romania’, (Tuomas Hovi), www.folklore.ee].

⇧ Whitby, England (Image credit: www.visitwhitby.com)

Non-Romanian influences on Dracula
In the Dracula novel the undead Count travels to Britain in search of more victims, journeying to Whitby in Yorkshire. This echoes Stoker’s own earlier visit to Whitby in which the author was reportedly quite taken with the town, its colony of bats circling round the churches, its whole creepy atmosphere, all of which he would have found good material for a Gothic novel [‘How Dracula Came to Whitby’, English Heritage, www.english-heritage.org.uk]. Stoker apparently found more inspiration in Port Erroll (these days, Cruden Bay) in Aberdeenshire – Slains Castle with its “fang-like rocks” is thought to have also inspired the Transylvanian Dracula castle home in the book [‘Slains Castle’, www.visitabdn.com].

Vampires: not the exclusive preserve of Transylvania⦿
Bram Stoker was Irish and never visited Romania in his lifetime, prompting some to speculate that the Dracula story may equally have been influenced by the author’s own experiences growing up in Ireland. Stoker would have been exposed to homegrown myths of the supernatural (such as those involving the sidhe, the fairy people of Irish folklore), as well as to the nightmarish ordeal of living through a cholera epidemic [‘How Bram Stoker creates Dracula with the aid of Irish Folklore’, (Leonie O’Hara), Irish Central, 04-Oct-2020, www.irishcentral.com].

PostScript: Vampire tourism
Vampire tourism in Transylvania has not been waylaid by coronavirus, tourist operators in Romania are still offering up a raft of tour packages—with titles like “7-Day Dracula Highlights Tour” and “Fun With Fangs: Vampire Tours in Romania”—to lure the “vampire-curious”. The tours, tend to wallow in all the predictable cliches and stereotypes, milking the prevailing craze for all things vampire, staying in Dracula-themed hotels, etc. Vampire tourism is an intriguing admixture of history, tradition and fiction…taking a leaf from Hollywood some of the tours indulge in considerable conflating of the historic Vlad Ţepeş with the fictional Count Dracula (Hovi).

↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜

✱ ruler, a sort of military governor of a region

▣ Prince Vlad’s political fortunes generally hovered in the vacuum between the two regional powerhouses Hungary and the Ottomans, who he fought both with and against at different times

※ Drâculeşti is the patronymic – Vlad Ţepeş was also known as Drâculea, “son of the dragon”

☒ descendants of Saxon (German) merchants and craftsmen who migrated to Romania, commencing in the 12th century

⦿ though the tradition is a strong one in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, eg, Greece vrykolakas, Albania shtriga

Inspiring the Creation of Secret Agent 007: The Template of a World War 2 Yugoslav Spy

October 4, 2020Biographical, Cinema, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAbwehr, Battle of Normandy 1944, Casino Royale, D-Day, Dušan (Duško) Popov, Estoril Casino, Ian Fleming, International espionage, James Bond, MI6, Operation Fortitude, Operation Overlord, Pas de Calais, Yugoslav intelligence agencyE Curb Nottus

The James Bond film series, is the world’s most successful and enduring movie franchise, since 1962, 24 completed feature films and with another currently cooling it’s post-production heels in Covid lockdown…a franchise that seemingly has not yet run out of steam. The 007 phenomenon has inspired countless imitations in cinema and television. This has ranged from blatant rip-off imitators trying to capitalise on its impetus in the Sixties (“Matt Helm”, “Our Man Flint”, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, etc.) to playing it for laughs parodies (“Get Smart”, “Austin Powers”, “Johnny English”).

(Photo: Britannica)

But where did the original creator of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming, get his inspiration for the iconic character from? We know that Fleming’s own lived experience and background—as a British naval intelligence officer in WWII—made him an insider in the world of espionage, double deceptions and counter-agents. Obviously when the Caribbean-domiciled Fleming came to put pen to paper and create the fictional James Bond in the early Fifties, he drew on many of the real-life acquaintances he had met in the ‘workplace’❋.

In his lifetime Fleming never said definitively who the principal model for 007 was, but the consensus seems to gravitate towards a Serbian double agent Dušan (‘Duško) Popov, someone Fleming came across in the course of his own intelligence career. A famous scene in Casino Royale (Fleming’s first James Bond novel) further advances the association of the world’s most celebrated fictional spy with Popov. Bond’s besting of a powerful Russian criminal at the baccarat table in Casino Estoril (Portugal) in the book/film mirrors an exchange Fleming observed first-hand when the real-life spy spectacularly called the bluff of a boastful Lithuanian gambler in a baccarat game at the same location.

Popov stumbled into the espionage game after being arrested by the Gestapo. To get out of that pickle Popov agreed to spy for the Abwehr (German intelligence agency). While in England he was recruited by MI6 and turned double agent✫. During the war Popov managed to feed a steady stream of misinformation to the Nazis about the Allies’ movements, strength, etc. Most productive for the Allies was his role in Operation Fortitude – Popov helped to convince German military planners that the D-Day invasion of France would occur in Pas de Calais, not Normandy, the actual landing point. As a consequence of Popov’s disinformation, when Operation Overlord was launched in 1944 there were seven German divisions stuck in Calais and unavailable to the Reichswehr in Normandy [‘My name is Popov, Duran Popov’, (Marta Levai), www.0011info.com].

(Image: Getty)

The Serbian counter-spy also tried in August 1941 to alert the US military as to high-level Nazi and Japanese interest in Pearl Harbor, however the critical information which could have averted the military disaster on 7th December was blocked from reaching its target by CIA director Hoover. Hoover distrusted Popov as a double agent, an attitude not allayed by Popov’s reputation as a womaniser and playboy.

(Source: www.newspapers.com)

After the war Popov’s services were rewarded by the Brits with an OBE, but it wasn’t until 1974 that Popov himself lifted the cover on his war-time espionage activities when he published his autobiography. When asked about comparisons between himself and 007, Popov was dismissive of the hedonistic, jet-setting spy as portrayed on the big screen, remarking that “a spy who drank like Bond would be drunk the first night and dead the second” [‘From the archive: the real James Bond, 1973’, (Observer archive), (Chris Hall), The Guardian, 22-Mar-2020, www.theguardian.com].

_____________________________________________
❋ and on those Fleming only knew of, such as the legendary master spy Sidney Reilly [‘Novel Man’, (William Cook), New Statesman, 28-Jun-2004]

✫ at one point Popov was also spying for the Yugoslav intelligence service, making him a triple agent

Wondrous Origins of Wonder Woman

September 3, 2020Biographical, Creative Writing, Gender wars, Leisure activities, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture‘Diana Prince’, ‘Lasso of Truth’, ’Charles Moulton’, 1st Wave Feminism, Batman, Birth Control Movement, BSDM, DC Comics, DISC Theory, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Golden Age of Comic Books, Greek mythology, HG Peter, Interwar Fascism, Joye Hummel, Justice Society of America, Lois Lane, Margaret Sanger, Max Gaines, Olive Byrne, Polygraph prototype, Post-Freudian psychology, Sorority ‘baby parties’, Suffragette Movement, Superhero comic books, Superman, Systolic lie detector machine, Tufts University, William M Marston, Wonder Womanfunambulator@live.com

In a way the Wonder Woman story starts in Medford, Massachusetts, at Tufts University, in the 1920s. William M Marston, a young progressive and unorthodox psychology professor, teaches his own DISC theory＊ to his students. One particular female student takes a shine to Marston’s DISC ideas and to the professor himself. Next thing we know Marston immerses himself in a ménage a trios with the student (Olive Bryant) and his (initially quite reluctant) wife Elizabeth. The polyamorous relationship◵ allows Bill to explore a latent interest in BSDM and arrive at the conclusion that women are the “love leaders” of society, predicting that women would “take over the rule of the country, politically and economically, within the next hundered years” [Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine, (2014)].

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(Source: www.money.org/)

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⍋ 1st sighting of the pioneering super-heroine: Marston uses the pseudonym “Charles Moulton” for the Wonder Woman comic books

Marston over the years tries his hand at many things in addition to psychology —inventing a systolic blood pressure test (which contributes to the development of the polygraph); writing screenplays for early silent films; authoring self-help books—without ever really attaining a measure of lasting success in any. Marston’s venture into creating comic books in 1940 turns that trend around. Always looking for a new business opportunity, especially after finding himself on the outer in academe, Marston finds a new way to champion his faith in female superiority by creating Wonder Woman, the first super-heroine in comics.

⍒ Wonder Woman on the lie detector

Marston’s ‘superwoman’
Having successfully pitched the idea to DC Comics boss Max Gaines, Marston’s Wonder Woman debuts in 1941 in All Star Comics #8, with cartoonist HG Peter supplying the pencilling which have a touch of art nouveau about it. Marston embodies WW with all the attributes and values that added up to his idea of perfect femininity (based seemingly on an amalgam of the brace of women in his life, Elizabeth and Olive). The make-up of WW’s character reflects Marston’s fascination with Greek mythology. She is depicted as an Amazonian princess◘ , as “strong as Hercules”, “wise as Athena” and “beautiful as Aphrodite”. Garbed in a sexy but patriotic suit of star-spangled red, white and blue, her accoutrements are distinctively martially potent – including the “Lasso of Truth”, a device to compel people to tell the truth (an idea germinating from Marston’s lie detector prototype). WW wears indestructible bracelets which deflect bullets, a golden tiara which doubles as a projectile and an ‘invisible’ jet to whisk herself away from danger [Wonder Woman Psychology: Lassoing the Truth, edited by Travis Langley & Mara Wood (2018)].

Wonder Woman, a comic book gender transgressor
In the comics of the 1930s prevailing cultural norms are reinforced, superheroes are male by gender and violent in method – the stereotypical depiction of women was commonly restricted to evil seductresses, the girlfriends of heroes (eg, Lois Lane) or their ‘helpmates’. Wonder Woman represents a radical departure from the norm, her shtick is fighting fascism in America wherever she finds it – using her brains rather than the heavy-handed brawn exhibited by Batman, Superman and co. [‘A Psychologist and A Superhero’, (Margarita Tartakovsky), Psychology Central, updated 15-Mar-2019, www.psychcentral.com].

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Wonder Woman, “deer-hunting” ⍋

Comic bondage and a moral backlash
Marston is able to indulge one of his most cherished psychosexual beliefs through Wonder Woman, that “women enjoyed being bound”. In the comics it appears as a standard contrivance, we find WW being tied up by villains as some point or other in the story line. Sometimes WW herself ties up women, and to accentuate the kinkiness of her character, dresses them in deer costumes for a mock cervid hunt through the forest⁌ [‘Wonder Woman (comic book)’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org]. The BSDM preoccupation reflects a personal fetish of Marston’s but also can be linked back to the powerful influence the suffrage, feminist and birth control movements has on him (pioneering birth control activist Margaret Sanger was Olive Byrne’s aunt) ⌖. Wonder Wonder is an instant hit for the comic book-reading public (eventually reaching a weekly readership of five million), drawing the opprobrium of America’s moral guardians who object to the torture motif running through the stories, also considering WW’s outfit to be far too skimpy [‘The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman’, (Jill Lepore), Smithsonian Magazine, October 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com].

⍒ Justice Society of America

At DC Comics Wonder Woman is invited to join the Justice Society of America (DC’s superhero team in the “Golden Age of Comic Books” as the period was known). WW’s elevation is hardly a step forward for gender advancement however as her designated role in the JSA is that of secretary for the male superheroes, while the ‘boys’ get on with the heroics of protecting the world from the designs of global criminal masterminds [‘The Truth About Wonder Woman’, Robert Kirkman’s Secret History Of Comics, (US documentary)].

Marston doesn’t get to appreciate the success of Wonder Woman for long, he contracts a form of cancer and dies in 1947, still in his early fifties (for the last two to three years he has an assistant, Joye Hummel, who helps ghost-write the WW stories when he is too ill). With the reins of the Wonder Woman comics passing from its originator to new hands, the iconic super-heroine’s persona and fortunes would undergo a number of transformations over the decades to follow.

Initial sketch of WW by HG Peter (1941) ⍒
(Source: Smithsonian Libraries)

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︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵

＊ Marston believes that the behavioural expression of emotions could be divided into four primary types – Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance [‘William Marston’, www.discprofile.com/]

◵ Elizabeth and Olive each have two children to Bill and everyone live under the same roof

◘ like Superman, Batman, etc, WW has a civilian alias – Diana Prince

⁌ such scenes may also have inspired by Byrne giving Marston a window into the activities of her sorority at Tufts University – “baby parties” where dominatrix women bind and discipline submissive sorority members [‘Curious Traditions of Times Past: Baby Parties’, (Yim Walsh), Tufts, 18-Sep-2014, www.dca.tufts.edu]

⌖ from this exposure Marston learns that the breaking of chains is “a powerful feminist symbol of emancipation” [‘A look back at Wonder Woman’s feminist (and not-so-feminist) History, (Michael Cavna), Independent, 30-May-2017, www.independent.co.uk].

♋️ ♋️ ♋️

The Moral Guardians’ War on ‘Pernicious’ Comic Books

August 21, 2020Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Performing arts, Popular Culture, Regional History, Social History, Society & Culture, Visual ArtsBatman & Robin, Captain Marvel, CBLDF, Comic book industry, Comic Code Authority, Comic-Cons, Coronavirus, DC Comics, EC Comics, Fredric Wertham, Graphic novels, Hays Code, Marvel Comics, McCarthyism, Moral panic, Nazi SS, Postwar moral crusade, R Crumb, Sterling North, Superman, The Avengers, USA, William Gaines, Wonder Womanfunambulator@live.com

♦️ Wonder Woman astride a “space kangaroo” 🦘

As all of us are only too aware, COVID-19 has cut a swathe through public gatherings, large aggregations of people are a “no-no” in 2020. Across the globe all manner of events have been on the receiving end of a different sort of cancel culture treatment. The superhero-studded world of comic book conventions has not been immune to this contagion. Comic-cons everywhere, including the San Diego Comic-Con International, America’s oldest comic book convention, have been red pencilled in this year of the plague. But if we turn the clock back some 70 years we might observe a time when the existential threat was directed at the product itself, the actual comic books.

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There were no organised comic-cons in the more cautious and conformist 1940s and 50s, but this in no way equated with a lack of popularity of comic books. In fact the Forties had been a Golden Age, especially for American comic books, Comic strip creators were riding high with a slew of superhero characters—including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Captain America, the Avengers and Captain Marvel—proving lucrative for companies like Detective Comics (DC Comics), Entertaining Comics (EC Comics) and Timely Comics (Marvel Comics). By mid-decade comic books were the most popular form of entertainment in the US (with 80 to 100 million copies being sold per weekBy the late 1940s comic books were well and truly being marketed towards adults as well…”fed by the same streams as pulp fiction and film noir, titles (began to tell) lurid stories of crime, vice, lust and horror” [David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, (2008)].

♦️ Wonder Woman (Sensation Comics, 1942)

‘Seduction of the Innocent’
Dark clouds appeared over the comics industry’s blue skies in 1954 with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by a Bavarian-born neurobiologist Fredric Wertham. The book was “a full-throttled attack on the lurid contents of various crime, horror, and even super-hero titles, (with an emphasis on) graphic illustrations of wife-beatings, sado-masochism, and gruesome murders”⁕ Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, (2012)]. Wertham’s inditement of the American comics of the day was that they corrupted impressionable youth, inveigling them into fanaticising about evil, leading them on a ruinous path to criminal behaviour, etc.[‘History of Comics Censorship, Part 1’, CBLDF, www.cbldf.org/].

♦️ Crime SuspenStories, 1950

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1940s, North and bonfires
Wertham was not the first critic to take aim at the US comic book industry. In the view of CBLDF✥, since the 1930s “the comics medium has been stigmatized as low-value speech”. In 1940 conservative commentator Sterling North urged parents and educators to guard against the influx of “mayhem, murder, torture and abduction—often with a child as the victim” in contemporary comic strips. North also decried the incidence of “voluptuous females in scanty attire, machine gun (-wielding hoodlums) and “cheap political propaganda” in the comics. The effect on children, he went on to say, of these “badly drawn, badly written and badly printed” strips was “a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems” as well as constituting “a violent stimulant” to them [North, Sterling. “A National Disgrace”. Childhood Education. 17.1, 1940: 56. Print.]. During WWII religious and patriotic organisations conducted public burnings of ‘disapproved’ comic books in American neighbourhoods – in ironic juxtaposition of the war being fought overseas concurrently against Nazi Germany (’Comic Censorship, Part 1’).

♦️ Dr Wertham, researching

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“Pop culture McCarthyite”
But it was Seduction of the Innocent that struck the strongest chord in a 1950s America “looking over its shoulder” for real or imagined enemies of society in the grip of a hysteria heightened by McCarthyism. It triggered a public outcry, prompting an investigation into the industry by a Senate sub-committee. Publicity from the hearing was damning and the fallout was devastating. Comic books were denounced by Wertham and other moral crusaders as contributing to juvenile delinquency⚉. At the height of the moral panic, comic book publishers were sometimes treated as though they were mobsters, and the cartoonists, as if they were pornographers [‘The Caped Crusader’ (Jeet Heer), Slate, 04-Apr-2008, www.slate.com; ’Comic Censorship, Part 1’].

The emasculated comic book
Threatened with both public and government censure, the comics industry choose to self-regulate, introducing the Comic Code Authority, “a censorship code that thoroughly sanitized the content of comics for years to come”. The new code (something analogous to the film world’s draconian Hays Code) was taken to ridiculous lengths, it forbade comics from showing zombies, vampires, ghouls and werewolves; words like ‘horror’ and ‘terror’ couldn’t be mentioned in the story lines; nor could criminals be portrayed sympathetically and the institution of marriage could not be seen to be disrespected (Howe).

♦️ The imprimatur of the self-censor

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Comic book publishers were forced to produce ‘purified’ comics suitable for a younger market—more infantile and tamer stories, squeaky-clean but ‘dopey’ heroes replacing the previous super-overachievers—in short, “safe fantasies” for the youngest readers (’Comic Censorship, Part 1’).

The economic and human toll
The new reality of the world of comic books decimated the industry’s hitherto prosperity…between 1954 and 1956 the number of titles produced was cut by more than half – from 650 in 250 over that two-year period!✧. By summer 1954 15 comics publishers in the US went belly-up. EC Comics, up to then one of the market leaders, discontinued all its comics lines…its much-vilified publisher William Gaines switching production solely to the satirical Mad magazine. Over 800 jobs in the industry vanished more or less immediately (Howe; Hajdu). Many talented inkers and pencillers left the industry for good, many for economic reasons but others due at least in part to the stifling of their creative artistic output.

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Endnote: Demise of adult comics
Both Wertham and North in their hatchet jobs on the comics genre made the error of completely disregarding the significant adult readership of comic books. The recovery of the industry, the winning back of that readership, took many years…it didn’t really happen until the emergence of ‘Underground’ comics in the 1960s with publications like Zap Comics and comic artists like R Crumb§ [‘History of Comics Censorship, Part 2, CBLDF, www.cbldf.org/].

♦️ Detective Comics, 1945

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PostScript: The Wertham thesis unpacked
After it became accessible in 2010 Wertham’s research on comics books was investigated and his conclusions found largely baseless…Wertham was said to have manipulated data, overstated, compromised, and fabricated evidence. A further weakness of his work was that he used non-representative samples as the basis for his conclusions. Scorn was also poured on Wertham’s contentions that the comic character Superman harboured Nazi SS tendencies, that the Batman/Robin relationship had homoerotic overtones, and that Wonder Woman was a lesbian role model (Wertham saw this as wholly undesirable)[‘Fredric Wertham’,Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org; Heer].

________________________________________________

⁕ that serious comics of the period were laden with violence, misogyny and racism, could not be disputed (Heer)

✥

⚉

dislike of popular comics. Wertham considered their consumption blocked children from an appreciation of literature and fine arts (Hajdu; Heer)

✧

§ the fashionability of adult readership was further advanced by the advent of graphic novels

⁕ that serious comics of the period were laden with violence, misogyny and racism, could not be disputed (Heer)

✥ Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

⚉ a sense of elitism also coloured Wertham et al’s dislike of popular comics. Wertham considered their consumption blocked children from an appreciation of literature and fine arts

✧ in excess of 100 pieces of anti-comic book legislation came into effect in the Fifties (Hajdu)

§ the fashionability of adult readership was further advanced by the advent of graphic novels

Tarzan, the Enduring, Politically-incorrect, Pop Culture Myth of a White Saviour in a Black World

July 20, 2020Cinema, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Memorabilia, Natural Environment, Popular Culture, Racial politics, Society & CultureAfrica, Black Lives Matter, Civilisation v the wild, Colonialism and slavery, Disneyfied Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Elmo Lincoln, Gender wars, Jane Goodall, Johnny Weissmuller, Peace Corps Volunteers for Africa, Suffragette Movement, Tarzan, Tarzan clubs USA, Tarzan of the Apes (1914), Tarzana (California), The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Viscount Greystoke, White supremacist modelfunambulator@live.com

Start of the Tarzan pulp fiction phenomenon ⇩

When testosterone-charged visitors to coastal Belgian towns began strolling around the shops and cafes bare-chested in 2015, locals objecting to this aesthetic blight on the landscape took to labelling the offending blow-ins “Tarzan tourists”. References to that archetypical, mesomorphic white hero of amorphous jungle habitats, Tarzan, have permeated popular culture for over a century. Since the time pencil-sharpener salesman Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) turned his hand to writing his first story in 1912, the aura of Tarzan, carefully cultivated by the author into a cultural icon, has extended from pulp fiction, to various media including comic strips, films (over 90!), radio shows, TV series, Broadway musicals, computer games and a raft of commercial merchandise𝓪.

Celluloid Tarzan – from urbane gent to LCD savage
The phenomenal success of ERB’sTarzan of the Apes and follow-up pulp novels provided prime adventure material for a rapid transition into cinema, starting with a silent movie in 1918. Later sound film interpretations, especially those with former American Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, departed radically from Burroughs’ original conception of the heroic jungle adventurer as a cultured, multilingual, erudite aristocrat (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke). Weissmuller’s “dumbed-down” depiction of Tarzan was as an innocent and noble savage, the “strong and silent” type given only to monosyllabic utterings (“Me, Tarzan, you, Jane”).

