Happy Palindrome Week!
…he began to read, to start with, the stories that dealt with magic, and then the others; and those he liked he read again and again. He could think of nothing else. He forgot the life about him. He had to be called two or three times