⇩ ERB at home in Tarzana, California

White skin, white supremacist
As successful as the books and later franchises have been, Tarzan’s character has engendered a persistent stream of controversy. ERB’s creation, from the start, was an obvious target for accusations of racism – a white boy/man𝓫 thrown into a dangerous and alien environment (the “dark continent”), who manages not only to survive but to triumph over hordes of dark-skinned peoples and over numerous wild animals. Tarzan emerges from the pages as a “consummate colonial-era adventurer” – “a white man whose novel civility enabled him to communicate with and control savage peoples and animals…using appropriate technology” to help natives who “cannot solve their own problems” [RJ Gordon in Tarzan was an Eco-Tourist … and Other Tales in the Anthropology of Adventure, (edited by Luis A Vivanco & Robert J Gordon), 2006]. The world that Tarzan creates in the jungle is in effect a “white supremacist Eden parable”, the books and films completely omit the point-of-view of the indigenous people who live in the African jungle (or the Amazonian rainforest𝓬) ‘[‘The Only Good Tarzan is a Bad Tarzan’, (Aaron Bady), Pacific Standard, 08-Jul-2016, www.psmag.com; ‘From Tarzan to Avatar: the problem with “the white man in the jungle”’, (Steve Rose), The Guardian, 06-Jul-2016, www.theguardian.com].

⇧ TV Tarzan (loin-clothed Ron Ely) translocated to Mesoamerican climes (Source: www.nbc.com)

A white world of comfortable racial assumptions Tarzan’s brand of chivalrous “white masculinity” precludes him from engaging in sexual violence against women, but he is utterly implicated in the negative racial stereotyping of Africans, an explicit feature of the books – black men are described as “lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering”, Arabs are “surly looking”. Without holding back, ERB tells us, Tarzan is “a killer of many black men”, revelling, shockingly for modern sensitivities, in the act of ‘lynching’ blacks [Gail Bederman, quoted in ‘Tarzan’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

The mystique of Tarzan: Green mascot, eco-warrior and proto-expat
Part of Tarzan’s durability as a cultural icon might lie in his versatile utility. It has been noted that Tarzan possesses an “ability to adapt to the zeitgeist of different eras”. In seamlessly managing an environment that is unnatural and unfamiliar to him, he demonstrates a flair for “ecological sustainability”, we are shown the ape-man’s apparently impeccable “green credentials” [‘The Untamed Image of the Perfect Savage’, (Bram Wicherink), Efnofoor, vol. 22, no. 2, 2010, pp.90-97. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25758188. Accessed 10 July 2020]. For Paul Theroux, who had hands-on experience of being part of the ‘invasion’ of Africa by Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s, Tarzan is “in the jungle, but not of the jungle”…therefore he was the “first expatriate”𝒹 [Theroux, P. “Tarzan Is an Expatriate.” Transition, no. 32, 1967, pp. 13–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2934617. Accessed 10 July 2020].

The first screen Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, 1918 ⇩

Tarzan as metaphor – defender of masculinity
The period in which ERB wrote the first Tarzan books (just before, through and after WWI) saw the emergence of a challenge to the hegemony of white masculinity – from the Suffragette Movement…according to Robert Gordon, Burroughs’ creation of the all-conquering jungle superhero constituted a buffer against that perceived threat. This held sway again in the 1960s and 70s when the advent of women’s, LGBT and civil rights movements loomed as a threat to (white heterosexual) masculinity. Tarzan, as “the archetypal white-manhood fantasy” represented a “refuge of sorts for white audiences”. What they could observe in the story of Tarzan was an ideal of manliness, a he-man proving himself physically in the most testing of circumstances [Gordon; ‘Me, Tarzan. You, Really Still Doing This?’, (Devon Maloney), Mel, 11-Jul-2016, www.melmagazine.com.

៚ᘛ៚៚ᘛ៚

PostScript: An attempt at a politically-corrected Tarzan
The talkies motion picture era has seen a string of mostly forgettable actors taking on the role of Tarzan, as well as a TV series or two and even Disney animation versions of the vine-swinging king of the jungle. In recent decades the Tarzan phenomenon has appeared to be running out of steam, although a recent entry, a 2016 screen production, The Legend of Tarzan, sought to present a Tarzan with ‘woke’ politics and more psychological complexity. Tarzan is this time avowedly anti-colonial, taking to task the odious slave-based Congo empire of Belgian king Leopold II, and displaying his capacity for “racial sensibilities” in the endeavour. Resurrecting a Tarzan who is more nuanced is still in itself problematic for its contemporary tone-deafness – “propagating…a white saviour narrative during the charged era of Black Lives Matter” is not the most prudent or politically savvy card to play [Glenn Kenny, ‘The Legend of Tarzan’, (01-Jul-2016), www.rogerebert.com]. The hero’s mate Jane departs from her character’s standard “eye-candy” function and exhibits a “feisty proto-feminist” defiance and the film gives a nod to environmental and conservationist concerns. Unfortunately the movie got at best only mixed reviews and basically bombed at the box office [‘The Legend of Tarzan’ Falls Well Short of the Tree Tops’, (David Edelstein), Vulture, 01-Jul-2016, www.vulture.com].

Footnote: Tarzan, very much “all-American”
Oddly, in all the graphic representations of Tarzan—in films, on book covers and illustrations—he is presented as clean-shaven, always sans beard, somewhat of an anomaly considering he is almost always off the grid, cut off from all the usual paraphernalia and comforts of life.

⇧ Just your average Middle American family – the Weissmullers

𝓪 Tarzan was “the first fictional character to be multi-mass-media marketed…the growth of a veritable Tarzan industry, with “Tarzan Clubs” rivalling the Boy Scouts (Gordon). But not just boys, famed ethnologist and world chimpanzee authority Jane Goodall was captivated by the mystique of Tarzan, his impact on the primatologist’s childhood imagination “set her on a path to Africa to work with wild animals” [‘How Tarzan created Jane Goodall and how Goodall then repaid the favour’, (Shawn Thompson), The Ethical Ape, (2013), www.news.mongabay.com]

𝓫 in the books Burroughs explains that the name given the eponymous hero, ‘Tarzan’, means (in African “ape language”) “white of skin”

𝓬 occasionally for plot variety the setting for Tarzan’s adventures diverts from the customary (vaguely) African location to Latin America and India

𝒹 apparently he was the inspiration for future adventure junkies – for many restless souls in the West who flocked to join the Peace Corps in an Africa emerging from colonialism, as well as for later devotees of the ongoing craze for adventure tourism (Gordon)

Chan and Chang: The Origin and Cultural Vicissitudes of the Most Famous Chinese-American Literary and Screen Detective

July 8, 2020Biographical, Cinema, Inter-ethnic relations, Literary & Linguistics, Performing arts, Popular Culture, Racial politics20th Century Fox, Asian-American stereotyping and tropes, Chang Apana, Charlie Chan, Chinese-American cultural norms, Earl Derr Biggers, Fictional super-sleuths, Film culture, Fu Manchu, Hawaiii, Hercule Piorot, Honolulu, Keye Luke, Lee Fook, Monogram Pictures, Mr Moto, Mr Wong, New York Public Library, Phantom of Chinatown (1940), Racism on the screen, Roland Winters, Saturday Evening Post, Sax Rohrer (Arthur Henry Ward), Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Toler, The Black Camel, The House Without a Key (1925), US crime writing, US detective mystery fiction, Walter Oland, Yellow Peril conspiracy, Yunte HuangBonza Rottwheeler

The literary character Charlie Chan, created by Earl Derr Biggers, is best remembered in numerous cinema representations from the 1930s and 1940s. While the obsequious but sagacious Chinese-American detective became one of the enduringly nostalgic fictional figures of US popular culture, his creator in fact based him on a real life-and-blood Hawaiian-Chinese policeman – Chang Apana (his name is Hawaiianised but he was born “Chang Ah Pang” of Chinese migrant parents).

⍐ Downtown Honolulu, circa 1935
(Source: www.reditt.com)

Over the first three decades of the 20th century, the diminutive and slightly-built Chang Apana, a paniola (Hawaiian cowboy) before entering the Honolulu police service, patrolled the dingy and dangerous Chinatown district of Honolulu armed only with a 1.5m-long bullwhip. Chang’s detective escapades were legendary, involving – audacious, single-handed arrests of members of gambling dins, mastery over disguises in working undercover and shrewd and meticulous powers of sleuthing on murder cases (a cornucopia of material for Biggers to drawn on). Biggers’s own account of Charlie Chan’s genesis, is that he happened upon the existence of the “real Charlie Chan” after reading about Chang’s exploits in a Honolulu newspaper one day in the New York Public LibraryA.

⍐ ‘The House Without a Key’ (1925): the first Charlie Chan novel, although Chan appeared in it only as a minor character

A wellspring of a literary character
The portly Chinese detective with a penchant for “Confucius says”/fortune cookie-style aphorismsB appeared in six crime novels—initially serialised in the influential American magazine Saturday Evening Post—in the 1920s and ‘30’s. Biggers’ premature death in 1933 cut short the Chan literary sequence but not the film adaptations which continued to proliferate with a series of extremely popular Fox mystery filmsC. Charlie Chan‘s first screen appearances were in obscure silent movies with Japanese and Korean actors playing the leads before Walter Oland, a US actor with Swedish-Russian parents, took over and played Chan in 16 pictures. Upon Oland’s death American Sidney Toler assumed the mantle for 22 more CC movies,and lastly, Roland Winters, the son of German and Austrian parents, for a further six films.

⍗ ED Biggers

Life inextricably entwined with art
There were some interesting connexions arising from ED Biggers’ magnum opus…firstly, Chang and Chan’s creator actually met – in 1928. By then, such was the fame of CC, people in Honolulu had started to call the real detective ‘Chan’. The local newspaper recorded their meeting at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel as “AUTHOR MEETS ‘LIVE’ CHINESE DETECTIVE”. Three years later there was the even more improbable meeting of Chan and Chang when 20th Century Fox shot The Black Camel on location in Honolulu. The meeting between sleuth Chang and actor Walter Oland and obligatory photo op occurred during filming…Chang was invited to watch the action and ended up coming every day apparently totally engrossed in the unfolding film [‘Chan, the Man’, (Jill Lepore), The New Yorker, 02-Aug-2010, www.newyorker.com].

⍗ Chang and Oland (Chan) meet at Waikiki

The dragon’s embrace of Chan
Charlie Chan’s international cinematic popularity extended, perhaps surprisingly to observers looking at it with the greater cultural sensitivity of the present time, to the Chinese themselves. Walter Oland, at the height of his CC fame, visited Shanghai in 1936 on a promotional tour – to widespread acclaim. Local Chinese newspapers even presented the event in terms that suggested that Biggers’ literary creation was in fact a real person: “Great Chinese Detective Arrives in Shanghai”D. And of course the Chan movies spawned home-grown imitators within China [‘Charlie Chan in China’, The Chinese Mirror: A Journal of Chinese Film History, 08-Jul-2011, [http://web.archive.org]. Chinese-born American academic Yunte Huang’s hunch as to why people in China took so whole-heartedly to the clearly faux-Chinese film character is to do with a tradition you see in Chinese operas of performing “the other”. He explains, there’s an acceptance of this “kind of imitation (be it opera or cinema) as part of the artistic culture of China” [‘Investigating The Real Detective Charlie Chan’, NPR, 07-Sept-2010, www.npr.org].

(Source: www.movieposters.ha.com)

🀂 🀂 🀂

Charlie Chan, detective at large
As the series progressed and the search for plots to accommodate the oriental ace detective widened, Charlie Chan took on a ”globe-trotting” role à la the “Road to“ series. Hence the public were served up increasingly formulaic offerings in a variety of exotic locales – Charlie Chan in Shanghai, Charlie Chan in Egypt, Charlie Chan in Panama, Charlie Chan in Paris, Charlie Chan in Rio, Charlie Chan in Reno, Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo, etc, etc.

Backlash against the honourable Mr Chan in an era of PC sensitivity
What passed—unchallenged in a ‘whitebread’ society—for innocuous humour in the 1930s and ‘40’s was viewed very differently in the more pluralistic and multicultural milieu of the 1980s and ‘90s and beyond. Many Asian-Americans looking back have found the Charlie Chan depiction objectionable, a Chinese racial stereotype of subservience and pidgin English, a relic of ‘yellowface’ (a kind of “Yellow Uncle Tom”, much akin to the contemporary view of ‘blackface’ minstrel entertainment in the US) [Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American History, Yunte Huang (2010); Lepore].

⍗ Chan (Sidney Toler) with #1 son and #2 son

Yunte Huang has sought to redress or balance this jaundiced perception of Charlie Chan, arguing that the fictional Asian-Honolulan super-sleuth is “as American as Jack Kerouac” – “precisely because of (Chan’s) theatrical implausibilities and mixed-up origins”. To Yunte Chan “epitomises (both) the racist heritage and the creative genius of (America’s) culture”, and he notes that while Chan himself is Chinese, “his methods and his milieu are American”, eg, the books and films’ settings are Hawaiian/American mainstream, not set in Chinatown [‘Watching the Detective’, (Pico Iyer), Time, 23-Aug-2010; Yunte].

Assuaging the perception of ‘Orientals’ in America
The dominant literary precedent to Charlie Chan in American (and Western) popular culture of Asians was the figure of Fu Manchu. The creation of English writer Sax Rohrer (Arthur Henry Ward), the Fu Manchu novels (1913-48), exploited the “Yellow Peril” conspiracy image prevalent in the West of an Asian stereotype of evil – Fu was depicted in literature and on-screen as a mad scientist–cum–archvillain hellbent on a mission to rule the world. Yunte points out that Charlie Chan fulfilled a purpose of refuting or challenging the negative Fu Manchu image in the minds of many Americans. In contrast to the iniquitous Fu Manchu wreaking havoc everywhere, Chan is a “man of logic” (as are his fellow detectives extraordinaire Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes), Chan’s personal qualities are that of moral rectitude, observation and logic (Yunte). Biggers himself derided the Fu Manchu portrayal as “sinister and wicked” and “old stuff”, compared to his creation, “an amiable Chinese on the side of the law (which) has never been used (before)” (1931) [‘Creating Charlie Chan’, Popular Culture, 1975].

Other observers concur that the amiable Chinese detective was a departure from the old, more overtly racist stereotypes in US fiction at the time – supplanting the “heathen Chinee” with a more positive image of a Chinese person [‘The Importance of Being Charlie Chan’, (Sandra M Hawley), in Jonathan Goldstein, Jerry Israel & Hilary Conroy (Eds), America Views China: American Images of China Then and Now, (1991)]. Fletcher Chan notes that the books and movies “were a big factor in softening the attitude of white Americans towards Asians”, Charlie Chan as a sort of “goodwill ambassador” [‘Charlie Chan: A Hero of Sorts’, Fletcher Chan, Californian Literary Review, 26-Mar-2007, www.calitreview.com].

Where the Yellow Peril stereotype of Fu Manchu personifies the evil, scheming and immoral Asian in popular culture, the character of Charlie Chan presents—albeit with the retention of some truly cringeworthy ethnic stereotyping—an equal, at least intellectually, to the whites in the world he traverses [Yunte; ‘Charlie Chan’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

⍐ Mr Wong: Charlie Chan rip-off with Boris Karloff

Endnote: Hollywood imitators, Moto and Wong
The success of Charlie Chan on the big screen led other filmmakers to try their hand at using European actors to portray Asian-American crime fighters, however these were pale imitations of the original and lacking the Chan series’ success and its longevity. Fox’s “Mr Moto” series had Hungarian-American Peter Lorre as a Japanese secret service agent with a Viennese accent. Monogram Pictures, a low-budget specialist, also tried to emulate the success of Chan with its copy/interpretation of a Chinese-American detective Mr Wong, with British horror specialist Boris Karloff in the title role. The last in the series of Mr Wong flicks, Phantom of Chinatown, was a first…in place of Karloff, Chinese-born Keye Luke (previously Charlie Chan’s “Number One Son”) featured in the role of Wong, avoiding the then standard ‘Yellowface’ casting for Asian-American roles.

༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻

A Biggers’ story of reading about a slick piece of detective work by Sergeant Chang Apana and another Hawaiian-Chinese detective Lee Fook has been extensively investigated by Yunte Huang who could not confirm the said article appearing in the Honolulu media of the day. An alternative explanation is that Biggers discovered the local police celebrity on a holiday he took to Hawaii in 1919 or 1920
B eg., “Tongue often hang man quicker than rope”; “Mind like parachute – only function when open”; “Front seldom tell truth. To know occupants of house, always look in backyard”; “Truth is like football – must receive many kicks before reaching goal”; ad nauseam. This idiom or element of Chan’s persona is known today as a ‘flanderisation’ – where a single (often minor) trait or action of a character is increasingly exaggerated or accentuated until it becomes the character’s defining characteristic [www.allthetropes.fandom.com]
C as well as a regular stream of radio shows, comics and television series
D mind you, contestants on a 1980s US quiz show asked to name some historical or contemporary Chinese persons came up with “Charlie Chan” as their fifth response (‘The Chinese Mirror’)

The COVID-19 Crisis: Are We Creating a Whole Generation of New Scofflaws?

March 26, 2020Environmental, Literary & Linguistics, Medical history, Public health,‘The Plague’ (Camus), Australia, Delcevare King, Pandemic panic and survival, Prohibition USA, Scofflaws, Social distancing, The War on Coronavirusfunambulator@live.com

Scofflaw: (n) as neologisms go, the word scofflaw has an interesting back story. It is a portmanteau word, derived by combining scoff + law. Scofflaw’s origin came about in 1923 when Massachusetts banker Delcevare King offered up a prize of $200 in gold to the American public for the best word which described “the lawless drinker”.. America being knee-deep in the era of Prohibition at the time and King being one of Prohibition’s greatest zealots. The winning entry (in fact ‘entries’, as two separate entrants submitted the same word), came from Henry Irving Dale and Kate L Butler (who herself was a Anti-Saloon Leaguer) who shared the prize. ‘Scofflaw’ beat a field of over 25,000 entries which included ‘boozocrat’ and ‘boozshevik’ (“DELCEVARE KING, BANKER, 89 DEAD; Prohibitionist’s Contest Led to Coining of ‘Scofflaw’ “, New York Times, 22-Mar-1964; “Ken Burns & Lynn Novick: Prohibition”, PBS, broadcast 2011, www.pbs.org). So, it’s original meaning was someone who drinks illegally (earning the opprobrium of prohibitionists like Mr King) or someone who mocks (scoffs) or ridicules anti-drinking laws. Over time scofflaw was extended to mean “a person who flouts the law, especially by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively”…in the US since the 1950s the word has largely been applied to individuals who habitually violate laws of a less serious, non-criminal nature, especially traffic violations (‘Scofflaw’ Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/; www.thefreedictionary.com/).

Prohibition: confiscating barrels of illegal grog in America (Source: Pinterest)

As part of the government mantra directed towards us home-front civilians in the war on coronavirus, we are asked by our leaders, entreated even, to practice safe social distancing. In the early days of the war against the invisible biological enemy we were told to immediately implement social distancing from others at all times. Later this was quantified and codified – 1.5 metres distance outdoors from others, no congregations of people of more than 500, indoors a four to one ratio, no more than 25 people in a room 100 square metres. And yet at the same time—this is where the mixed messaging starts to gain traction—we were told we can keep using public transport to go to work or school or uni or TAFE. So we pile onto crowded buses, trains and LRVs like the George Street ‘Snail’, at peak time. We shop in scarcity-hit supermarkets teeming with increasingly chaotic shoppers, we sit in class rooms and cafés and pubs and restaurants, or line up in the ever-lengthening queues of the recently unemployed outside Centrelink offices – in all instances numerically and spatially infringing the prescribed limits✱. We should all, even the politicians, shout as one – “I’m a violator!” All of us at some point have been or will be violators – by design or default!

Bondi: defying the coronavirus warnings (Source: AAP)

Scofflaws and recusants of the world unite!And what of those other violators of social distancing in this time of pestilence, the beach-going masses whose capers—from Sydney all the way to Florida—the media have revelled in? The beach-goers at Bondi and other popular summer-time beaches who are either indifferent or wilfully tone-deaf to the authorities’ daily mantra of abstinence or are pleading ignorance of the messages on the grounds of being Generation X, Y, Z, Millennials, Xennials (or whatever term you prefer) and therefore invincible. We can add peripatetic domestic tourists currently roaming around the country to the list of sloth-minded transgressors. Whether the violators are blatantly snubbing their noses at society and authority or are forced by circumstance into breaking the government’s edicts, the trajectory of the crisis suggests that a new generation of scofflaws is in the making. These multitudes, theses new scofflaws or recusants, some with a very deliberate rationale of defiance, will undoubtably continue to breach government warnings and (now) rules on social distancing and contact as the crisis continues⊞, replacing the traditional notion we have of scofflaws – unrepentant recidivists who accumulate unpaid parking fines or debts, ignore summonses or graffiti public or private property.

Given the sheer impossibility of compelling all citizens to maintain social distances in public (considering the scale of the enterprise and the limitations of the enforcement agencies), it will probably come down to the will and commitment of governments and bureaucracies to enforce these rules. The stick is already out…the NSW police minister has announced that individuals breaching the social distancing guidelines will be instantly fined $1,000 or even jailed (this second option however is highly implausible in the present health climate which sees the country’s prisons under fire for crowding too many inmates in together!) (‘Breaking social distancing rules will lead to on-the-spot fines of $1,000’, ABC News, 25-Mar-2020, www.abcnews.com.au). Tough talk✬ but it remains to be seen how thoroughly this threat to act will be prosecuted or how practical it will be to implement. You can also expect the civil libertarians of the community to come out in earnest support of the Covid scofflaws, defending to the last adjective their right to freedom of movement. Watch this space.

Footnote: Of course the opposite could also happen – if recent reports of public reactions to self-isolation are an indication. We may witness a whole lot of people coming out of the woodwork, channeling their inner Oliver Cromwell and dobbing in their scofflaw neighbours to the local constabulary for breaching their two week home quarantine.

Postscript: Tips for occupying some of the 960 minutes a day of stay-at-home time you are awake

The more realistic and level-headed of us who are not still spending our days at the beach (yes there are scofflaws still trying to circumvent the barriers now in place at popular beaches) are hunkering down for the long haul during the pandemic. So if you are looking for some light reading material while in mandatory hibernation for the winter, there’s always that classic allegory of unrelentingly grim reality, Camus’ The Plague☌, or if you want something more apocalyptically contemporary, try The Road or Station Eleven.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

✱ even more unfathomably bizarre, after the latest round of war cabinet lockdowns, is the circumstance of hairdressers and barbers – they have been allowed to stay open and serve the public, whilst still observing the 1.5 m gap. How that will be expected happen remains a mystery to all except the inner workings of the war cabinet I surmise (robotic arms and 150cm-long scissors may be the answer!)

⊞ the best the government can hope for is to minimise the non-compliance of this cohort so that the numbers of them who are infected and the numbers that they infect are kept as low as possible

✬ certainly a considerably more substantial deterrent than the drop in the ocean £30 Boris has announced he’ll fine scofflaw Britons

☌ incidentally, sales of Camus’ book about a disease-infested 1940s Algerian town have soared during the pandemic (The Economist, April 2020)

The Wor(l)d According to Saul: Dictionaries and the Language Wars, Doubt versus Ideology

November 21, 2019Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Old technology, Politics, Regional History18th century Humanist dictionaries, John Ralston Saul, Political philosophy, The Devil’s Dictionary’, The Doubter’s Companion, VoltaireE Curb Nottus

Canadian political philosopher John Ralston Saul is the secular high-priest of doubters and cynics, a non-believer in “the gospel” of the modern corporate state, constantly debunking the conventional wisdoms offered up as “absolute truths” in Western society✲. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Saul would produce a guidebook for other secular agnostics. Wedged between his treatises on his personal philosophy ‘superstar’ Voltaire, his studies of modern Canadian society and his excursions into the realm of fiction, is JR Saul’s The Doubter’s Companion, or to give it his full title:

The Doubter’s Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense (Viking, 1994)¹

Although Saul calls his volume “a dictionary”, the term applies more to the book’s format (utilising the standard A-Z form of the dictionary) than to its content or purpose. The Companion goes on to define Dictionary as “Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order”. And Answers are merely “a mechanism for avoiding questions”. Saul decries the trajectory of modern dictionaries and language (which have been captured by the forces of a rational orthodoxy), yearning instead for a return to the Humanist dictionaries of the 18th century (Voltaire, Diderot, Johnson, etc)².

When I first delved into The Doubter’s Companion (around 1995), my mind took me to that other great cynic’s dictionary of the early 1900s, Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary. Both works, albeit very different books, are idiosyncratically unconventional takes on language and meaning in their respective societies, and both proffer a contrarian view of the established wisdom of the day. Both Saul and Bierce are provocateurs, each with their own personal axe to grind⁌.

The Doubter’s Companion, by its polemical nature is unequivocally meant to shake up orthodox thinking (TDC was described by one reader as “an abecedarium of subversion”). The dictionary form of the book is a device Saul employs to launch into short philosophical essays on topics about modern post-industrial society that concern him—corporatism, individualism, leadership and managerialism, freedom of expression, communication, public relations, advertising and the way language is distorted to control communications (see his definition of ‘ideology’). In so doing, Saul skewers the accepted veracity of many of the words, phrases and terms you will find in today’s dictionaries.

And as it is an instruction manual to help doubters navigate their way through a linguistic maze of (in Saul’s opinion) mis-defined terms, the central tenet is thus affirmed:

Doubt: The only human activity capable of controlling the use of power in a positive way. Doubt is central to understanding.

Wisdom: The purpose of doubt … wisdom is life with uncertainty, the opposite of power or ideology.

Ideology: Tendentious arguments which advance a world view as absolute truth in order to win and hold political power.

The Corporate executive “is not a capitalist but a technocrat in drag”.

Economics is “the romance of truth through measurement”.

Level playing field: An ideological abstraction adopted as a universal value by the management of large corporations.

Saul the provocateur infuses the dictionary with a regular diet of “outrageous statements and provocations”:

Marxist: The only serious functioning Marxists left in the West are the senior managers of large, usually transnational corporations.

Neo-Conservatives are the Bolsheviks of the Right (“the exact opposite of a conservative”).

Modern (that should be “post-modern”) fads of intellectual thinking such as Deconstructionism get short shrift from Saul:

Deconstructionism: Can also be seen as a school of light comedy.

Calm: A state of emotion which is overrated except in religious retreats. Calmness for Saul has a decidedly political connotation today, “it is used to control people who are dissatisfied with the way those in authority are doing their job”✬.

Public relations: A negative form of imagination. In Mussolini’s phrase, “invention is more useful than truth”.

Saul savages that that most universal institution of American fast food, MacDonalds:

A Big Mac: The communion wafer of consumption. (It is) not really food but the promise of food.

He goes on sardonically to bracket it with “Perrier, one of the last sacred objects of the leading philosophical school of the late-twentieth century—public relations”…one of Saul’s greatest bête noires.

Elsewhere, in a similar vein, he brands Ronald McDonald as a “Post-modern philosopher”…the “face and voice of consumer culture”.

Contemporary education doesn’t escape a broadside from Saul, especially the American form:

SAT: A system of standardized American college entry exams designed to nurture and reward functional illiteracy.

Universities find themselves in Saul’s cross-hairs as well. Within the “exclusive territories” of the university that knowledge is divided into, the principal occupation of academics is “to invent dialects sufficiently hermetic to prevent knowledge from passing between territories”.

Happy Hour is “a depressing comment on the rest of the day”.

At different points Saul diverts momentarily from his philosophical musings to give historical clarification on certain pertinent terms of interest to him. Having defined Depression as “a form of economic disaster common throughout history”, he goes on to contend that “in 1973 the word was deleted from all Western languages and replaced by the term recession”, a softer word which in Saul’s mind allows economists to maintain the myth of appearing to “manage real situations”. The author expands his point: “to admit to the existence of anything as uncontrollable as a depression would be to admit failure”.

The book’s dictionary entries allow space for brief commentaries on individuals from the pages of history who attract Saul’s interest. These are usually philosopher-figures but not always. He has an interesting take on the great turn-of-the-century novelist Joseph Conrad, “The essential modern writer…demonstrated that the novel could have a third century of relevance if the story was transformed into metaphysics disguised as reality”.

Sigmund Freud, who in America would be described as the “father of shrinks”, gets a guernsey in the dictionary, albeit a cynical and disparaging reference – “a man so dissatisfied with his own mother and father that he devoted his life to convincing everyone who would just listen—or better still, talk—that they’re parents were just as bad”.

Air Conditioning: An efficient means for spreading disease in enclosed public spaces.

Muzak: A public noise neither requested nor listened to by individuals. It is the descendant of a school of public relations invented by the Nazis.

For one so articulately cynical of human nature, politics, economics, most things in the modern world (except of course doubt), Saul’s definition of that attitudinal standpoint seems contradictory:

Cynicism: An effective social mechanism for preventing communication.

Pessimism on the other hand is “a valuable protection against quackery”. More beneficial than ‘scepticism’ “which slips easily into cynicism and so becomes a self-defeating negative force”.

Whereas Optimism to Saul is double-edged. When applied to oneself it is “a pleasant and sometime useful distraction” to reality, but “when encouraged as a social attitude … it is the public tool of scoundrels and ideologues” (as is patriotism).

World Class: A phrase used by provincial cities and second-rate entertainment and sports events … to assert they are not provincial or second-rate, thereby confirming that they are.

Saul includes in the alphabetical list a number of surprising and disparate entries for a reference book on philosophical common sense. These include Ants (Saul makes the unexpected and unverified statement that the members of the Formicidae family of eusocial insects “do nothing 71.5 per cent of the time”)⊡; Apple (the fruit not the corporation); Armpits (which is curiously cross-referenced to Reality); Nannyism (not sure why this topic warranted nine paragraphs and over 400 words but Saul interweaves a discourse on Margaret Thatcher, bullying and sex appeal into the entry); Urban weather patterns (wtf?); White bread (“the sophisticated product of a civilization taken to its logical conclusion … continually refined until all utility has been removed”).

Among the many asides Saul offers an interesting reflection on the city-state of Venice – he declares it “the original model of modern dictatorship, in which commercial power finds its cultural expression in painting, architecture and music … (but not) language”. And on Benito Mussolini: “the nascent modern Heroic leader (who) combined corporatism, public relations and sport together, while replacing public debate and citizen participation with false popularism and the illusion of direct democracy”.

JRS humorous and glib

The philosopher’s serious message aside, Saul produces a regular line of humorous explanations of terms, some of these are dazzlingly economic epigrams or bon mots:

Museums: Safe storage for stolen objects.

Cosmetic surgery: Cosmetic perjury.

Biography: A respectable form of pornography.

Other descriptors and definitions however are quite glib:

René Descartes is thus presented “gave credibility to the idea that the mind exists separately from the body, which suggests he didn’t look down while writing” [ba-dum-tss!].

Anorexia: A condition aspired to by most middle-class women (a subject taken much more medically serious today!).

JRS’s extensive catalogue of pet bugbears include ideology (and ideologues), applied corporatism, applied civilisation, conventional wisdom, , economic determinism, technocrats, absolute truth and certainty, dry, sectarian ‘definitions’, rigid scholasticism and structure, superstition, public relations and advertising.

Footnote: it’d be interesting to see an update of the Companion. A chance to find out what the perspicacious John Ralston Saul makes of early 21st century concepts such as social media, iPhones, fake news, drones. climate change deniers and the nanny state, to name just a handful.

╰━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━✶ ━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━╯

✲ whether that be from the left or right

⁌ though where Bierce is acerbic, Saul is out and out incendiary

✬ adding the rider that “calm incompetence” has risen to become a quality of high professionalism”

⊡ in case this isn’t enough on the subject, JRL follows up with an entry for ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga Jubata)

¹ Amazon‘s “dust-jacket” review summarises the book as full of “renegade opinions”; (it) uses “guerrilla lexicography to reclaim public language from stultifying dialects of modern expertise”

² ‘Doubter’s Companion’, www.freelistbooks.com

⏏³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰⏏

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

✲ whether that be from the left or right

⁌ though where Bierce is acerbic, Saul is out and out incendiary

✬ adding the rider that “calm incompetence” has risen to become a quality of high professionalism”

⊡ in case this isn’t enough on the subject, JRL follows up with an entry for ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga Jubata)

𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶𖥶

¹ Amazon‘s “dust-jacket” review summarises the book as full of “renegade opinions”; (it) uses “guerrilla lexicography to reclaim public language from stultifying dialects of modern expertise”

² ‘Doubter’s Companion’, www.freelistbooks.com

Work of “The Devil”, a Reference Compendium of Unconventional Wisdom for Cynics in the Progressive Era

November 13, 2019Biographical, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Regional History, Social HistoryAmbrose Bierce, American Civil War, Father Gassalasca Jape, HL Mencken, Lexicography and dictionaries, Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution, Progressive Era (US), The Cynic’s Word Book’, The Devil’s Dictionary’, United StatesE Curb Nottus

The World According to Bierce

Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, man of letters, journalist and civil war (Union side) veteran, is best known for his unorthodox lexicon, The Devil’s Dictionary, a humorous, satirical and very personal take on a selection of words in the English language in his day. The dictionary was compiled by Bierce over three decades, being initially published in instalments in various newspapers and magazines. Eventually the collection was published in book form, first as The Cynic’s Word Book in 1906 and then as The Devil’s Dictionary in 1911, two years before Bierce’s never satisfactorily explained disappearance in Chihuahua, Mexico, where the journalist was visiting to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution.

Bierce’s first outpouring of his cynic’s credentials

დ~დ~დ დ~დ~

Highly influential literary critic of the first half of the 20th century, HL Mencken, heaped lavish, over–the–top, almost doting praise on The Devil’s Dictionary…not holding back, he described the dictionary as “the true masterpiece of the one genuine wit that These States have ever seen” (Mencken perhaps unfamiliar with the work of Mark Twain?)…”some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language”…”some of the most devastating epigrams ever written“.

⇑ *First (1911) edition of the Dictionary (photo: biblio.com.au)*

😈 👹 👿

Cynicism and satire form the backbone of Bierce’s provocative dictionary. So, an interesting place to start delving into the unconventional text is how he handles these terms – the words ‘satire’, ‘cynic’ and ‘dictionary’ themselves. Despite being fully versed in the craft himself, Bierce views the practitioner of cynicism less than favourably.

Cynic: A blackguard❅ who sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be (which presumably is the definition of an optimist۞).

Satire: An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness✫.

Dictionary: A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic.

Bierce goes on to add, without drawing breath, that his dictionary, however, is “a most useful work”.

But a cynic Bierce certainly is! At one point, appraising the great thinkers of society, he sweepingly declares—in his trademark blanket fashion—that “all are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher” (in which case, what would Bierce have made of Freud and the “dark art” of psychotherapy!?!). This perception of the author reminds me to some extent of the distinction often made between a person with an erratic behavioural pattern who is poor (and is labelled insane), and a person with an erratic behavioural pattern who is wealthy (labelled merely eccentric).

Romance and true love falls by the wayside with Bierce’s cynic–meter always hovering around ground–level:

Love: A temporary insanity cured by marriage.

**AB: polemical American man of letters (image: Centipede Press)**

Politics is even more fertile ground for Biercian cynicism…even the highest office in the land is not spared. With characteristic directness, there is:

President: The greased pig in the field game of American politics.

Senate: A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.

Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.

Alliance: In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other’s pocket that they cannot separately plunder a third.

And of course, to Bierce, ‘capital’ (ie, the capital) is defined as “the seat of misgovernment”.

The contemporary power politics of the day is very entrenched in the cynic’s consciousness of Bierce:

Cannon: an instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.

In a similar vein Bierce gives recognition to the tradition of his nation’s imperialistic ambitions in possibly the most quoted and most acute of Bierce’s definitions:

War: God’s way of teaching Americans geography⬲.

Bierce’s definition entries can go off on a tangent☒, often making extensive use of quotations from “eminent poets” to underscore his definitions (Ambrose relies a lot on one Father G Jape, SJ, as a prop for his sometimes outlandish assertions). At times this involves recourse to wordy anecdotes and phrases. In contrast to lengthy descriptors, some Devil’s Dictionary‘s entries are succinctly on the mark and some are absolute poetic corkers:

Absent: Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction.

Erudition: Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

Envy: Emulation adapted to the meanest capacity.

Fib: A lie that has not cut its teeth.

Martyr: One who moves along the line of least reluctance to a desired death.

And even more succinctly summarised is:

Hope: Desire and expectation rolled into one.

Bierce is often lauded for his humanist perspective of the world…the major organised religions do not escape his critical eye:

Religions: are “conclusions for which the facts of nature supply no major premises”.

Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

He can be irreverent – “Christians and camels both receive their burdens kneeling”.

The book dishes up a smorgasbord of satirical, ironic and often bitter definitions of the world as seen by Ambrose Bierce (one of the acerbic writer’s nicknames was “Bitter Bierce”). But Bierce is of course a creature of his time with all the glaring faults and prejudices of the 19th century privileged white man’s mindset. So, through the satire and cynicism we witness the less savoury traits and predisposition of the lexicographer. Casual assumptions of racism and misogyny run through the pages of The Devil’s Dictionary.

😈👹 👿

AB’s miscellany of hobby horses

Politicians and philosophers are on Bierce’s “hit list”, as are lawyers who get a pithy but predictably caustic assessment:

Lawyer: One skilled in the circumvention of the law.

Liar: A lawyer with a roving commission.

Historians, in The Devil’s Dictionary are reduced to “broad-gauge gossips”, and ‘history’ is summarily pigeonholed as “mostly false (and) about unimportant events”.

Although he doesn’t specifically give medical students a definition entry, his regular references to them through the book might prompt one to conclude that their single defining feature is that of “grave-robbers”𖣯.

Iconic places like New York City and specifically Wall Street don’t escape AB’s rancour, swiftly dismissed as “dens of iniquity”, the sort of Biblical association Bierce employs to those things or entities representing (in his eyes) absolute evil.

Bierce’s idiosyncratic designation of ‘happiness’, as “an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another” dovetails neatly into the definition of the German term Schadenfreude (substituting the word ‘perverse’ for ‘agreeable’ perhaps).

Bierce’s dictionary is also prone to outbursts of elitism – such as:

Laziness: Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree.

Idiot: A member of a large and powerful tribe✪ whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling (an ‘idiotocracy’ perhaps).

დ~დ~დ დ~დ~

Endnote: Bierce’s cold trail 𖢘 The mysterious disappearance of Bierce has fascinated interested parties for the hundred–plus years since the author suddenly vanished in Mexico. Speculation has been wildly unrestrained and rampant as to the writer’s supposed end (eg, he hooked up with famous Mexican bandit leader Pancho Villa and he was killed by Federal troops, or by rebels, or by his own hand or by Villa himself). Novelists, playwrights and filmmakers have all had a go at unravelling the mystery, but the reality is that no one really knows what happened to Bierce [‘The Death of Bierce’, The Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society, www.biercephile.com].

◧◨◩◪◧◨◩◪◧◨◩◪◧◨◩◪◧◨◩◪◧◨◩◪

❅ Bierce defines ‘blackguard’ as an “inverted gentleman”, like a box of cherries that displays the fine ones on top but with the box “opened on the wrong side”

۞ except that Bierce’s “optimist” is “a pessimist (who) applied to God for relief”

✫ obsolete or not, it doesn’t stop AB from indulging in the device

⬲ it is not universally accepted that this most famous of Bierce-isms originated with Bierce himself, see for instance “The Ambrose Bierce Site”, www.donswain.com

☒ for example see the entry for ‘History’

𖣯 maybe overstated but Bierce was not exactly fabricating a connection – “body snatching” for medical education was a very real and very lucrative activity at the time

✪ Bierce tended to view different societal groups as contrasting tribal entities

Robinson Crusoe, the Making of a Universal and Versatile Myth

December 31, 2018Biographical, Creative Writing, Geography, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, TravelBunyanesque Puritanism, Daniel Defoe, Economic Man, Robinson Crusoe (character), Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of the Angelick World is, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson CrusoeE Curb Nottus

Robinson Crusoe Tercentenary, 1719-2019

Three hundred years ago this coming April, London merchant-cum-journalist Daniel Defoe published his debut novel anonymously✱ – it was to become one of the most iconic and most imitated literary works ever…it began with a title page descriptor that read in full:

The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates.

Once “cast on Shore by Shipwreck”, Crusoe, isolated and alone, is forced to make the best of a perilous predicament in an alien and challenging environment. His solitary, epic struggle in the face of hardships and the existence of threats from wild animals and the unknown elevates the story to mythic proportions. The myth is complete when Crusoe ultimately succeeds in conquering all impediments and fashions the island into his own “miniature Great Britain”.

A multiplicity and diversity of readings
Robinson Crusoe is a multifaceted work of fiction, viewable from a number of different perspectives. On a straightforward level its an adventure novel and a travel book (rather than a guide) tantalising the 18th century Englishman and woman with a sense of faraway “new worlds” which were still undergoing a process of discovery and exploration.

The personality of the protagonist Crusoe himself is an Everyman figure, representing a cross-spectrum of contemporary English societal types – above all he is the archetypical survivor prompting untold numbers of readers to identify with the despair of his plight and “embraced his myth of struggle, survival and triumph against all odds” [Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth, Frank, K (2011)].

⍐ Of the numerous screen adaptations of the ‘Robinson Crusoe’ tale this is perhaps the most inventive take on the classic fiction (Crusoe and Friday are locked in a constant power struggle with an inversion of the master/servant relationship)

Crusoe as “economic-imperialist” and coloniser
There is the hero of romantic, bourgeois individualism, the Englishman who turns his dire circumstance to his ultimate financial advantage. When others appear on the island (Friday, the boy slave Xury, the ‘savages’, the Spanish sailors and English mutineers), Crusoe reacts with a sensibility typical of the “natural superiority” of a coloniser and uses the others as ‘commodities’✥. James Joyce described Robinson Crusoe as the “true symbol of the British conquest”, embodying “the whole Anglo-Saxon spirit” [quoted in ‘An introduction to Robinson Crusoe’, (Stephen Sharkey), 21-Jun-2018, www.bl.uk].

A spiritual voyage
On another level Robinson Crusoe can be read as a kind of spiritual autobiography (popular in Defoe’s time). Crusoe’s journey from one exotic land to another can be seen as the “spiritual voyage” of Bunyanesque Puritan Christianity. Crusoe’s long, long sojourn on the island is a test of his faith. Being alone with infinite time on his hands he devotes himself to intense self-scrutiny, questioning the Providence that landed him in his predicament (ie, his relationship with God). Some critics have noted that Crusoe’s thought processes on the island entailed a progression from rebellion, acknowledgement of mortal sin, atonement and religious conversion [‘Robinson Crusoe Theme of Religion’, (shmoop), www.shmoop.com].

DIY Robinson Crusoe and the Conduct book
Defoe provides a very detailed description of how his hero goes about making the most of his enforced stay on the island. As Katherine Frank observes, DeFoe’s novel is the “ultimate how to book: a step-by-step guide on how to live in a particular tricky situation”, ie, a method for surviving alone on a desert island◘ [Frank, op.cit.]. On the ship and again on the island Robinson spends copious amounts of time cataloguing items and making lists of everything that comes into his head.

The novel’s preoccupation with DIY touches on something else close to Defoe’s heart, the “Conduct book”✪ (a kind of user’s guide for life in the 18th century). The self-help component in Robinson Crusoe gives a sample of the writer’s broader interest in instructional works…Defoe spilled a lot of ink in writing a series of published texts telling people how they should live their lives – with titles like The Family Instructor, The Compleat English Tradesman and The Compleat English Gentleman.

A Defoe conduct book on the Robinson Crusoe theme

C2AA51F1-A3B6-45D4-80AC-00225FEC8EA1

Always look on the bright side of life
Defoe’s faith in the individual’s capacity for self-improvement comes through in his novels as much as in the didactic Conduct books. In Robinson Crusoe Defoe’s central character refuses to give up and submit to his fate no matter how glum his prospects look. With each new challenge he faces on the island, Crusoe time and again evokes the “power of positive thinking”…in his solitude he learns “to look more upon the bright Side of my Condition and less upon the dark Side” (Defoe imbues the protagonists of his later novels like Moll Flanders with this same positive disposition) [ibid.]. Defoe really had to be a glass half-full kind of guy to keep bouncing back from all the reversals life was lobbing on him (viz. a succession of self-inflicted, calamitous business ventures he managed to embroil himself in, doing gaol time for failure to pay his debts, etc). CA6103A9-E02F-4B27-B46E-DCD1A6029538

PostScript: Cashing in on the “golden egg”
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was an instant commercial success with four editions printed in 1719. Defoe, always with his mind fixated on how to enrich himself, was quick to follow-up Robinson Crusoe with a sequel. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, published in the same year, proved to be almost as much a hit with the public. The Farther Adventures (usually today called the Further Adventures) was intended to be Robinson Crusoe’s swan-song, but Defoe couldn’t resist going to the well one time too many with a third book in 1720 entitled Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of the Angelick. Serious Reflections ‘bombed’ badly and the less said about it the better⊡.
════════════════════════―════════════════════════
✱ it was commonplace for 18th century texts to be published either anonymously or using a pseudonym…Defoe was especially inclined to obscure textual ownership to try to cover himself when raising polemical questions [‘Anonymity in the Eighteenth Century’, (Gillian Paku), (Literature, Literary Studies – 1701 to 1800: Aug 2015 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.37 www.oxfordhandbooks.com]
✥ Crusoe’s mercenary nature (equating with that of the money-obsessed Defoe) is best illustrated with Xury who Crusoe is happy to sell back into slavery when he is no longer required and by so doing fetch a tidy sum for himself
◘ novelist EM Forster once remarked that Robinson Crusoe reminded him of a “Boy Scout manual”
✪ Conduct books, today’s self-help guides, in Defoe’s day took the form of sermons, devotional writings, familiar letters, chapbooks and instruction manuals offering advice on social mores and manners, spiritual guidance and practical information on state and household duties, [Batchelor, Jennie. “Conduct Book”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 July 2004
https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=216, accessed 29 December 2018.]
⊡ the Farther Adventures had the same trademark derivative framework as the original novel – Defoe borrowed heavily once again from Robert Knox’s autobiography and seems to have modelled the last part of Crusoe’s journey on a 17th century Moscow Embassy secretary’s travel journal (Moscow – Peking), The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org; Frank, op.cit.]

Creating Crusoe: A Raft of Derivative Sources of Defoe’s Classic Tale

December 26, 2018Creative Writing, Geography, Literary & Linguistics, Natural Environment, Popular CultureAlexander Selkirk, An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, British East India Company, Daniel Defoe, Fleet Prison, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Luis Buñuel's 'Adventures of Robinson Crusoe', Más-a-Tierra, Newgate Prison, Reality TV, Robert Knox, Robinson Crusoe (character), Survivor fiction, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson CrusoeE Curb Nottus

A common retort to people purporting to be in a unique situation of any kind is the phrase, usually emphatically stated, “you’re not Robinson Crusoe!”, ie, not alone. The phrase references probably the best-known solitary and physically isolated character in English literature, a shipwrecked voyager stuck seemingly alone on a deserted island in some unidentified expanse of the great oceans. Daniel Defoe’s classic 18th century novel Robinson Crusoe.

A search for the genesis of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, like the story’s narrative itself, has taken scholars far and wide. Geographically, this has included both the South Pacific and the South Atlantic Oceans, the Caribbean and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The search has also led, through the work of biographers, to a study of DeFoe’s own life experiences for sources of inspiration for the work of fiction.

Alexander Selkirk’s adventures
For the great bulk of the (almost exactly) 300 years since Robinson Crusoe was first published, the conventional wisdom has been to attribute the book’s origin to the real life experiences of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was a Scottish privateer who fell out with his captain and crewmates on a voyage and was voluntarily marooned on an uninhibited island for a bit over four years. When Robinson Crusoe was published less than a decade later, many made a clear link between it and the well-publicised accounts of Selkirk’s episode of being a solitary castaway. Moreover, some people thought that Defoe’s hero must have been a real person and that the book was a travelogue of actual events [‘Robinson Crusoe’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

“Selkirk’s Island” 🔽

Some commentators today still hold that Selkirk was the true inspiration for Defoe’s most famous fictional protagonist [‘The Real Robinson Crusoe’, (Bruce Selcraig), Smithsonian Magazine, July 2005, www.smithsonianmag.com; ‘Scientists Research the Real Robinson Crusoe’, (Marco Evers), Spiegel Online, 02-VI-2009, www.spiegel.de]. A perception that was given some added credence by the Chilean government. With an eye to the tourist potential spin-off, Chile renamed Más-a-Tierra, the small island in the South Pacific which had been Selkirk’s enforced home for over four years, Robinson Crusoe Island.

Defoe’s ‘Crusoe’ cf. Selkirk
Most literary critics these days however accept that Selkirk’s epic misadventure was “just one of many survival narratives that Defoe knew about” (by no means the major one)✲. Becky Little has listed some of the key differences between Defoe’s story and the accounts of Selkirk…Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked, whereas Selkirk asked to be cast on shore; Crusoe is a plantation owner with a colonising mentality who adapts the island to his own world, while Selkirk was effectively a “glorified pirate” who “goes native”; Crusoe’s Island, as Robinson was to discover in time, was inhabited, whereas Más-a-Tierra was completely uninhabited; Crusoe was stuck on his island for 28 long years compared to a shade over four years that Selkirk had to endure [‘Debunking the Myth of the “Real” Robinson Crusoe’, (Becky Little), National Geographic, (28-Sept-2016), www.nationalgeographic.com].

Aside from Selkirk’s story, Defoe who read widely and voraciously would have drawn on other, existing accounts of shipwreck and survival – this includes a work by 12th century Arab Andalusian writer Ibn Tufail, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, both a philosophical treatise and the first novel to depict a desert island castaway, and the story of Pedro Luis Serrano (Maestre Joan)♉, a 16th century Spanish sailor thought to have been marooned on a small Caribbean Island for seven or eight years [‘RC’, Wikipedia, loc.cit.]❇.

Robert Knox, a prototype for Crusoe?
One of the major influences on Robinson Crusoe is sea captain Robert Knox’s experience of prolonged confinement after his British East India Company ship was forced aground on the island of Ceylon (published in 1681 as An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon). Katherine Frank in her book Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth, has pointed to the parallels between Defoe and Knox. Knox’s Island confinement consumes some 20 years, comparable to the 28 years Crusoe is marooned on his remote island. Both Crusoe (in the book) and Knox (in real life) are unable to secure the full patrimony (inheritence) entitled them upon their return. Both are engaged in slave-trading activities at different times [Katherine Frank, Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth, (2011)].

The derivative Defoe
Frank describes Defoe as a “congenital plagiarist” who freely borrowed material and ideas from numerous sources for Robinson Crusoe. Among the literary works mined by Defoe are Homer’s Odyssey, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations of the English Nation, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He also relied upon the books of voyages by contemporary explorers such as William Dampier and Woodes Rogers. And of course there was the borrowings from published accounts of real castaways and their ordeals – in addition to Serrano, Selkirk and Knox, Defoe drew upon the accounts of Fernando Lopez on St Helena in the South Atlantic and Henry Pitman’s stranding on Tortuga, et al [ibid.].

‘Robinson Crusoe’, allegory of incarceration
Frank also draws on biographical aspects of Defoe’s life that can be reflected in the famous novel. On two separate occasions Defoe was imprisoned for failure to settle his (very considerable) debts (the first saw him detained in the Fleet and the King’s Bench Prisons and on a subsequent occasion in notorious Newgate). DeFoe’s journal tells us how profoundly affected he was by imprisonment. Frank invokes the symbolism of being “shipwreck’d by land”, analogising the author’s mandatory detention with the catastrophe of being tossed about in a storm and helplessly cast adrift on a desert island, and concludes that “Robinson Crusoe clearly had its autobiographical genesis in Defoe’s bankruptcies and incarceration” [ibid.].

PostScript: a legion of imitators, the Robinsade
As plentiful as were Daniel Defoe’ sources of inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, the novel has continued to this day to capture the imagination of countless writers, film directors and TV producers. Seemingly ubiquitous, it has inspired the creation of a genre of writing, “survivalist fiction”, and even spawned a literary sub-genre known as the Robinsonade. These works include novels as disparate as Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, The Lord of the Flies and JM Coetzee’s Foe, filmic representations of the novel by Luis Buñuel and modernised updates of the story such as Cast Away, plus the television series Lost in Space and Gilligan’s Island. The form of the Robinsonade has also extended to a Science Fiction offshoot with Sci-Fi Robinsonades (movies: Robinson Crusoe on Mars, The Martian; fiction: The Survivors (Tom Godwin), Concrete Island (JG Ballard)). Robinson Crusoe has proved to be particularly fecund in the world of reality television, inspiring a host of “real life”(sic) programs with titles like Lost! and Survivor that say it all! As Katherine Frank commented, “Crusoe hasn’t just survived, he has thrived, flourished and proliferated”.

⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐⁍⋐
✲ eg, the scholarly consensus tends to the view that no single, real life ‘Crusoe’ existed, the character was an amalgam of “all the buccaneer survival stories” [AD Lambert, Robinson Crusoe’s Island, (2016)]

♉ after Robinson Crusoe was published Serrano became known as the “Spanish Crusoe”

❇ Defoe got the idea for Crusoe’s familiar goatskin clothing from reading about another exile, John Segar, on St Helena

Remembrances of a Juvenile Bookworm: Old Street Directories I have had the Pleasure of … (Part 1)

July 7, 2018Commerce & Business, Heritage & Conservation, Literary & Linguistics, Local history, Memorabilia, Social History, Society & Culture'Gregory's Sydney Street Directory', 1920s Sydney property market, Antiquarian books, Ascot Racecourse, Galston Zig-Zag Railway, Macquarie University orchards, Racecourses in South Sydney, Wilson's Authentic Director: Sydney and Suburbs 1922, Wreck of the 'Dunbar' 1857funambulator@live.com

I had lots of old books when I was a kid growing up, but maybe only one or two books that would possibly generate the curiosity of an antiquarian✲. One of these books was given to me by my mother when I was about ten or eleven…a most unwise move on her part as it transpired.

The humble but rarely spotted 1922 street directory
This book was the Sydney street directory for the year 1922, to give it it’s correct and full title, Wilson’s Authentic Director, Sydney and Suburbs 1922. This small but squat little publication (5½” x 4½”, 735pp), the original owner of which was almost certainly my carpenter-builder maternal grandfather (an early owner of a motor vehicle I believe), came into my hands in something approaching pristine condition, notwithstanding that the directory was then already more than 40 years old!

Today although I still possess it, it is an almost unrecognisable shadow of its once immaculate state! As my juvenility slowly gave way to adolescence I managed to write (things entirely unrelated to Sydney street maps), scribble and doodle on its quasi-virginal pages. Equally as bad, I haphazardly tossed the book around with such careless abandon over the decades that the front cover (a orangey-brown hard cover) became separated from the spine and eventually disappeared forever. Of course if cornered I could sheet home part of the blame for my repeated if unintended acts of vandalism to my parents who showed such egregiously bad judgement in trusting such a historically valuable tome to a ten-year-old Visigoth in the first place! But ultimately mine was the hand that caused the damage…I suppose if I was scratching round to find any compensating factors, I might say that at the very least no one can accuse me of neglecting my parent’s gift. Far from it! As a “child-distractor” Wilson’s Street Director performed yeoman’s service! I certainly made extensive, if not good, use of it.

The directory maps
The maps of each area of Sydney are neatly and clearly drawn by hand, but lack the computerised preciseness and uniformity of a map today…the cartographers in an effort to make the street names stand out by using large, bold type, have the effect of some disproportionality in the maps…streets look a bit out of alignment with each other (refer also to Eastwood below). Moreover, a critical flaw of the maps is the absence of a distance guide.

Curiously there are some variances in the kinds of type-face used in different maps, some use a Gothic font in contrast to the classic style. ◀ The Redfern-Darlington map at left differs from the type used in most maps. On a few seldom occasions maps make reference to the traditional, nineteenth century British land concept of parishes (eg, the Parish of Gordon)…this seems extraneous as the maps and the book largely follow a division by municipalities.

Very many of the street names that were current then survive to this day, although with some surprising little twists – the Pacific Highway, the seminal road leading north from the harbour bridge out of Sydney, was then called Gordon or Lane Cove Road. After Wahroonga it becomes Peat’s Ridge Road. Church Street, Parramatta, traditional haunt of car yards, was at the time alternately called Sydney Road.
Similarly Liverpool Road, starting from Parramatta Road, bears the alternative name “Great Southern Road” on the map (now the Hume Highway). The Princes Highway, the longest road in South-east Australia, is not to be seen! Curiously some suburbs or parts of suburbs are not shown on the maps at all!

The suburb descriptors
One of the most interesting parts of the directory are the brief summaries of individual suburbs. Newtown is described as “thickly populated suburb adjoining the city” (well, no change here!), but its “numerous works and factories” have made way for the suburb’s relatively recent gentrification of modern living spaces☸. St Peters, just to Newtown’s south, is noted in the directory as being “for years the chief brick-making centre for the city” (these days the remaining, redundant kilns and chimneys are a historical curio within the undulating, expansive Sydney Park). Balmain, aside from its “fine public buildings” is “noteworthy as being the location of the deepest coal shaft in the Southern World – 3000 ft” (Balmain Colliery, corner of Birchgrove Rd and Water St, Birchgrove; an exclusive residential estate, Hopetoun Quays, today sits atop the former mine).

The map on page 223 details inner city Darlington (which in 1922 included the locale “Golden Grove”), then as now a suburb most approximate to the University of Sydney…the map shows that the grounds of the University had not at that time encroached onto the eastern side of City Road. The directory describes Darlington as “essentially a workers’ suburb, and being in close proximity to the City, is favoured by workers, who chiefly preside therein”.

Botany and Mascot are old adjoining suburbs in South Sydney. Map 151 (of Botany) and Map 405 (of Mascot) both document the existence at that time of Ascot Racecourse in Mascot…it was located on land adjacent to Botany Bay that now forms part of Sydney Airport⌽. Drummoyne is “a picturesque suburb which has made rapid strides since the tram was opened in 1902”.

Killara on Sydney’s leafy North Shore earns itself a stellar wrap that would make the burghers of the suburb today glow with pride: “(Killara) may justly claim to be both attractive and select. There are many substantial residences, the homes of the well-to-do citizen, and altogether the dwellings are of a superior class” (but not entirely exclusive because prestigious Hunters Hill also had “well-to-do citizens”).

Not to be outdone by the North Shore, the Eastern Suburbs gets even more of a ringing endorsement…the directory goes overboard with Vaucluse, and especially Watson’s Bay, lavishly portrayed as a “romantic looking and historical region, (standing) perhaps highest on the list of Australian ‘beauty spots’ “. Waxing lyrical, the writer ends with a frenzy of capitalisation extolling “the FORTIFICATIONS, LIGHTHOUSES, LIFEBOAT, SIGNAL STATION, and the WORLD-FAMED GAP, near the scene of the wreck of the ill-fated Dunbar” (a disastrous shipwreck occurring off South Head in 1857).

Strathfield, seven miles west of the GPO, was lauded for its “numerous magnificent and substantially built dwellings (today we wouldn’t hold back, we’d simply say ‘mansions’), the homes of the wealthy citizen”. Strathfield’s maps include the locale of ‘Druitt Town’, now called South Strathfield. The map on page 583 includes the less salubrious side of the municipality (the Government Abattoirs and Rookwood Necropolis), a striking contrast with the world of Strathfield’s croquet-playing set.

On the other side of Parramatta River, Ryde (which in 1922 encompassed present-day West Ryde, North Ryde and Macquarie Park) is described as a “famous fruit-growing district on the Parramatta River”. The present location of Macquarie University in the northern reaches of the Eastwood district (set on generous acreage between Marsfield and North Ryde) was in earlier days the site of largely Italian market gardens and (citrus) orchards, interspersed incongruously with a greyhound racing track. An interesting feature shows a preponderance of street names around the present site of the campus with a martial theme – named after overseas battles (or campaigns) including Balaclava, Waterloo, Crimea, Culloden, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Sebastopol, Khartoum. When Talavera Rd was added later, this brought the number of streets commemorating the Crimean War alone to four.

Mosman, still today a suburb whose affluence makes real estate agents salivate at the prospect of dollar symbols followed by multiple zeros, was ever thus the sought-after destination for the cashed-up aspirational denizen…”(a thriving suburb) situated on a charming arm of Port Jackson…on the abrupt sides nestle red-tiled villas in many quaint styles of architecture…but a few years since the tramway rendered its beauties easily accessible to city men”, etc.⊡

Freshwater (on the Northern Beaches) is depicted as being a “pleasant one-half mile walk” from the Brookvale tram stop at Curl Curl, (comprising) “permanent camps and excellent surf-bathing”. Similarly, close-by Dee Why, reflecting its use as a vacation destination in the day, is a “delightful and charmingly situated sea-side resort (with) a lot to be proud of” – one factor of which presumably is the safety of its beach of which “drowning casualties are up to now unknown”.

Manly, by 1922 already long-established as a “must go-to” day trip for Sydneysiders, is described as a “delightful (ferry) trip down the harbour”…the writer is unrestrainedly fulsome in praise of its virtues, “Few resorts offer such a diversity of attractions – bathing in surf and baths, riding, driving, cycling, and motoring; while golf, cricket, football, la crosse, rifle, rowing, sailing, tennis, croquet, bowling clubs are all in full swing. Open air entertainments and band concerts nightly, and the usual attractions of a popular watering place”.

Vying with Manly for the beachside glamour stakes (then as now) was Bondi (subsumed under Waverley in the directory). Bondi Beach, in the words of Wilson’s, was equipped with baths and municipal “surf sheds” which accommodated 4500 men and 1500 women (clear evidence that 1922 was indeed a pre-feminist era devoid of the slightest pretence to gender equality!)…the (beach) park, the writer went on, “remodelled with the construction of the sea wall” was “now a rendezvous for natural pleasure seekers”. Beach accessible suburbs are always in demand with homebuyers, as underlined in the description of Maroubra – “a favourite place for surf bathers and is advancing with lightning rapidity and they are building fast there” (no hyperbole spared!)

Page 513 illustrates how much can change over lengthy periods of time. In 1922 Sydney’s second university, the University of New South Wales, was still 27 years away, but the future UNSW site was then occupied by Kensington Racecourse✾ and Randwick Park. Nearby was Randwick Asylum, now the Prince of Wales Hospital, and the Randwick Rifle Range, further south on Avoca St, is no more. Anzac Pde runs through the present suburb of Kingsford which in 1922 was called South Kensington with a small part of this suburb forming the locale of Lilyville.

Even suburbs located far the city CBD were given a positive spin by Wilson’s – Penrith, 34 miles from the GPO is described as “the centre of a fertile agricultural and fruit-growing district” only one hour’s journey by rail. The township is “well lighted with electricity and excellent water supply”. Among its attractions are the Nepean River, “world famed for its championship sculling courses, which is recognised by many as the best course in the world” and beautified by its “rugged grandeur of mountain scenery (which draws in) tourists and camping parties”. It also offers short day trips to the “delightful villages” of Mulgoa, Wallacia and Luddenham for shooting and fishing.

The township of Hornsby in the north-west of Sydney is the “centre of a prosperous district”. And with its high elevation (594 ft above sea level), Wilson’s Directory talks up Hornsby as a “metropolitan sanitarium”. The country of its environs “abound with charming drives and magnificent scenery”. Galston is “seven miles north by good metal road” (the “famous Galston ZIG-ZAG”).

Hurstville is depicted as “the centre of a large and progressive district…charmingly situated nine miles south by rail from Sydney”. It includes Mortdale, a township of recent growth, most of the property owned and occupied by the working class”. Also within the Hurstville municipality, the book refers to the suburb of Dumbleton – now called Beverley Hills (conspicuous today for its plethora of restaurants favouring Cantonese Hong Kong and Guangzhou cuisines).

Pertinent omissions
There is an arbitrariness to the scope of the 1922 directory, it doesn’t extend to most peripheral districts like Liverpool, Blacktown, Campbelltown and Windsor/Richmond, all of which are included within the perimeters of contemporary greater Sydney. This perhaps provides a pointer to the trajectory of the early development patterns and communications of Sydney. Significant population and urban infrastructure reached districts like Penrith and even to parts of the Blue Mountains before it got to Windsor for instance☉.

PostScript: Swallowed up by Gregory’s expanding empire of streets? ‘Gregory’s’ before there was a Gregory’s?
In 1934 Gregory’s Street Directory (of Sydney Suburbs and Streets) made its debut, it was not long after this the Wilson’s Street Directory discontinued its annual publication and went out of business. I haven’t been able to ascertain for sure but I suspect a correlation between the two…it is quite feasible that the demise of Wilson’s was linked to the rise of Gregory’s, the latter becoming a household name in metropolitan street directories (and until the advent of GPS an unwaveringly constant companion of the majority of automobile glove-boxes).

Footnote: Taking the Eastwood map (above) as an example of the deficiencies of scale of the directory’s maps, the block between Herring St and Culloden Rd bisected by Waterloo Rd, encompasses the land occupied today by the rump of the campus of Macquarie University. This is some 16 hectares in area, but due to the use of large bold fonts for streets which condenses the sizes of blocks, the area seems quite small on the map!

More nomenclature change: the maps refer to the Municipality of Prospect and Sherwood, later the council was renamed ‘Holroyd’. Prospect retains its identity as a suburb but there is no longer a ‘Sherwood’ locality.

≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘≘

✲ is Wilson’s Authentic Director, Sydney and Suburbs 1922 an antiquarian book? The key words in any definition of a antiquarian book are ‘old’ and ‘rare’. The perception of ‘what is old’ is subjective and can be related to a given individual’s experience. To me (even way back when I first got hold of it) it was old then and is ancient now! The quality of ‘rareness’ though might be harder to attribute to this book, short of conducting a survey of the remaining second-hand bookshops in this city (these days an increasingly less difficult task to accomplish) I have no earthly idea of how many copies there are in existence. It is certainly the only hardcopy of the publication that I have encountered in its physical state, however I am aware that multiple copies exist online in microfiche form. I suspect then that strictly speaking it probably falls short of the standard definition of antiquarian, so I am happy to go with any variation on a theme that retains that association…quasi-antiquarian, semi-antiquarian, even pseudo-antiquarian!

⌽ Mascot’s Ascot Racecourse (named after the premier horse-racing course in Britain) was the site from where the first aeroplane flight in Sydney took place (1911), [‘Ascot Racecourse, Sydney’, Wikipedia, www.en.m.wikipedia.org]

⊡ appropriately enough to match its elite and exclusive status, Mosman, along with North Sydney, are afforded the only inset maps in “three colors” in an otherwise entirely black-and-white publication (alas these too were casualties of my cavalier treatment of the book during my juvenile years – the tricoloured inset maps of the two suburbs were torn off long ago!)

✾ the maps of the South Sydney area indicate how littered it was with racecourses in 1922…in addition to Kensington and Randwick, there were racecourses at Ascot (see below) and at Eastlakes (Rosebery Racecourse) now occupied by The Lakes Golf Course

☸ the locale of South Kingston gets a nod in the book but these days this name for part of the Newtown suburb has long fallen into disuse and is obsolete

☉ the Penrith and Windsor districts are both roughly equidistance from Sydney (moreover, Windsor was settled as early as 1791, a mere three years after the British takeover of the continent!). Blacktown’s omission is even more puzzling, being considerably closer to the GPO than Penrith!

The “Arabian Nights” Film in the West: Hollywood’s Inconsequential Oriental Adventureland

May 18, 2018Cinema, Literary & Linguistics, Popular CultureAntoine Galland, Arab Orientalism, Columbia Pictures, Edward Said, Henry Torrens, Hollywood, Hollywood B-pictures, Marginalisation of "The Other", Sir Richard Burton, South Seas islands adventure, Sword-and-Sandals, The Arabian Nights, The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Thousand and One Nights, Universal StudiosSloane Snodgrasse

The earliest tales of traditional Middle Eastern folk tales, commonly subsumed under the umbrella title of One Thousand and One Nights or The Arabian Nights are thought to have have come from the Indian Sub-continent and Persia. The collection was built upon in piecemeal fashion in other Islamic lands throughout the Ottoman Empire, then at some point the compiled stories were translated into Arabic under the title Alf Layla wa-layla (or The Thousand Nights) [‘One Thousand and One Nights’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

The Arabian tales reached Western audiences in book form and ultimately the (English language) cinema courtesy of the work of many western scholars over many years – of which British explorer and orientalist Sir Richard Burton was but one important contributor, not to overlook the work of Henry Torrens the first translator of the 1001 Nights from Arabic to English⊙.

Hollywood first visited the “Arabian Nights” world for subject matter early on during the silent era…including the related fascination with Rudolph Valentino’s The Sheik character, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that it became a regular feature of Hollywood cinema✳. By the early 1950s the popularity of the sub-genre had passed its high-water mark and pretty much tapered off after that point. Subsequently Hollywood has shown only sporadic interest in the sub-genre.

Cinema’s (especially Hollywood’s) harvesting of the “1001 Nights” for script material has been restricted to a handful of the better known stories, predominantly Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin’s Magic Lamp and the frame narrative of the storyteller Shahryar and Scheherazade. In typical eclectic Hollywood style, filmmakers have “cherry-picked”, incorporating several of the Arabian Nights story narratives into the same film…with the character of Ali Baba generally given the predictable “Robin Hood” treatment, depicted as a liberator redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor!

1940, The Thief of Bagdad: The spark for a steady stream of American “Arabian Nights” films♤
The 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad (made in the UK but distributed internationally by American company United Artists) seemed to be a catalyst for the “Arabian Sands of the Desert” film. Itself a remake the 1924 silent flick with the same title starring Douglas Fairbanks Snr, the 1940 Thief of Bagdad was British made but completed in California because of the disruption of Hitler’s War in Europe. The British Thief of Bagdad had high production values, a big budget and technical innovations…Technicolour and the first significant use of bluescreening in films; elaborate sets and costumes; high calibre acting and top-notch British filmmakers Alexander Korda and Michael Powell.

Low-budget Arabian adventure flicks with a cast of exotics
The box-office and critical success of The Thief of Bagdad provided an impetus to Hollywood studios to try to cash in on its success. Columbia eventually responded with its own Arabian A-picture 1001 Nights (1945) [‘A Thousand and One Nights/1001 Nights’ (1945), www.1000misspenthours.com], but the Forties through to the early Fifties saw a spate of mainly B-flicks on the Arabian Nights theme. In essence these were blatantly escapist romantic/adventures which rehashed Arabian stereotypes through mainstream American eyes (see PostScript). These Middle Eastern adventures provided a new (exotic) setting and new material for studios to feed a public perhaps feeling a bit jaded from a surfeit of Westerns (“cowboys and indians” films). They were also a fresh alternative to the string of World War 2 pictures and historical costume dramas being churned out of Hollywood.

Universal Pictures in particular took to the sub-genre with gusto, casting exotic types of players to headline these movies, eg, using and re-using the likes of Dominican Republic born Maria Montez, Mysore born Sabu and Vienna born (of Turkish and Czech Jewish origins) Turhen Bey in US Arabian B-pics, starting with Arabian Nights (1942). This three-piece ensemble was always accompanied by the distinctly un-exotic, “All-American hero” Jon Hall! Universal’s approach was usually to alternate their adventure locales – a standard Arabian Nights pic would typically be followed by a “South Seas island adventure” (almost invariably with the same “front four” and with titles such as White Savage and Cobra Woman) – just in case the punters were getting tired of the studio’s fixation on all those dudes in flowing robes and endless sand hills!

Many of the top male stars in Hollywood had a stab at playing the swarthy Arabian hero role during the sub-genre’s heyday…Ronald Colman in Kismet (1944); Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, following in his illustrious father’s swashbuckling footsteps in RKO’s Sinbad the Sailor (1947); Rock Hudson in The Golden Blade (1953); Jeff Chandler in Flame of Araby (1951); Tony Curtis (teaming up with Piper Laurie always outfitted as a harem girl) in The Prince who was a Thief (1951) and The Son of Ali Baba (1952). On the female lead side, Universal and United Artists gradually moved from using Dominican Montez to Canadian brunette Yvonne De Carlo as its main Arabian princess/heroine in films like The Desert Hawk (1950) and Fort Algiers (1953)◈.

Columbia’s foray into the “Arabian Adventureland”
Columbia Pictures maintained a sporadic interest in the sub-genre. It made three adventure features over a 19 year span around the heroic character of Sinbad, each heavily imbued with fantasy elements. In this series comprising The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), Sinbad, played by three different actors, all have to confront and triumph over all manner of malevolent mythical creatures (dragons, gigantic birds, supernatural monsters, etc) with the odd, nefarious wizard or grand vizier thrown in along the hero’s journey.

“Arabian Nights” meets “Sword-and-Sandals”
By around 1960 sword-and-sandal epic films—sometimes called Peplum films—were in vogue especially in Europe (see article ‘Review of The Epic Film’, March 2015 blog). At the centre of the “Sword-and-Sandal” flick was the invincible strongman-hero who would typically flex his massive muscles and battle Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Assyrian or some other despot from a mythical land. In a merging of Classical and Arabian adventure motifs, studios would occasionally reassign their contracted stars of “Peplums” to “1001 Nights” pics…so in the 1961 Italian made Il Ladro Di Bagdad) bodybuilder Steve Reeves trades his Classical Greek white tunic for some robes, a turban and a scimitar!

Continental “Arabian Nights”
Enthusiasm for Arabian “desert and minaret” films was by no means restricted to Hollywood film sets and the US, nor did the sub-genre entirely disappear after the 1950s. Among the subsequent efforts there was The Conqueror of the Orient, a 1960 Italian adventure flick shot in the De Laurentiis Studios in Rome; Shéhérazade, a 1963 French production with Anna Karina; Captain Sindbad (1963) an independent production starring Guy William’s (better known as TV’s Zorro) was made in Munich. And of course there was the sexed-up, X-rated Continental version of The Arabian Nights (1974) by the always different, always polemical and confronting Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini – the third in his trilogy of takes on the greats medieval books of the world literary canon (following The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales).

Sub-continent Hindi, Bengali and Tamil “Arabian Nights”
Considering that the South Asian Sub-continent played a formative part as an early contributor to the compilation of Arabian folktales, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Indian cinema had embraced the Arabian Nights sub-genre. The Wadia brothers made Alibaba Aur 40 Chor in Hindi/Urdu in 1954 (remade in 1966 by Homi Wadia). Additional entries from India include Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum (‘Alibaba and the Forty Thieves’), a 1956 Tamil-language “fantasy-swashbuckler” and a Bengali version of the Ali Baba story, Ali Baba and his Wonderful Lamp (1957).

“1001 Nights”, longevity in animation
The one movie genre where the Arabian Nights movie has achieved real staying power and ongoing popularity has been in animated feature films. There has been numerous attempts at telling the Arabian tales through animation on the big screen. In the US, Columbia led the way with its 1959 1001 Arabian Nights, very loosely based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin, but essentially a vehicle for the popular, myopic TV cartoon character Mr Magoo. The big box-office inroads in Arabian Nights animations were made by those that came later… especially the Disney classic, eg, Aladdin (1992), which spawned successful sequels, Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996). Hanna-Barbera also produced its comic cartoon critters take on “The Book of the 1001 Nights” with Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights (1994, made-for-television). Another in the animated category was the Indian/US co-production, Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000).

Aladdin, he of the lamp with remarkable transformative powers, has been well served cinematically in animation features, viz a Soviet (Russian) fantasy version of Volshebnaya lampa Aladdina/Aladdin’s Magic Lamp in 1966; a French version, Aladin et la Lampe Merveilleuse/Aladdin and His Magic Lamp in 1970. There has even been a Japanese manga anime feature on the 1001 Nights theme, Doraemon: Nobita’s Dorarabian Nights (1991).

PostScript: Hollywood’s stereotypical representation of Middle Eastern Muslims

❝(Aladdin) from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.❞
~ opening song from the original theatrical release of Disney’s 1992 Aladdin (due to protests Disney subsequently modified the offending lyrics but kept the ‘barbaric’ reference✤)

The bulk of Hollywood movies like those above have resorted to over-simplified, usually demeaning, representations of Arabs and of the Arab world回. Lebanese-American academic Jack Shaheen pioneered research in this area, unearthing the extent to which Hollywood filmmakers manipulated the images and perpetuated orientalist stereotypes on the screen¤. So, in the typical 1001 Nights movie, we get totally formulaic story-lines which have become an established trope in the trade…the (often eponymous) hero suffers an injustice (imprisonment, exile, etc) at the hands of an evil cabal of usurper sheiks/caliphs (aided and abetted by greedy merchants who covet all the wealth and power for themselves). The princely hero recovers and ultimately overthrow the tyrant/regime, and in the process of course wins the beautiful, entrapped princess!

The Harem Girls’ pool shot in the 1942 film

The films are usually decorated with an obligatory harem of young, gorgeous and seemingly empty-headed girls lounging round doing nothing, occasionally belly-dancing or reclining in a pool (kind of your Arabian equivalent of the bikini girls in the 1960s beach movies). Universal’s Arabian Nights for example is full of sexy, seductive veiled dancers. Not exactly Islamic orthodoxy here! Sightings of the Taj Mahal in the 1942 film also illustrates how Hollywood mangles geography in the Arab World…the same goes for history, many plots involve ahistorical scenarios, eg, in the 2000 Arabian Nights miniseries the 8th century AD narrator recounts stories in which 17th-18th century muskets are in use [Arabian Nights (miniseries), Wikipedia, http://en.m.wiki.org; ‘Veils, Harems and Belly Dancers’, Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes, (Arab American National Museum) www.arabstereotypes.org].The settings for the movies are equally formulaic – bustling bazaars with narrow, crowded alleys full of pickpockets, cardboard palaces that look like flimsy, fake Alhambras. Genies, flying carpets, robotic guards – a scene of frivolous adventure and fantasy. Outside of the city everything is amorphous desert, endless sand hills punctuated by outposts of tents and a caravan of camels❦ [‘Ancient Egypt and Desert Landscapes’, Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes, (Arab American National Museum) www.arabstereotypes.org].

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⊙ the most popular of the 1001 Nights tales, and the most utilised by movie-makers – the Voyages of Sinbad, Aladdin and his lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves – were not part of the original collection of stories but were added by the French translator Antoine Galland in the 18th century
✳ I would hesitate to describe the “Arabian Nights” movie as a genre in itself, it would be more correct to call it a sub-genre, in the same way that road films and biopics are sub-genre films. Arabian Nights films are sub-genres, usually of the genre of Adventure or Adventure/Fantasy (occasionally Adventure/Comedy)
♤ Americans insist on the spelling ‘Bagdad’, rather than the traditional Anglo/Commonwealth preference for ‘Baghdad’…just as they prefer ‘Sinbad’ rather than ‘Sindbad’, as it is sometimes rendered
◈ movies such as Fort Algiers also cross-over into related territory, the North African tribal Bedouin/French Foreign Legion desert film
✤ the Disney animated version makes a further sin of omission common to cinematic portrayals of the character Aladdin – making him a boy of Arab appearance. One of the few screen adaptations to heed the textual evidence which indicates that Aladdin is a Chinese boy is the 2000 Arabian Nights miniseries, casting a Chinese-American in the role
回 Hollywood has shown itself to be notorious at marginalising “the Other” on-screen, note the very strong parallels between its characterisations of Arabs/Muslims and of Native American ‘Indians’ and Mexicans
¤ Shaheen spent decades scrutinising not just the Arabian Nights movies but all Hollywood films and television that dealt with Arabs and Muslims, concluding that Hollywood depicted Arabs in overwhelmingly negative terms – as bandits, as duplicitous, naive, rapacious and malevolent people of a savage, nomadic race (and after 9/11 in particular, as one-dimensional terrorists) [JG Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilified a People (2001)]
❦ Hollywood productions reinforce the European orientalist construct, as identified by Palestinian scholar Edward Said, reducing the Orient to no more than “a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences”

Cursed Movies III: Making Don Quixote, a Test of Adversity and Perseverance

November 30, 2017Cinema, Literary & Linguistics'Lost in La Mancha', 'Pirates of the Caribbean', 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote', Diego Velazquez, Disney Studio, Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Mike Todd, Orson Welles, Sancho Panza, Terry Gilliam, Walt DisneyE Curb Nottus

Cervantes‘ Don Quixote is without peer as the foremost work in Spanish literature…it is considered without question to be the most influential work in the entire Spanish language literary canon❉. The general consensus among authorities in the field is that it was the primary manifestation (first pub. Vol I 1605) of the novel as we understand the development of that emerging literary form.

The Spanish proudly extol Cervantes’ name in the same reverential tone as the English speaking world bestows on Shakespeare. When it came to adaptations of Don Quixote to the cinema screen however, Cervantes’ great novel has not experienced the same good fortune as screen productions of Shakespeare’s greatest plays have had. While the story of the ageing knight-errant’s folly-filled forays in the campo of La Mancha has been a popular source material for the theatre, opera and both the big and small screen, it has not proved a rewarding experience for some of the leading filmmakers! There have been a number of attempts to bring the book to the cinema that have ended either in disarray or as incomplete projects…the mildly suspicious among us might easily convince themselves that the subject of Don Quixote is jinxed!

Disney: the animated feature’s arrested development
One of the early US attempts to produce a film of Don Quixote was as a feature-length cartoon by Walt Disney. The Disney team laboured for six decades commencing in the 1930s to make an animated version of Don Quixote. Studio artist Ferdinand Horvath produced project sketches of the Spanish knight-errant for Disney as early as 1929. Preparatory work for a film project during WWII using concepts inspired by 17th century artistic titan Diego Velázquez was jettisoned after Disney had two commercial failures in a row with Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940. The studio tried again, several times (1946, 1951, even as recent as the late 1990s). All of the projects were eventually aborted[1]. Don Quixote thus far has evaded all attempts at being ‘Disneyfied’✫.

Orson’s never-ending project: Less than awesome
Orson Welles’ efforts to make a film of Don Quixote was an incredibly drawn-out saga that failed to bear fruit. Financing (habitually a millstone around Welles’ cervix) was partly to blame but procrastination by the former “boy wonder” director was taken to a new level. Starting off with test footage as early as 1955, Welles was still intermittently working on the unfinished picture (which he described as his “own personal project”) when he died (1985). By which time Welles had 300,000 feet of shot film in the can! Eventually a version completed by a Spanish director saw the light of screen in the 1990s (described as a “Spanish restoration”). However according to James Clarke, the “print (was) impoverished…the film lacked clarity… (and) Welles’ commentary and dialogue was ineffectively dubbed into Spanish”[2].

The jinx again!
Dynamic Hollywood producer of the 1950s, Mike Todd, was riding high on the back of the blockbuster success of the star-studded Around the World in 80 Days. Todd chose “Don Quixote” as the follow-up project to ’80 Days’ based on the Jules Verne novel. Having cast his new, glamour wife Elizabeth Taylor to star in a lavish production of the Cervantes classic, the hard-headed Todd’s plans for “Don Quixote” perished in the airplane crash that took the producer’s life in 1958.

Terry Gilliam, nearly 20 years worth of broken mirrors!
The award for the most ill-fated attempt to bring “Don Quixote” to the screen goes to Monty Python member and film director Terry Gilliam. Gilliam first conceptualised his project in 1991…pre-production got underway seven years later and production itself got rolling in 2000 in Navarre (Spain). Gilliam brought his own, very idiosyncratic take on the Man of La Mancha (very loosely based on the original story). He cast Johnny Depp as a 21st century time-traveller hurled back to engage with the perpetually confused 16th century “windmill-tilter”.

From the start obstacles and setbacks piled on top of each other – flash floods destroyed sets and equipment in the Spanish campo, as a result the filmmakers had problems securing insurance for the production; Jean Rochefort as Quixote took ill and had to leave the set and the movie altogether; it was discovered that one of the film sites was directly below a Spanish Air Force flight path; plus the production was hit with further financial problems – the net outcome was the cessation and cancellation of the production. Gilliam made several subsequent attempts to relaunch the movie, in all there were eight unsuccessful tilts at making “Don Quixote” over a period of 18-19 years with a succession of actors coming and going. In 2002 Gilliam, no doubt with cathartic intent, released a documentary Lost in La Mancha about the trials and tribulations of trying to realise the plagued ‘Quixote’ feature film[3].

The indefatigable American Python resurrected the project once more earlier this year with longtime collaborator Jonathan Pryce in the title role. Finally in June of this year Gilliam tweeted, rather sheepishly, that the filming was finally completed…The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is slated for release in 2018[4].

PostScript: ‘Don Quixote’, a mixed track record in the cinema
Notwithstanding the long trail of misfortunes and misadventures that has bedevilled the efforts of the above film-makers to make Don Quixote, it would be misleading to conclude that the subject has been universally cursed. A survey of Don Quixote’s cinematic history on the screen confirms that it has been far from unmakeable. First point to note is that there have been a considerable number of ‘DQ’ films churned out over the decades[5], many of which went through more or less without mishap, or at least with nothing like the obstacles and hurdles in the way of Gilliam and Welles and others.

From across the world of international cinema these productions include the 1957 Russian version filmed in the Crimea (Dir: Grigori Kozintsev); the 1972 Man of La Mancha (a musical/comedy with Peter O’Toole in the lead); a 2000 feature with John Lithgow as the chivalrous but hopelessly misguided hidalgo (country gentleman); Albert Serra’s modernised Spanish version, Honour of the Knights (2006); a 2015 version directed by James Franco’s USC students, Don Quixote: The Ingenuous Gentleman of La Mancha; and believe it or not, a 2007 Spanish/Italian computer animation comedy Donkey Xote (hee-haw!), a light-hearted retelling of the classic story from the perspective of his squire Sancho Panza’s Equus Africanus steed.

回回回回回回回回回
❉ its literary influence goes far beyond the Hispanic world…extending to his English contemporary Shakespeare who is widely thought to have collaborated with John Fletcher on a play (now lost), Cardenio, believed to be based on an episode in the Cervantes novel
✫ Disney still haven’t entirely let it go…the phenomenal box office triumph of the Pirates of the Caribbean series has prompted Disney to engage ‘gun’ screenwriter Billy Ray to write something similar in tone for Don Quixote, ‘Disney Developing a Don Quixote Movie’, (J Kroll) Variety, 13-Oct-2016, www.variety.com

⪩ ⪩ ⪩ ⪩ ⪩

[1] James Clarke, ‘The troubled history of Don Quixote on film’, BFI: Film Forever, 26-Apr-2016, www.bfi.org.uk
[2] ibid. ; ”Don Quixote (unfinished film), Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org
[3] ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org; ‘My latest is a disaster movie’, The Guardian, 04-Feb-2001, www.theguardian.com
[4] “Sorry for the long silence…” (@TerryGilliam, tweeted 04-Jun-2017)
[5] in fact the tale of the muddled hidalgo with a penchant for charging at windmills has been a movie subject just about from the first dawn of the moving picture – as early as 1903 a silent film of Don Quixote was made by the French, ‘Don Quixote de La Mancha: DQ and Film’, (Barbara Robinson), USC Libraries (Research Guides), www.libguides.usc.edu

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Grawlixes/Obscenicons – Unutterable Graphics and the Universal Interjection!

November 20, 2017Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular CultureBatman TV series, Beetle Bailey, Comic strips/Graphic Art, Emoticons, Grawlix, Interjection, Lexicon of Comicana, Mort Walker, Neologisms, Obscenicon, Onomatopoeia, Parts of speech, Rudolph Dirks "Katzenjammer Kids"Sloane Snodgrasse

Grawlixes (aka Obscenicons)

Grawlix: a spiral–shaped graphic used in comic books to indicate swearing (comprising typographical symbols, non-letter graphic characters which are encased in a word-free balloon). Another term for grawlik is obscenicon (a “string of typographical symbols used to represent obscenity”)

~ Wiktionary, http://wiktionary.org/

Etymology of the Grawlix
The term grawlix itself comes from veteran American cartoonist Addison Morton Walker. The sprightly nonagenarian better known to the world as Mort Walker has gleaned lifelong fame in the US (and elsewhere where his comics are treasured) from two of his creations, Beetle Bailey and a spin-off of sorts, Hi and Lois. Beetle Bailey is especially beloved of seriously rusted-on US comic aficionados. Beetle, a private (zero-class!) in an unnamed US Army military post, has been described as “a feckless, shirking, perpetual goof-off and straggler known for his chronic laziness and generally insubordinate attitude”. Debuting in September 1950 Beetle Bailey is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator [‘Beetle Bailey’, Wikipedia,http://en.m.wikipedia.org].

Walker apparently coined the term ‘grawlix’ around 1964…it appears in a tongue-in-cheek article he penned called “Let’s Get Down to Grawlixes”. A nonsense word, grawlix is the descriptor that Walker came up with to depict a cartoonist’s standard device: to show that one of his or her’s characters was uttering a “four-letter” word or words in the strip without infringing any moral codes, the cartoonist would draw a combination of typographical symbols and insert them in the dialogue balloon in place of the actual profane words. Commonly but not uniformly, the symbols used are @#$%&! or slight variations on this (whichever typographics are used, the grawlix always ends with an exclamation mark [Nordquist]). And as a way of expressing powerful, earthy emotions without having to call in the censors, it caught on within the realm of popular graphic art!”❉

Mort Walker’s catalogue of neologisms
In his Lexicon of Comicana (1980) Walker in his jocular fashion elaborates on his personal vocabulary of neologisms from the world of the cartoonist (with mock grandness he called these his Symbolia)…so in addition to grawlix the Lexicon contains many of Walker’s trademark neologisms, words coined for his own amusement, some with strange-sounding onomatopoeic names – a few of which are listed below.

In addition to grawlix, Walker devised and named three other sets of symbols and squiggles representing graphic euphemisms for the unspeakable and very taboo swear words – Quimps, Jarns and Nittles (these are rather hard to distinguish from grawlixes but are something very similar by another name!) [World Wide Words].

Moving away the topic of obscenities Mort came up with other words to describe some of the graphics representing the range of feelings and emotions experienced by his comic personae – such as squean – squeans are starbursts and little circles above the character’s head to indicate a state of intoxication, dizziness or unwellness¤.Different states of “squeaniness” (from Mort Walker’s Lexicon of Comicana )

Other logo–inventions in the idiosyncratic Walker Lexicon are variations on the same theme – such as:
Emanate – lines drawn around the head to show shock or surprise
Plewds – flying sweat droplets that appear around a character’s head to indicate working hard, stressed, etc.

Another neologism in Walker’s ‘cartoonucopia’ is indotherm – wavy, rising lines used to represent steam or heat; when the same shape is used to denote smell, it is called a wafteron.

♨♨♨

Before the grawlix was the unnamed grawlix
Mort Walker gave the world a recognisable name to identify what is today a standard cartoonist’s device for representing profanity in a non-verbal way, but the use of @#$%&! wrapped in a speech bubble far predates modern comic strip practitioners like Walker. Ben Zimmer has researched early US comic strip history to find that the device features in comics goes as far back as 1902 – the work of Rudolph Dirks employed the grawlix in his strip (he just didn’t name it that, or anything!). In Dirk”s “Katzenjammer Kids” for the New York Journal…the pioneering cartoonist “initiat(ed) the use of both speech balloons and…symbolic swearing”. This was emulated by a contemporary cartoonist of Dirks, Gene Carr, at about the same time (1903). Zimmer himself eschews the random ‘Grawlix’, preferring the term Obscenicon💢[Zimmer].

Grawlixes and other such graphic devices are the indispensable tools of cartoonists and comic artists looking for a way to economise with words and convey an emotion succinctly. They are non–verbal and thus all about visual cues…they can convey obscenities without recourse to the offending words themselves, or they can summarise an action or reaction instantly with an image that obviates the need for words and a lengthy explanatory sentence.

❆∺❆∺❆∺❆∺❆∺❆ ❆∺❆∺❆∺❆∺❆∺❆ ❆∺❆

Interjections

Interjection: is a part of speech using words solely designed to convey (often strong) emotions (reinforcing meaning or feeling). It conveys the emotion, sentiment or feelings of its speaker [‘What is An Interjection?’, (Your Dictionary), www.grammar.yourdictionary.com].

Another way of characterising the interjection is through its syntactic position. It is “an exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection to it” [ibid.]. Interjections are the tools of casual or creative communication, they have an informality to them, and in many cases an outright ‘slanginess’ to them (eg, ‘Jeez’, ‘Holy cow!’ (or ‘mackerel’), ‘Fiddlesticks!’, ‘Baloney!’, ‘Bingo!’, ‘Mama-Mia!’).

All contemporary engagers in social media are (over)familiar with exclamations like ‘LOL’ and ‘OMG’ (case optional) or ‘Ha-ha’ which infest the online world of communications like locusts at harvest season⊛. Interjections are exhaustive in number and heterogeneous in nature. They can be used to communicate a broad spectrum of different feelings – from anger and frustration (Argh) to sadness or sentimentality (Aw) to confusion (Huh!) to disgust (Yuck!) to mockery (Whoop-de-doo⊡) to indifference (Meh) to surprise (Wow!) to excitement (Woo-hoo!) to triumph (Yay!) not to be confused with the affirmative ‘Yea!’ [Fleming].

Interjections are usually positioned at the start of the sentence, occasionally at the end (the purpose being to maximise the message’s impact or effect). And like the sound themselves, most interjections can be strengthened by elongating them [Vidarholen] – adding one or more extra w’s to Aw gives weight to the degree of empathy you want to convey to your interlocutor; similarly using more than one Ha-ha is interjector code for turning up the laughter gauge! Putting an exclamation mark after the interjection is not mandatory but is often employed in the spirit of the lack of restraint that characterises this part of speech. After all, interjections are at their core exclamations – the appended ! goes with the territory!(Image credit: www.7esl.com)

PostScript 1: “Onomatopoeic interjections”
Onomatopoeic words or phrases are ones that imitate the sound of a thing or action, splash! is therefore onomatopoeic, it is also an interjection. Interjections represent emotion and can usually be distinguished from onomatopoeia which represents sounds, although there is clearly some overlap between the two. Another point of difference is that an interjection is syntactically isolated, it has no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence⌽.

PostScript 2: Batman – Holy interjections with graphics!
The cult 1960s television series Batman is a veritable feast of interjections…in just about every episode Boy Wonder Robin, with excruciating monotony, specialises in breathlessly uttering interjections of the “Holy ……” kind. Robin would pick the opportune moment to breathlessly interject with “Holy Switch-a-Roo”, “Holy Superlatives”, “Holy Cliche” or whatever other topical word pertaining to the “Dynamic Duo’s” particular predicament de jour [Oxford Dictionaries Blog].

The sublimely ridiculous “Bat Fight” scenes in the TV show are replete with interjections…as Batman and the arch-villains land thunderous blows on each other, corny graphics flash up with words representing the pugilistic action (SOCK! AIMEE! BIFF! WHAMM! KAPOW! THUNK! BANG!). Interestingly Batman’s art department incorporated some comic strip style graphics into the flashing word cards (eg, stars within the word SOCK! signifying the effects of being ‘socked’, ie, dazed, dizzy – akin to a kind of squean? KAPOW! with a bulls-eye target inside the O)

←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←→→

❉ placed in dialogue boxes above the characters’ heads (Walker calls these “Maledicta balloons”)

¤ a character with both a squean and a spurl (a vertical upward-spiralling coil) above his or her head is more than a little drunk, they’ve had a ‘skinful’ in fact! [Brownlee]

⊛ its unquantifiable definitively, but an empirical survey of the various avenues of social media would confirm an upsurge in interjection usage in everyday communications

💢 Urban Dictionary describes ‘oscenicons’ as “like a emoticon, but for profane words”

⊡ especially mocking someone who is trying to impress

⌽ the Onomatopoeia Dictionary lists a number of words that can represent both forms of expression, eg, wham, phew, shoo, shush, ha-ha, geez

╰☆╮ ╰☆╮ ╰☆╮

References:
J Brownlee, ‘Quimps, Plewds, And Grawlixes: The Secret Language Of Comic Strips’, (Co. Design), 15-Jul-2013, www.fastcodesign.com

Grace Fleming, ‘Interjections’, Thought Co, 23-Apr-2015, www.thoughtco.com
Richard Nordquist, ‘What the @#$%&! Is a Grawlix?’ (Thought Co), 02-May-2017, www.thoughtco.com

B Zimmer, ‘How did @#$%&! come to represent profanity?’, Slate, 09-Oct-2013, www.slate.com

‘Grawlixes’, (World Wide Words), www.worldwidewords.org

‘The lexicon of comicana’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org

‘Dictionary of Interjections’, www.vidarholen.net

‘From “Gadzooks” to “Cowabunga”: some episodes in the life of the interjection’, Oxford Dictionaries, www.blog.oxforddictionaries.com

Onomatopoeia Dictionary A-Z, (Written Sound), www.writtensound.com
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A 1960s Juvenile Reader: Classic British Comic Strips and ‘Just William’

September 2, 2017Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Memorabilia, Popular CultureAsterix & Obelix, Boys Own annuals, Classic comics, Comic strips/Graphic Art, Eagle, John Lennon, Just William, Juvenile lit, Knockout, Richmal Crompton, The Beano, The Beatles, The Dandy, The Hotspur, The Rover, TintinBonza Rottwheeler

As a counterweight to the surfeit of 1960s American television that comprised a large slice of my diet of home entertainment, my juvenile literary tastes back then were decidedly more Anglophile. Plunging into the graphic art world of the 1960s comic book I digested everything I came across catering for adrenalin-pumping, red-blooded British boys.

Desperate Dan, ‘The Dandy’

Among these beacons of popular culture were The Beano (which starred Dennis the Menace and Gnasher), The Dandy❈ (featuring Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan), Knockout (Billy Bunter), The Hotspur, The Rover (these two papers were prime examples of the “Boys’ Own Adventure” style of stories) and Eagle with its centrepiece inter-galactic hero ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future’, not to forget Tiger which catered for British schoolboy football mania with the stellar-booted striker ‘Roy of the Rovers’. The individual comics were grouse fun but what I most enjoyed was the comic book annuals of The Beano, etc., where I could indulge myself in reading a whole end-of-year book comprising a cross-section of the comic’s different strips⚀.

At primary school in the sixties the punitive powers-that-be weren’t all that rapt in comic books as reading material…my confiscated copy of ‘Dennis the Menace Bumper Comic’ (before I had a chance to read hardly any of it!) bore witness to that. From what was on offer in the school library, the one children’s book I did take a shine to was Just William, I should say series of books because there 38 (some sources say 39) ‘William’ books in all! All of the books were collections of short stories, with the exception of one in novel form.

Author Richmal Crompton

Just William was the creation of female English author Richmal Crompton (Lamburn). As a child feverishly devouring all the William books I shared with the overwhelming bulk of readers the uncritical assumption that Richmal was a man. How wrong were we all!!! Miss Lamburn was a school mistress (ironically – in an all-girls school!) who contracted polio and spent the rest of her life writing the William series of books as well as 41 adult novels❦.

The character of William (surname: Brown) was apparently based on Richmal’s young nephew Tommy…in the books William is scruffy and untidy in appearance, and given to directness, rebellion and straight talking – which sometimes lands him in strife. He is the leader of his own small gang of school friends who go by the name of “The Outlaws” (comprising his best friend Ginger as well as two other boys, Henry and Douglas). William is 11, an age he stays at, despite the series of books stretching over a period of nearly 50 years! [‘Just William’, Wikipedia entry]

Most of the books follow the ordinary run of events of William and the Outlaws entangling themselves in minor mischiefs, usually involving nothing worse than the ill-conceived idea of painting a terrier blue! But occasionally William strayed into more edgy and outright polemical territory. In the short story ‘William and the Nasties’¤ William’s band emulate Hitler and his fellow National Socialists in order to terrorise a local Jewish sweet-shop owner (featuring in the 1935 collection William the Detective [‘Five Fascinating Facts about Just William’, www.interestingliterature.com].

Just William’s topicality
A good number of the Just William books regularly reflected current events of their day. William the Conqueror (published in 1926) was resonant of European colonial power imperialism leading up to WWI. William The Dictator (1938) reflected the world’s concern with fascism and National Socialism. Similarly, William and the Evacuees (appearing in 1940) was set against the backdrop of WWII. In the post-war period, the superpowers’ preoccupation with the space race inspired new books like William and the Moon Rocket (1954) and William and the Space Animal (1956) [‘Just William’, Wikipedia entry].

Just William book spin-offs
With such popularity that the Just William books attained (12 million sales in the UK alone), they inevitably flowed through to adaptation to other forms – cinema (three films in the 1940s), two television series (one in the mid-1950s and the other in the early 1960s), radio and even theatre. As well, the schoolboy hero spawned a host of Just William merchandise…from jigsaws and board games to cigarette cards, magic painting books and figurines of William [‘Richmal Crompton’s Just William Society’, www.justwilliam.co.uk]

Celebrity fandom: Lennon as William
Some time after the Beatles visited Australasia in 1964 at the height of “Mop-top mania”, I remember hearing that John Lennon had been a fan of the fictional William in his boyhood. Lennon’s devotion to the books prompted him to form his own, real-life version of the Outlaws, moulding his friends Ivy, Nigel and Pete into a Liverpudlian boy foursome. With John of course as leader, the boys engaged in “small acts of defiance and daring” on their local turf [J Edmondson, John Lennon: A Biography (2010)]. The revelation that I had been propelled into the stratospheric company of such a youth icon as Beatle John, only served to magnify my primary school days zeal for all things William Brown!

PostScript: Continental comic book legends
My childhood taste in comics were not exclusively confined to the gold standard of British comics. Like millions of other children I was also captivated by those ancient Gallic tormentors of Roman legionnaires, Asterix and Obelix (Astérix le Gaulois by Goscinny and Uderzo). In equal measure I was in the thrall of Tintin, Hergé’s creation of a globe-roaming Belgian boy-reporter. Each comic album of The Adventures of Tintin was a lesson in political geography embroiling Tintin in high-stakes adventures in a new and exotic land. But as rewarding as the respective adventures of Asterix and Tintin were, in my book nothing quite scaled the same exalted heights of anticipation as did the prospect of dipping into the treasure trove of Just William’s world.

╼╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼ ╾╼
❈ The originals The Beano and The Dandy were of course far superior to the highly derivative and latter imitations like The Topper and Beezer and Cor!!

⚀ not to be overshadowed, schoolgirls had their own comics and annuals such as Bunty and School Friend Annual

❦ the most accomplished of which was Leadon Hill. The tone of the adult novels was more pessimistic than the Just William series, dealing with themes of divorce and infidelity [Danuta Keen, ‘Not Just William: Richmal Crompton’s adult fiction republished’, The Guardian, 21-Apr-2017]

¤ the name ‘Nasties’ is the result of William’s mishearing of the word ‘Nazis’

Launder and Gilliat: Prolific and Tradesman-like Collaborators of British Cinema

June 10, 2017Biographical, Cinema, Creative Writing, Literary & LinguisticsAlastair Sim, Alfred Hitchcock, Boulting brothers, British Lion, Charters & Caldicott, Frank Launder, Gainsborough Pictures, George Cole, Margaret Rutherford, Millions Like Us, Powell and Pressburger, Propaganda cinema, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Sidney Gilliat, St Trinian's series, The Lady Vanishes, Waterloo RoadSloane Snodgrasse

Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat were two English film-makers who maintained a steadily consistent presence in the British cinema between the 1930s and the 1970s. Launder and Gilliat’s creative contribution to films, whether as writers, directors or producers (or as all three), contributed to over 100 British films in that era, including nearly 40 together as co-writers and producers.

The two co-wrote The Lady Vanishes, a 1938 mystery which was a breakthrough feature for Alfred Hitchcock❈. Interestingly both Launder and Gilliat (hereafter L & G) had their (separate) starts in the film business composing inter-titles (title cards) for silent movies in the late 1920s, the same industry beginnings undertaken by Hitchcock several years earlier. L & G combined their talents behind-the-camera together for the first time from the mid 1930s. The L & G partnership had a flexibility and a particular pattern to it … invariably they would jointly produce films and/or also co-write screenplays (although on other occasions either man would co-write films with various other collaborating screenwriters). But almost with very few exceptions one or the other would direct a specific film singly – this was done apparently to avoid confusing the actors[1].

A versatile¤ and fecund partnership
As well as being prolific contributors to the creation of British films for such a long period, L & G’s film output spanned a range of genres … from thrillers and ‘whodunits’ like Green for Danger (1956) and Secret State (1950) to WWII social-realism films such as Waterloo Road (1944) and Millions Like Us (1943) to romance/adventures like The Blue Lamp (1949) to historical dramas such as Captain Boycott (1947) to farces like The Green Man (1956) and light comedies such as The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), a precursor to a popular series of movies set in a girls’ boarding school immobilised by riotous juvenile anarchy – starting with The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954) which spawned a string of increasingly predictable sequels.

“Journeymen auteurs?”
The Times of London described the Gilliat/Launder team as “one of the most sparkling writing, directing and producing partnerships in postwar British cinema”[2]. Notwithstanding such praise, L & G’s body of work has tended to be undervalued by the bulk of film critics … at times eliciting back-handed appraisals from critics such as “toilers in the British comic tradition”; (their films at best exhibiting) “unfailing good humour and the occasional brainy prankishness”[3]. Certainly, technical innovation and self-conscious artiness was not Gilliat and Launder’s style, but they never managed to garner anything remotely like the prestige or critical approval that was lavished on other contemporary British film-makers, eg, Powell and Pressburger, Carol Reed or the Boulting brothers. Bruce Babington has attributed this in part to L & G’s ‘reticence’ as film-makers, the way that they declined to project themselves forward and intervene in controversies and debates of the day, unlike say, their contemporaries the Boultings[4].

Enlistment in the production of propaganda vehicles
So closely did the personal film-making styles and interests of the two collaborators align, many people found it hard to distinguish between a Launder-directed picture and one directed by Gilliat … most L & G films tended to resemble the fruits of their combined efforts. Or as Adair and Roddick put it, “it would take a lynx-eyed buff to be able to distinguish one from the other”[5].

The war-time pictures, Millions Like Us and Two Thousand Women can be identified as reflecting in particular Frank Launder’s preoccupation with the portrayal of strong, defiantly independent women[6]. These films were commissioned by the UK Ministry of Information to counter the prevailing low recruitment and morale of women in war-time factory work. Millions Like Us, as Judy Suh has noted, conveyed the “double valence of women as productive workers and domestic symbols of national unity”. L & G’s social-realist films, though propagandist in purpose, posed questions of gender and class whilst depicting the routine of ordinary people at work. The necessities of war-time brought out the conflicting roles and identities of women in such an out-of-the ordinary circumstance, as well as the existence of crossings of class boundaries[7].

St Trini’s girls with their jolly hockey sticks (Ronald Searle cartoon, 1954)

After the war, witty and farcical comedies (albeit slight), were their forte (with the occasional thriller thrown in). Like other high-profile international film-makers L & G had their favourite performers that they liked to work with. L & G got the best performances out of British actors like Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell, Rex Harrison and George Cole. Of these luminaries it was Alastair Sim whose star shined most brightly under the direction of L & G. Sim appeared in at least ten L & G movies and his deliciously roguish star turns as a middle class word-spinning con-man were pure gold. George Cole, who also had a regular gig in the St Trinian’s cycle as the ultra dodgy spiv Flash Harry◘, described working with Gilliat and Launder (and Sim) … to Cole (later himself to find TV fame as consummate, malapropistic con-man ‘Arfur’ Daley in Minder) their films meant:

“Good scripts but terrible money. If Alastair was in the film it was even worse because he got most of it. But they were wonderful people to work with”[8].

‘Pure Hell of St Trinians’ (1960)

In the 1940s Launder and Gilliat formed their own production company, aptly named Individual Pictures, at this time they were contractually engaged by Gainsborough Pictures … in 1958 the partners took charge of the production side of the struggling independent studio British Lion. By the 1960s both the quality and quantity of Gilliat/Launder productions had receded. In 1980 Launder went once more to the St Trinian’s well❃ with yet another sequel, Wildcats of St Trinian’s … unwisely so as the novelty of L & G’s feature films based on Ronald Searle’s charming cartoons of feral schoolgirls had long since lost their appeal.

PostScript: The Charters and Caldicott characters trope – antiquated, old school Englishness
L & G wrote into The Lady Vanishes two minor characters that were to become iconic, background characters in British cinema. Played by actors Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne, the two incidental supporting figures are singleminded cricket enthusiasts—or “cricket tragics” as one recent Australian PM was dubbed—trying to hurry back to England to see the last days of the Manchester test match. The popularity of the characters saw them reappear in other L & G movies (including Night Train to Munich, Millions Like Us and in the 1979 remake of The Lady Vanishes), and in several other non-L & G films, eg, the Boxs’ A Girl in a Million and (appropriately enough) It’s Not Cricket. Charters and Caldicott were also reprised for several radio series, and for a 1985 television series. Charters and Caldicott’s fame also extended to their inclusion in a series of Carreras Cigarette cards in the 1950s.

⏏︎ Charters & Caldicott

The starkly gormless personalities of Charters and Caldicott, a couple of blithering “Colonel Blimpish” snobs, was a comical throwback to a past England with ‘proper’ gentlemanly good manners and standards of dress[9]. Matthew Sweet saw the two blunderers (in their 1938 incarnations against a backdrop of appeasement) as symbols of “a peculiarly British obstinacy in the face of Nazi aggression” in Europe[10]. Their apathetic dispositions and complete lack of perspicacity about the momentous events happening around them also puts one in mind of Tom Stoppard’s two artless and aimless courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern roaming through Elsinore, ‘Everyman’ figures in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, but even more prosaic!

The L & G team

❈ The Lady Vanishes helped open Hollywood doors for Hitchcock … after ‘Hitch’ completed Jamaica Inn in 1939 (written by Gilliat et al) he set sail for America (for good), inviting Gilliat to join him however the Cheshireman declined the offer, preferring to stay in the smaller and infinitely less lucrative pond that was the British film industry (Babington, 2002)
¤ “Versatility” Gilliat once said, “was always our curse”, but as Gilbert Adair remarked in a 1994 obituary for the film-maker, “it was also their own form of individualism”
◘ Cole as well appeared in nine of L & G’s films
❃ this was twice too often to the well as the preceding Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966) was also a lame effort at rehashing the by now decidedly stale formula

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

[1] although such was the working symbiosis between the two that the non-directing partner would in all likelihood make suggestions for improvements to the designated director where necessary, B Babington, Launder and Gilliat (2002)
[2] quoted in The Age (Melbourne), 08-Jun-1994
[3] G Adair & N Roddick, A Night at the Pictures: Ten Decades of British Film, (1985)
[4] Babington describes Launder and Gilliat as “modest auteurs”, Babington, op.cit.
[5] Adair & Roddick, loc.cit.
[6] ‘Launder and Gilliat’, BFI Screenonline, www.screenonline.org.uk
[7] J Suh, ‘Women, Work, Leisure in British Wartime Documentary Realism’, Literature/Film Quarterly, 40(1), 2012
[8] ‘Obituary: Frank Launder’, The Independent, 24-Feb-1997, www.independent.co.uk
[9] ‘Charters and Caldicott’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org; ‘Charters and Caldicott’, www.chartersandcaldicott.co.uk
[10] M Sweet, ‘Mustard and cress’, The Guardian, 29-Dec-2007, www.theguardian.com

Lexical Adventures in Suffixland: Getting Creative with Naut and Nik

June 3, 2015Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Society & CultureAeronaut, Argonaut, Astronaut, Beatnik, Cosmonaut, Holic words, Juggernaut, Naut words, Nik words, Peacenik, Refusenik, Space race, Sputnik, Yinglish (Yiddish English)funambulator@live.com

Two of the more interesting suffixes borrowed by English and put to good neologistic use are -naut and -nik. The origins of the word ‘naut’ have connotations of travel and water, Naut derives from an Ancient Greek word, translated as ‘naútēs‘, meaning ‘sailor’, sometimes rendered as ‘to navigate’. From naut we get the word ‘nautical’, something nautical relate of course to water and ships, although the root word naut has been employed to form new words which relates more to the sky or to atmosphere rather than to water.

✒︎ The Argonauts

༒

The first use of this suffix in the above sense seems to emanate from Greek mythology and the story of Jason and his crew who sailed according to legend in search of the Golden Fleece – the Argonauts. The etymology is: Classical Latin Argonauta; from Classical Greek Argonautēs; from Argō, Jason’s ship + nautēs, sailor; from naus, ship [Webster’s New World College Dictionary]. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles dates it’s use in English from 1596, so it’s been in currency for a long time.

The post-war phenomenon that has given naut words their impetus and continued relevance was the Space Race from the late 1950s, initially involving only the USSR and the United States. The US space program brought astronaut into common use , a word formed by simply conjoining the prefix astro (= stars) with naut. Far from being newly coined, the word itself has a history that long pre-dates the 1950s and 60s “Race to the Moon”. In 1930 the term was used in a pioneering Sci-Fi short story, ‘The Death’s Head Meteor’ by Neil R Jones (and there are other instances of the word in fiction go back to the late 19th century). The explorations of space fired the popular imagination, propelling astronaut into common usage to describe those (especially American) who ventured into space on behalf of the “Free World”. Astronaut may have been influenced by the term aeronaut (aero meaning air or atmosphere, as in aeronautics, from Ancient Greek aēr = air) in use to describe balloonists dating from the 1780s [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut]. With the long-term goal of reaching the Moon accomplished by the US in 1969 and further Moon missions planned, it was of no surprise that the more precise lunarnaut soon crept into the vocabulary.

As the Soviet Union entered the bipartite race with the intention of ‘conquering’ space and establishing a technological superiority over the US, the Russian Cold Warriors wanted for ideological reasons naturally enough to differentiate their extra-planetary achievements from those of their capitalist foes. So when the first successful spaceman Yuri Gagarin went up in Vostok I in 1961, the word cosmonaut (from Cosmos, the Universe, from Ancient Greek Kosmos = order) came into the lexicon – the New York Times attributed its genesis to Premier Khrushchev “and Soviet publications” [‘Russians coin a word for him: “Cosmonaut”, NYT, 13 April 1961].

✒︎ “astroboy” touches down

༒

Astronauts by other names
The expansion of the Space Race to other nations outside of the big two spawned a whole lot of other naut-based neologisms. The first Indian in space (1984) was initially depicted as a cosmonaut (because he flew under the Soviet space program), but Indian pride and patriotism and the advancement of their own, homegrown space program, soon led to the evolution of a distinctive term for Indian space-traveller, vyomanaut (from Sanskrit vyoman (= sky). Although among Hindi-speakers there has been some debate about the rival merits of other terms, eg, there is a measure of support for anthanaut (or antharnaut), derived from anthariksh, meaning ‘space’ in Hindi.

When China joined the “Man-in-Space Club” by launching their own pilot beyond the stratosphere in 2003, the Chinese inevitably found their own term to describe it – tàikōnaut (taikon the Chinese word for space or cosmos, derived from tàikōngrén = spaceman) [‘Taikonaut’, Language Log, http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/]. Although it was apparently a Chinese-Malaysian who first used the term for Chinese astronaut and the Xinhua News Agency uses it in its English-language publications (but not the Shenzhou space program).
NB: For a pure Chinese rendering of the concept, either hángtiānyuán or yūhángyuán (literally translated as sky navigator or sailor and Universe navigator or sailor respectively) more accurately capture the essence of the meaning [ibid.]

Another word invented to describe the profession of space explorer of a specific country or region is spationaut, meaning a French astronaut, from Fr: spationaute (= space navigator). Spationaut is also used more generally to delineate astronauts from other European states, although a more suitable, generic term for this might be Euronaut.

Along the lines of aeronaut we also have aquanaut which might be a grander way of describing an underwater diver (the prefix ‘Aqua’, from Ancient Greek for water), which is distinct from an oceanaut whose scientific marine exploration is done in a submarine. ✒︎ A NASA aquanaut (source: theatlantic.com)

༒

Other -naut-suffixed terms signifying navigation in either a precise or looser sense include:

• chrononaut (a time-traveller – inspired by Doctor Who or Back to the Future?)
• cryonaut (one whose body is preserved by cryonics)
• cybernaut (a voyager in cyberspace; user of the internet or virtual reality. Could also be called an infonaut)
• gastronaut (person with a keen appreciation of food, ie, a more formal name for a ‘foodie’)
• hallucinaut (a hallucinator)
• neuronaut (one who studies the brain especially the effects of psychedelic drugs). cf. psychonaut who explores one’s own psyche under the effects of drugs.
• oneironaut (one who explores dream worlds)

As can be gleaned from the above there is a high degree of artificiality in the construction of many of these naut words. Some involve the choice of a convenient word (eg, gastronaut) rather than involving an act of literal navigation. Another concocted naut word with an interesting medical-related origin is responaut. The term was first applied c.1964 to a group of people at a particular facility in England with severe breathing difficulties whose condition needed them to be attached virtually permanently to the newly invented iron lung (mechanical respirator) in order to preserve their lives. ‘Responaut’ (formed from combining respirator + naut) was chosen because these patients experience similar problems to astronauts and oceanauts in establishing and maintaining communications and vital air supplies [Sunday Times (Lon), 12 January 1964, cited in Word Finder (Oxford English Dictionary), http://findwords.info/term/responaut].

The word Juggernaut contains the form of the naut suffix only by coincidence. It it unconnected to the idea of navigation or sailing, having come into English currency from a difference language group. Juggernaut derives from Sanskrit via a Hindi word, jagannath, meaning literally, world lord or protector. In English it has come to signify anything to which persons blindly devote themselves to or are ruthlessly crushed by [Shorter OED on Historical Principles].

Yinglish and spacerace-speak
Turning to words with the suffix ‘nik’, these come to English from a different path being of Slavonic origin with some Yiddish influence. Nik suffixes are very common in Slavonic languages, we find for example polkovnik (meaning colonel) in Russian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and so on. Just as the Space Race gave naut words a new impetus, nik also found its way into English from Russian after the Soviet Union’s successfully launched a space craft named Sputnik in 1957.

The word beatnik was coined by journalist Herb Caen [San Francisco Chronicle, 2 April 1958] to describe adherents to the “Beat Generation”, a sort of subculture movement characterised by youthful anti-conformism, rebelling against the mainstream and hip culture (“being cool, man!”) (cf. the word ‘hipster’ as used today). Other traits include devotion to jazz, drug use and Eastern religions, and pseudo-intellectualism. Through the writings of ‘Beat’ leaders such as Jack Kerouac, other neologisms followed the pattern of beatnik … jazznik, bopnik, bugnik [Jack Kerouac, Brandeis Forum, ‘Is there a Beat Generation?’, 8 Nov. 1958, www.wnyc.org/story/.]

The Cold War tensions of the 1970s spawned another new word formed from the root nik – refusenik. Originally, refuseniks were individual citizens (many Jewish but not exclusively so) of the USSR and other Eastern Bloc countries who were denied permission by the Communist authorities to emigrate. Over time the application of ‘Refusenik’ in colloquial English has broadened to take on the meaning of “a person who refuses to do something, especially by way of protest” [Oxford English Dictionary (online)].

Peacenik is a word which has often been used in a derogatory way to describe someone who is an activist or demonstrator who opposes war and military intervention [www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/peacenik] (cf. “woke”/”wokeism”).The term is thought to have originated in the 1960s [possibly 1962 according to www.wordorigins.org]. Its precise origin is not known but very likely the term arose out either out of the anti-nuclear weapons movement or the anti-Vietnam War movement of the sixties. Peacenik is a synonym for pacifist or dove.

Holics – taking it to the nth degree
An unrelated but similarly manufactured word to peacenik is peaceoholic (sometimes spelt peaceaholic). Peaceaholic and other words with an -aholic or -oholic postfix are back-formed by analogy with the word alcoholic (into English from Arabic via French or Middle Latin). So we have shopaholic, workaholic, chocoholic, sexoholic, etc. which convey the sense of an addiction to or obsession with an activity or object.

Other nik words with a Yiddish flavour to them include Nudnik and Kibbutznik. Nudnik means obtuse, boring, a bothersome person a pest (nudyen = to bore). The Jewish Chronicle reports (18 February 2009) that Nudnik has entered modern Hebrew … “a common and even respected modus operandi in Israeli society”. A nudnik is someone “who is constantly asking you for something or otherwise taking up your time” [www.thejc.com]. Kibbutznik is a name given to workers who are members of an Israeli collective farm (a Kibbutz).

Review of The Epic Film : Myth, Meaning and Mass Entertainment

March 18, 2015Cinema, Literary & Linguistics, Media & Communications, Popular Culture, Social HistoryAdventure/fantasy, Biblical epic, Cinecittà Rome, Cinema musclemen, Historical epic, Medieval history, Peplum, SciFi epic, Swashbuckler, Sword-and-Sandal, Sword-and-Sorcery, Viking sagaE Curb Nottus

The Epic Film: Myth and History, by Derek Elley (re-published 2014, originally published 1984)

༻༄ ༄ ༄༻

The onset of the 21st century seemed to herald a revival in the epic genre in film. Large-budget “Sword-and-Sandal” movies of the early 2000s such as Gladiator and Troy, labelled “Neo-epic films” by cinema critics, have reinvigorated the genre. At the same time, a new blockbuster phenomenon in the shape of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series of films, padded with wall-to-wall distinguished British (and Commonwealth) actors, have extended the epic genre, and in the case of the ‘Rings’ cycle, given the flagging “Sword-and-Sorcery” sub-genre a new lease of life.

The author’s approach to his subject is a somewhat scholarly one, although the book also remains accessible purely on an entertainment level. Elley begins by making clear the distinction between the heroic and the epic … “heroes alone do not make an epic,” other ingredients especially the “all-important mythic quality” is needed to elevate the narrative to a higher plane, the ‘supra-human’ dimension. The author then proceeds to trace the transition from the epic in its original, literary form to its cinematic form.

The book concerns itself to a large extent with the type of epic film much in vogue in the fifties and sixties, drawn from the history and mythology of antiquity (Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia). Right up front I’d have to say that I think that the author is inclined to take the genre a bit too seriously. The epic movie, in whatever phase or incarnation it takes, has been something difficult to be especially serious about! By definition the standard form of the epic has tended to be characterised by an indulgence in excess – grandiosity, vulgarity, basically everything 8XL in size! Mention the epic film and people often think of monumental Hollywood flicks like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and the like. Conspicuous consumption the order of the day, so much so so that it could be suggested that epic films should be primarily seen as a kind of parody of themselves.

The Epic Film spends a good deal of time examining another type of epic movie, the Continental Sword-and-Sandal variant of the species which further takes away from the serious side of the genre’s purpose. The “Sword-and-Sandal” as the book points out is also known in the trade as a Peplum movie …from peplos the type of ancient Greek robe or tunic worn by women (as modelled below). Strictly speaking ancient men wore chitons, a lighter, simpler and usually shorter garment than the feminine peplos, but the name ‘Peplum’ stuck for the epic movie!

This sub-genre had its heyday between the late 1950s and the mid 1960, usually set in Ancient Greece or Rome and often filmed at Cinecittà in Rome (for a time the world’s film studio of choice) and/or in the campagna in Italy or Spain. The elements of the genre are well-known and entirely formulaic: heroic but one-dimensional gladiatorial strongmen, a bevy of immaculately beautiful but defenceless heroines in sexy, ultra-mini peplums, a paper-thin storyline appallingly scripted and only coincidentally unrecognisable as history, incoherently edited, low budgets, sloppily shot with atrociously wooden acting and haphazardly dubbed into English.

Footnote: the popularity of the Italian Peplum provided career change opportunities for body builders as many would-be actors like Steve Reeves, Mark Forest and Kirk Morris, made the transition from the bodybuilding game to become leads in Sword-and-Sandal sagas. Interestingly, many of the Italian musclemen-stars took Anglo-sounding names in an attempt to make them more appealing to the American market, thus the well-known Sergio Ciani became on screen the aptly named “Alan Steel”.

Steve Reeves’ phenomenally successful Labors of Hercules (1957) was the springboard for a spate of strongman-centred Pepla. From the mid sixties a number of the Peplum strongmen made the switch to Spaghetti Westerns which spectacularly filled the void when the popularity of the Sword and Sandal costumers began to wane. Spaghetti Westerns utilised the same device of giving its Italian stars American-sounding names, the most famous of which were the ‘Trinity’ duo, Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.

Whilst acknowledging the limitations of many of these B-grade epics Elley soberly proceeds to unearth all manner of meaningful cinematic aesthetics from the likes of Samson against the Moon Men, Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon, etc, etc. The author describes his text somewhat grandly as an extended essay on defining “the epic form in its filmic context”. The definition in the book that took my eye is attributed to Charlton Heston, “There’s a temptingly simple definition of the epic film: It’s the easiest kind of picture to make badly” (Chuck should have known – he appeared in his fair share of dud epics in his career).

Elley points out that spectacle is the most characteristic trademark of the epic genre, and that trait is (or was) synonymous with Hollywood. Although we connect the Pepla of that era with Italy and the Continent, we tend to associate the wider phenomenon of epics with America. The author quotes Peter Ustinov to good effect: “I’ve always thought that only the Americans can do Ancient Rome pictures. Both cultures have the same kind of relaxed, rangy pomp. Both have exactly the same kind of bad taste”.

⇧ Transparent marketing attempt to capitalise on the famous ‘Ben-Hur’ chariot race but failing to meet those expectations

The book is adorned with some 88 pictures in glorious black-and-white and these may hold for some readers the greatest interest. Amongst these is a still from the 1964 movie The Fall of the Roman Empire, a long range shot of a Late Roman frontier fortress under attack – complete with a modern Italian villa and two parked fiats close by in the background. Another revealing picture contains a close-up of the cleft-chinned Kirk Douglas as the fabled Ulysses, his heroic countenance somewhat spoiled by the clearly visible but unsightly appearance of Kirk’s varicose veins! Or equally entertaining, is the photo (below) of Victor Mature as Samson, teeth gritted, valiantly wrestling a ‘savage’ lion which looks like it’s been recently rejected by a local Los Angeles taxidermist.

Many of the era’s epic films that came out of Hollywood tend to be prone to snatches of excruciatingly bad dialogue. The book provides a wealth of atrocious quotes from the genre. Savour if you will these little vignettes which run the gamut from overblown dramatic(sic) intensity to inane absurdity:

“When you speak of destiny, this is something I must at last believe” (delivered with exaggerated emphasis), Genghis Khan, in Genghis Khan (1965).

“Love and hate are horns on the same goat”, Rune woman, in The Vikings (1958).

“At one time, when you were a little fella, you were always asking questions!”, Joseph, to Jesus, in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

This last line of dialogue, tinged with more than a touch of folksy mid-western Americanism, could easily have rolled from the mouth of failed actor-turned-US president, Ronnie Reagan, whilst whittling wood on the back-step of his Californian ranch.

By focussing on 50s and 60s Hollywood and Italian epics Elley largely neglects the first resurgence of the Sword-and-Sorcery film which took place in the late 70s and early 80s … the Star Wars cycle, Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian, etc (all made before The Epic Film‘s original publication in 1984). Other (admittedly minor) sub-genres of the epic such as the Sinbad saga films (The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and so on) and the Swashbuckler/Pirate films don’t get a guernsey at all … although the Sinbad movies could just as well be categorised as adventure-fantasy films, rather than strictly Sword-and-Sorcery ones.

Elley’s study of the epic film genre is informative and instructive in so far as it goes. Ancient Greeks and Romans, Biblical figures, barbarians and Norsemen, all get a good run, but Elley’s historical survey cuts off at the end of the Dark Ages. I’m left with a tinge of regret that he didn’t take a more expansive approach in the book to include the grand and occasionally grandiloquent epic movies made about legendary Britons of a later era like Arthur and Robin Hood, as well as the more modern epics like Lawrence of Arabia or Dr Zhivago and even extend it to examples of the genre as diverse as 2001 a Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes.

𓀬𓁆𓁇𓁈𓀼𓀽𓁨𓁬𓁱𓃯𓃭𓆌𓃠𓃰𓅋

In Praise of Terse Verse: Limericks, Clerihews and Modern Haikus

March 5, 2015Literary & LinguisticsClerihews, David M Bader, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, Haiku, Limerick (Maigue) poets, Shrink LitSloane Snodgrasse

The expression of poetry in shorthand form has always managed to garner a measure of popularity with the general reading public – especially in comic vein and done well. The shortness of the poetic form makes its more accessible when you line it up against the more self-consciously serious stuff…formal, academic poetry with its proclivity towards the denser, often seemingly impenetrable forms of expression. Variety is the watch-word with informal poetic forms, be it the contemporary verse of ‘Shrink Lit’ and modern haiku poems, or the older verse genres such as the epigram, the limerick, nonsense verse and the clerihew.

The essence of the poetic epigram was aptly captured by (Samuel Taylor) Coleridge, “a dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul”.

Example:

“Little strokes / Fell great oaks”

(Benjamin Franklin)

Benjamin Franklyn, serial epigramist

The limerick’s Irish genesis can be traced back to the 18th century and the Maigue Poets of County Limerick. Structurally, the limerick uses a stanza of five lines with a strict rhyme scheme of AA-BB-A. It embodies the spirit of nonsense verse and the modern variant sometimes tends to use obscene themes for humorous intent. Limericks have also been a vehicle for popular children’s nursery rhymes – eg, Old Mother Hubbard, Little Miss Muffet, Hickory Dickory Dock, Jack-and-Jill, etc. etc.

The best-known serial exponent of the limerick was Edward Lear who popularised it in A Book of Nonsense in the mid 19th century (although he himself did not use the term ‘limerick’). Lear’s limericks contain an inherently circular logic to them….a typical, absurdly inane example of his limericks is:

There was a Young Person of Smyrna
Whose grandmother threatened to burn her.
But she seized on the cat,
And said “Granny, burn that!
You incongruous old woman of Smyrna.”

The clerihew has also been a popular verse-style with its emphasis on simplicity of form and use of whimsical themes. It’s inventor, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, began penning verses using the eponymous device as a schoolboy. One of Bentley’s most celebrated clerihews goes:

Sir Christopher Wren
Said, “I’m going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls,
Say I’m designing St. Paul’s.”

As demonstrated, a clerihew is a form of light verse usually consisting of two couplets (four lines), with lines of uneven length and irregular metre, the first line usually containing the name of a famous or well-known person [www.dictionary.com]. It employs a specific rhyme scheme, AA-BB, and it’s intent is humorous or possibly gently chiding. Less charitably the clerihew has elsewhere been described as “rhyming doggerel”.

Alice in Wonderland

Another of Bentley’s playful clerihews has fun with the author of the brace of universally popular Victorian classic books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass:

Lewis Carroll
Bought sumptuous apparel
And built an enormous palace
Out of the profits of Alice.

Of Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott, Bentley wrote:

I believe it was admitted by Scott
That some of his novels were rot.
How different was he from Lytton
Who admired everything he had written!

And of colonial novelist H Rider Haggard:

Sir Henry Rider Haggard
Was completely staggered
When his bride-to-be
Announced, “I AM SHE!”

Later, Bentley’s own son, Nicholas, had a go at the clerihew:

Cecil B. de Mille,
Rather against his will,
Was persuaded to leave Moses
Out of “The War of the Roses.”

Over the decades a number of famous writers have turned their hand to composing clerihews including GK Chesterton and WH Auden. Auden’s interest was engaged sufficiently to publish a collection of clerihews in a book called Academic Graffiti – a couple of his best efforts are:

Henry Adams
Was mortally afraid of Madams:
In a disorderly house
He sat quiet as a mouse.

⌖⌖⌖

Louis Pasteur,
So his colleagues aver,
Lived on excellent terms
With most of his germs.

Footnote: the clerihew, despite (or very possibly because of) its juvenile shallowness and nonsensical nature, has had an ongoing relevance as a teaching tool in engaging primary schoolchildren in the art of poetry-writing.

The Haiku Society of America defines the haiku as “a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition”. In English it’s structure, strictly defined, consists of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables respectively (17 syllables in all).

The modern haiku has struck a cord in America more than anywhere else, though a great many of the experimenters in this form have tended to not adhere to the established 17 syllable/three line criteria. Outstanding US poets and writers who have dabbled in the haiku include illuminati like Robert Frost, ee cumings, William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, Richard Wright and Wallace Stevens, and a swag of the leading 50s and 60s beat poets including those Beat Generation icons Kerouac and Ginsburg.

In its modern, western incarnation, the haiku has had no greater recent proponent of the genre than David M Bader. The NYC attorney turned haiku humorist, had the Western Canon of literature firmly in his sights in a book first published in the mid-2000s as Haiku U: From Aristotle to Zola, 100 Great Books in 17 Syllables.

Bader’s slim, little volume churns out one condensed gem after another as he scythes through the literacy classics of the ages with irreverent fun. Moby Dick, American fiction’s time-honoured allegorical classic of the ultimate fight to the death between man and cetacean, is given a topical environmental twist by Bader:

Vengeance! Black blood! Aye!
Doubloons to him that harpoons
the Greenpeace dinghy.

Homer’s ancient classic poem equivalent of the modern “road movie”, the Odyssey (all 24 books of it) is hilariously condensed into the form of an unfavourable weather bureau forecast:

Aegean forecast –
storms, chance of one-eyed giants,
delays expected.

In similar style, Bader takes the reductive handle to Jane Austen’s seminal novel of early 19th century English manners Pride and Prejudice, stripping the stellar text back to reinvent it in the form of a newspaper classified ad:

Single white lass seeks
landed gent for marriage, whist.
No parsons, thank you.

Bader’s take on Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a triumph of ultra-alliteration. With a clever play-on-words he economically ‘nails’ the odious persona of Humbert Humbert in 17 syllables:

Lecherous linguist –
he lays low and is laid low
after laying Lo.

Bader also produced an earlier book [Haikus for Jews: For You, a Little Wisdom] in which he set down examples of distinctively Jewish Haiku – characterised in the main by recourse to a self-deprecating and at times a downbeat, cynical brand of humour.

Five thousand years a
wandering people – then we
found the cabanas.

“Through the Red Sea
costs extra.” Israeli movers
overcharge Moses.

Jewish triathlon —
gin rummy, then contract bridge,
followed by a nap.

⫷⫸⫷⫸⫷⫸

Shrink Lit: the Great Tomes of Literature Writ Very Small!

February 24, 2015Literary & LinguisticsBeowulf, Bliss, Classics Illustrated, Haiku, Modern Fabulism, Shrink Lit, The Harp in the Southfunambulator@live.com

Some time around the early 1980s certain scribes started to bring the merits of “shrink lit” to the attention of literary publishers and by extension to the public … four centuries, I might add, after the Japanese developed the Haiku style of written expression. I raise the nexus because I can’t help think that the traditional and venerable style of Haiku was one of the influences motivating the rise of shrink lit. Other more contemporary catalysts have included the whole technological communications revolution and the increasingly busy lifestyles of people, etc, etc.

Shrink lit, as the term implies, reduces often famous and highly vaunted literary works to concise snatches of light verse – usually comprising around 8 to 12 lines of rhyme. Long and complex novels, plays and poems, are subjected to a radical scaling back process. The writer’s brief is to pare the book back to the bone whilst preserving the essence of the story and hopefully the spirit of it as well (this is the theory at least!). Great for readers with short attention spans I say!

In the early 1970s one of the pioneering manifestations of this light-hearted form of imitation was an American book called Shrink Lits: Seventy of the world’s towering classics cut down to size, by Maurice Sagoff. This work took on the task of economising many of the best known classics of fiction such as Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare and The Hobbit. The gruesome and brutal Old English epic poem Beowulf is rendered thus:

Monster Grendel’s tastes are plainish.
Breakfast? Just a couple Danish.
King of Danes is frantic, very.
Wait! Here comes the Malmo ferry
Bring Beowulf, his neighbor,
Mighty swinger with a saber!

The inclusion of The Great Gatsby, Lolita, Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye, Babbit, Rip Van Winkle and Portnoy’s Complaint, et al, in Sagoff’s collection gives the book a distinctly American flavour, and presumably an American readership.

I seem to recall that Anthony Burgess in the Eighties published a list of the best (ie, “AB’s best”) Anglophone novels written since 1939. ‘Clockwork’ Burg provides an appraisal of each selection infused with his characteristic English snobbery and acerbity….the works are by authors of a certain homogeneous nature – a collection not surprisingly top-heavily British and overwhelmingly masculine.

Australians, being the reactive/adaptive creatures they are, weren’t long in assembling their own home-grown version of shrunken literature – Oz Shrink Lit: Australia’s classic literature cut down to size, edited by Michele Field. Oz Shrink Lit has proved to be popular over the years with uni students who are English majors, especially those assailed by a sense of oppression at having to tolerate an undemocratically chosen syllabus which necessitates tediously long and sometimes just tedious novels.

Field presents us with sixty-seven Aussie books, each one cut down to a handful of summarising verses. The sheer range of texts is impressive, among the shrunken classics are The Man From Snowy River (outrageously punning on ‘regret’), The Harp in the South (could be retitled “An Ode to the NSW Housing Commission” once given the Oz Lit downsizing treatment), A Woman of the Future, Summer of the 17th Doll and Puberty Blues. Juxtaposed against these Australian classics are harder to categorise entries in the collection: Clive James’ Unreliable Memoirs and, somewhat bizarrely, the Sydney White Pages.

The book comes in a handy, appropriately reduced size, 148mm x 90mm – just right for slipping through recession-shaped holes in coat pockets, losing on the bus, etc. Each verse is decorated with charming illustrations by that effervescent trans-cis Pacific cartoonist, Victoria Roberts. Victoria is really good at giving the countenances of her creations that look of crumbled anxiety, perturbed faces conveying a sense of harassed humanity in the onslaught of a perplexing post-technological age. Not only that, she is extra good at drawing kangaroos and dogs!

Oz Shrink Lit is the sort of book that would make any self-respecting dilettante salivate, offering as it does (the mirage of) instant erudition in an economy of words. Anything that can make Classics Illustrated look complex deserves our sincere admiration. For a particular tasty sample of Oz Shrink Lit’s humorous, condensed versification we need go no further than it’s take on Peter Carey’s Bliss, a quirky, modernist novel in the fabulist tradition (later translated to the screen in a vivid, memorably offbeat 1985 movie adaptation):

Always selling, always nice,
Ad Man Harry snuffs it twice,
Wakes to find he lives in Hell,
Now his wife does adverts well.

A False Ring: Mythmaking in the name of Tourism in Hogsback, Eastern Cape

December 16, 2014Biographical, Bushwalking, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture, Travel‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, 39 Steps Falls, Hobbitmania, Hogsback Arboretum, Hogsback ecotourism, JRR Tolkien, Madonna and Child Falls, Middle Earth ambiance, Tolkienmaniafunambulator@live.com

Hogsback, 18 kilometres from Alice in South Africa’s Eastern Province, is just about the coldest place I’ve been to in sub-Saharan Africa, barring the mountainous Malealea region of Lesotho. In fact it is one of the few places in South Africa where it actually snows!

⋄The topography of Hogsback is characterised by dense forests, an extended mountain range (the Amathole Mountains), lush, verdant hiking trails (a veritable hiker’s nirvana) and teeming rivers, magnificent waterfalls such as the Madonna and Child Falls and the 39 Steps Falls, the Arboretum (a garden comprising a wide selection of international trees including a grove of Californian Redwoods over 100-years-old).

The 39 Steps

⋄In the period since JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books became famous, many acquainted with this part of Eastern Cape have drawn attention to the physical similarity of Tolkien’s fictional Middle Earth with the town of Hogsback. Director Peter Jackson could as well have chosen Hogsback for the setting of “The Rings” series of movie epics had he not been a native of a country (New Zealand) with a landscape equally evocative of Middle Earth.

Even before “The Lord of the Rings” movie series some Hogsback locals did their best to capitalise on a handful of tenuous links with the celebrated Lord of the Rings author. The story goes, the ‘Rings’ books were inspired by the magical, enchanting physical form of Hogsback. The proponents of this theory point to the fact that Tolkien was born in South Africa (in Bloemfontein, Free State). The thesis loses traction when probed more closely. The famous author and avid philologist left South Africa at the tender age of three, never to return and having not ever visited Hogsback.

Tolkien as a young boy

⋄Myth-making about the Master Mythologist:
Despite this inconvenient fact, it hasn’t stopped the local tourist industry from milking the supposed nexus at every turn! ‘Lords of the Rings’ themes pervade the town and its surrounds, driven obviously by an effort to exploit the enhanced fame of Lord of the Rings. Tolkienesque references are scattered throughout Hogsback in the names of lodgings, shops and outdoor activities – Rivendell, Gandalf’s Rest, Merrell Hobbit Trail Runs, The Shire, Lothlórien, The Rings Hardware and Bottle Shop, Hog and Hobbit, Away with the Fairies Backpackers, River Running, Camelot Cottages, etc, etc. The association can probably be traced back in 1947 with the establishment of Hobbiton-on-Hogsback, an outdoor recreation and education centre for disadvantaged kids just off the R345 as you come into the Hogsback township. The “fantasy and fairies” theme is underscored in the numerous pieces of town sculptures depicting these motifs.

Hogsback fairy tourism (photo: SA Travel)

The Tolkien Middle Earth connection is often emphasised in print, such as in the following: “The romance of Hogsback, is recognised by reading The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) which seems to capture the special atmosphere of the unspoilt Hogsback forests and of a time when peace will rule the world” [Trevor Webster, The Story of Hogsback, www.hogsback.com].

Talking to the staffer in the Hogsback Visitors Information Centre, she was unequivocally dismissive of the Tolkien LOTR nexus. So the lingering myth clearly wasn’t emanating from the likes of her! She also warned me against buying the primitive wooden toy horses and zebras in the street from members of the local Xhosa community. The street sellers, looking cold and dismal in the freezing conditions, were only asking R2 an animal, but the Visitors Centre lady explained that they are not properly gazed and sealed, making them a prohibited item to export out of RSA. Apparently a local artisan/sculptor had offered to glaze the artworks for the community at minimal cost so that they could charge more for the figurines, but his offer had not been taken up.

So, how plausible is the link between “Middle Earth” of Lord of the Rings and the sleepy, little village of Hogsback? Clearly, as stated above, JRR Holkien had no direct association with Hogsback, having left South Africa at age three. Information on Tolkien’s life however, suggest the existence of an indirect link. One of Tolkien’s sons, whilst in the Royal Air Force during WWII, was stationed at Hogsback and did correspond regular with the author with his reflections on the locale. These correspondences from Tolkien Junior included sketches and descriptions of the Hogsback ambience [Ibid.].

⋄Accordingly it is quite feasible that, at the very least, these glowing accounts of the mystical, magic-like countryside provided background material for the physical world of The Lord of the Rings trilogy published in 1954/55. The parallels existing present a strong case to say that the description of the Mirkwood forest in the Rings cycle may conceivably have been inspired from Tolkien having read the war-time accounts of the place provided by his son.

Lawrence of Thirroul: Creating Kangaroo at ‘Wyewurk’

November 11, 2014Biographical, Literary & Linguistics, Politics, Social History‘Kangaroo’ and the Modern Australian novel, 1920s Thurrock and Illawarra, Australia through the lens of outsiders, Democracy and socialism, DH Lawrence in Exile, DH Lawrence Society, Friends of Wyewurk, Garry Shead and Brett Whiteley, Lawrence in New Mexico, Rise of dictators/interwar Facism, Robert Darroch, Secret Army/'Old Guard', Sydney 1922, Wollongong City Councilfunambulator@live.com

For more on Lawrence’s Australasian wanderings see the 2021 blog – https://www.7dayadventurer.com/2021/07/10/dh-lawrence-in-australasia-1922-that-novel-and-perceptions-of-people-and-place/

IF you didn’t know it was there, you would drive right past it. In a quiet back street in the Illawarra beachside village of Thirroul … No. 3 Craig Street, no signs or plaques. For two or so months in 1922, this inconspicuous bungalow with the jokey, alt-spelt name ‘Wyewurk’❂ was home to one of the 20th century’s greatest English-language writers, DH Lawrence. That Bert Lawrence resided briefly in a far-flung part of the world like Thirroul NSW was not exceptional in itself. In the course of his “stop-go” global peregrinations Lawrence during his truncated life resided in over 300 addresses across the world! What gives it import and binds the great writer to this country was that he used this sojourn in the Illawarra to write all but the final chapter of his 421-page novel about Australia, Kangaroo.

⍙ “Valley of the Cabbage Tree Palms”

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After the 1914-18 War DH Lawrence (DHL), opted for a life of voluntary exile, eventually journeying to Australia with his German wife Frieda, the latest destination in a globe-trotting quest by the writer for a peculiar degree of spiritual fulfilment. They stayed two weeks in Perth⊞, before sailing on to Sydney. Lawrence’s initial plan was to live in Sydney for an extended time, however a day trip up to Narrabeen Lakes apparently convinced him that Sydney was decidedly not to his taste. The people with their displays of unbridled, rampant democracy, he found jarring to his sensibilities. He discovered little to enthuse about in the town…in the novel he describes pre-Harbour Bridge Sydney as “loused over with small promiscuous bungalows around which lay an aura of rusty tinned cans” (its fortunate that DHL didn’t pursue a career as a real estate agent on Sydney’s foreshore suburbs). He also rather extremely went so far as to wish that something akin to a tsunami would engulf the city. The Lawrences escaped from Sydney finding refuge in a small, coal-mining settlement 70km south. That Lawrence found a haven from the suburbia of Sydney in a (then) coalmine-littered Thirroul is a choice irony, given his hatred of coalmining, the vocation of his father back in Lawrence’s native Nottinghamshire.

⍙ The “Pale sea of green glass” at the front of Wyewurk

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Descriptions abound in Kangaroo of the bungalow in which they lived, and of Thirroul more widely. Lawrence evocatively depicts the beach directly below ‘Wyewurk’—which he gives the name “Coo-ee” in the novel—as “the pale sea of green glass that fell in such cold foam. Ice-fiery, fish-burning … full of brilliantly clear water and delicately-coloured shells … strangely sea-scooped sharp sea-bitter rock floor, all wet and sea-savage”. In the thinly-autobiographical novel Lawrence calls Thirroul ‘Mullumbimby’ – presumably he came upon the name ‘Mullumbimby’ on a state map as it’s the name of an actual town in the “hippie hinterland” of north coast NSW. The bungalow Wyewurk/Coo-ee is delineated thus: “The house inside was dark, with its deep verandahs like dark eyelids half closed … overlooking the huge rhythmic Pacific.”

The hastily written and skimpily revised novel Kangaroo itself is not valued highly in the overall oeuvre of DHL by critics or academe, eg, “Kangaroo is little more than an egregious failure” [Macdonald Daly, 1997 Penguin edition of Kangaroo; “a generic gallimaufry with a primarily pastoral focus”, Joseph Lenehan Davis, ‘Place, pastoral and the politics of the personal: a semi genre-based exploration of D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo‘, PhD dissertation, University of Wollongong, 1992]. What the novel has attracted recent commentary for revolves around the thesis advanced by Robert Darroch and others – its depiction of a secret right-wing army in Australia which was allegedly planning a coup d’état. Lawrence in Kangaroo seems to have anticipated the advent in the late twenties and early thirties of semi-fascist groups in Australia such the Old Guard and the New Guard.

E48FF6AB-739A-4175-B884-3E300FAC380B
David Herbert (Bert) and Frieda outside ‘Wyewurk’, 1922 ⍙

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In the isolated village of Thirroul—between the sea and the escarpment—DHL found an anonymity and ‘stillness’ that he had craved but had hitherto eluded him. The freedom, artistically, he found in Thirroul, enabled him to write over 3,000 words a day of his ‘great’ modern Australian novel [John Worthen, DH Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider] . Frieda and Bert left Thirroul and Australia in August 1922 for the US via Wellington, NZ. Settling near Taos in New Mexico, Lawrence completed the final chapter of Kangaroo and hastily edited the book. The serene native pueblos and western ranches of Taos were the next staging post in Lawrence’s lifelong “savage pilgrimage“, his descriptor of the relentless search for a more fulfilling lifestyle than that delivered by industrialised Western civilisation. Lawrence believed that “every continent has its own great spirit of place”. In the course of DHL’s terrestrial wanderings, both Taos and to a much lesser extent Thirroul embodied in their different ways aspects of the powerful life-spirit he was seeking.

13FF6AA6-F169-4F1C-8CBE-E857E1570CB3 Lawrence grappling with the menacing Kangaroo on the veranda of “Wyewurk”. ⍙ The Struggle’ by Garry Shead (Wollongong Art Gallery)

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In the years after the Lawrences departed Australia Thirroul slowly extricated itself from its coalmining preoccupation. Largely, it has remained a sleepy holiday coastal town while building a thriving arts community for local artists and musicians. Wyewurk, bereft of the DHL aura, slumbered back into a cloak of invisibility. It continued to be owned by the Southwell family whilst a succession of renters occupied it. In the 1970s people (some local, some from further afield) started to take a renewed interest in the literary significance of the writer’s 1922 residence. Unfortunately for the growing public interest but hardly surprisingly, the occupants of Wyewurk at the time (a dentist and his wife) repeatedly denied visitors access to the house and grounds.

The Craig St bungalow viewed from the cliff-top

⍙ ‘Wyewurk’, the Craig Street bungalow

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This situation got worse from the perspective of the DH Lawrence “fan base” after a local real estate agent bought Wyewurk from the Southwells in 1984. The new owner categorically refused any access to the property at all. Lawrence scholars (who would later coalesce into the “Friends of Wyewurk” and also form the nucleus of the DH Lawrence Society of Australia) grouped together to lobby politicians resulting in an interim conservation order being placed on Wyewurk. Despite this the owner submitted plans with Wollongong Council to add a two-story extension to the bungalow (which if implemented would effectively “cape cod” it).

Thus began a protracted period of litigation, the outcome of which saw the Heritage Council of NSW reject the owners’ ‘Pavilion’ plan. The Wyewurk group rallied support for the preservation of Lawrence’s house in its original form from public figures like Patrick White, Manning Clark and Judith Wright, from various national and international DHL scholars, and the local community. Later, support was also forthcoming for its retention on architectural grounds after the architects’ council declared Wyewurk to be the oldest surviving example of the Californian bungalow style in NSW (possibly in Australia) [S Jobson, ‘How we battled to save Wyewurk’, Rananim, Nov 1995, 3(3)]

The Wyewurk saga dragged on for several years more with the community divided on the issue. With all the publicity about Lawrence’s house, the Sydney Morning Herald weighed in with a predictable LCD tag, referring to Wyewurk as “Lady Chatterley’s beach house” [SMH, 29 July 2003]. Submissions to the Commission of Inquiry followed including proposals to turn Wyewurk into a centre for arts activities, but none of this bore fruit. At one point the owner himself is believed to have approached Wollongong Council with a view to the Council purchasing the house. The Council, adopting a breathtakingly tunnel-visioned approach, rebuffed the proposal outright…it’s woeful lack of acuity signifying a real missed tourism opportunity! Despite the building’s literary and cultural significance, the Commissioner ultimately ruled that the owner be permitted to erect a one-story addition to Wyewurk. To everyone’s surprise, in the end the owner decided not to proceed with the approved changes to the bungalow![Jobson, ibid.]

⍙ DH Lawrence Reserve

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Wyewurk today is still there in Craig Street, pretty much as it was (the exterior at least) in Bert Lawrence’s time, though more strongly fortified now – given its challenges a minor miracle of survival! The preservationists won, but since sightseers and Lawrence devotees are barred from viewing its lawns, verandahs and the jarrah wood table on which Kangaroo was crafted, it remains something of a Pyrrhic victory. Since the mid Eighties the estate agent/owner has done all he could to block the public’s view of the bungalow through fences, the planting of trees and dense shrubs, a garage and a marauding dog on the property ready to bark at inquisitive and unwelcome visitors. There are no plaques in front of the cottage proclaiming its connection to the great English novelist and poet. The only indication signalling that “Lawrence was here” is 35 metres away in a tiny reserve overlooking Lawrence’s “green glass” Pacific. In late 1998 the Council named the reserve in honour of DHL and installed a commemorative plaque.

Bert & Freida in the backyard at ‘Wyewurk’ with visitors ⍙ (photo: Mr AD Forrester)

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Footnote: the current inaccessibility of the bungalow to DH Lawrence enthusiasts and the ordinarily curious over the last few decades was not ever thus! After the Lawrences’ departure for America, the owners at the time, grasping the significance of their recent famous tenants, kept the house as a sort of shrine for the 20th century literary icon. They maintained the furniture that Frieda and Bert used during their stay, including the table on which Kangaroo was penned! They even kept a visitors’ book for the many literary “pilgrims” who undertook the trek to Craig Street [‘Wyewurk’, (built circa 1911) NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, www.environment.nsw.gov.au].

⍙ Wyewurk with cute, friendly “dangerous dog” sign

Postscript: Lawrence’s visit and the publication of Kangaroo have exerted a profound influence on a number of Australian artists and other creative practitioners in the arts field. These include composer Peter Sculthorpe, Nobel laureate Patrick White, artists Sidney Nolan, Brett Whiteley and Garry Shead. Sydney artists Whiteley and Shead set up their easels in the backyard of the cottage next-door to “Wyewurk” (with the similarly-themed quaint name of ‘Wyewurrie’) in about 1973 and painted several Lawrence-themed pieces❈ including a diptych of the bungalow where Lawrence penned Kangaroo [Sandra Jobson Darroch, ‘Claws in the Arse’, www.dhlawrencesocietyaustralia.com.au].

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❂ the ‘Wyewurk’ theme is extended to the house the Lawrences/Somers stayed briefly in at Murdoch St Cremorne – which in the novel DHL calls ‘Torestin’ (“to rest in”)

⊞ DHL penned a short story here while being simultaneously inspired and frightened by the WA bush

❈ the Shead paintings of DHL’s sojourn are memorably jocular ones, especially riotous is the one (see reproduction above in the text) which depicts Lawrence frantically trying to ward off a frenzied attack from a large red non-metaphorical kangaroo on the back verandah of ‘Wyewurk’, while an unperturbed Frieda serenely admires the view

Ian Fleming ‘Casino Royale’, 1st 007 novel (Image: bondfanevents.com)

Bond with “Jaws”, larger than life henchman-turned-ally

“The year is 50BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely . . . One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders.”

𓆸✱ ✝ ✱ ✝ ✱ ✝ ✱ ✝𓆸

Astérix’s debut, 1959 ࿏

Getafix, Druid & grandmaven ࿏

Dubbleosix in ‘The Black Gold’ ࿏

‘Astérix and the Normans’

‘Astérix and Cleopatra‘ ࿏

Black pirate lookout in ‘Astérix in Corsica’

Bravura and the village women in revolt ࿏

‘Astérix and the Great Crossing’: Astérix & Obélix tango with native Americans – more sterotyping of ”the other”࿏ ࿏ ࿏

‘Astérix en Bretagne‘ ࿏

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ൠ some sort of pun on “insurance”

დ although it should be noted that no one is actually killed in the comics

⚘ shared by Uderzo himself who said in 2005, “the more we are under the sway of globalisation, the more people feel the need to rediscover their roots”, which is what he hoped connecting with France’s ancient Gallic past via his cartoon creation might help achieve

໒꒰ Goscinny died during the comic’s production and this was also the last Astérix that Albert Uderzo’s artist brother, Marcel, worked on

Estragon: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful”.

A young Salinger (photo: AP)

¹ Amazon‘s “dust-jacket” review summarises the book as full of “renegade opinions”; (it) uses “guerrilla lexicography to reclaim public language from stultifying dialects of modern expertise”

² ‘Doubter’s Companion’, www.freelistbooks.com

¹ Amazon‘s “dust-jacket” review summarises the book as full of “renegade opinions”; (it) uses “guerrilla lexicography to reclaim public language from stultifying dialects of modern expertise”

² ‘Doubter’s Companion’, www.freelistbooks.com

⍐ Of the numerous screen adaptations of the ‘Robinson Crusoe’ tale this is perhaps the most inventive take on the classic fiction (Crusoe and Friday are locked in a constant power struggle with an inversion of the master/servant relationship)

Copycat grawlixing!

An indotherm – but it could also be a wafteron, which can also be rendered as these wavy lines below

༻༄ ༄ ༄༻

Astérix’s debut, 1959
࿏

Getafix, Druid & grandmaven
࿏

Dubbleosix in ‘The Black Gold’
࿏

‘Astérix and Cleopatra‘
࿏

Bravura and the village women in revolt
࿏

‘Astérix en Bretagne‘
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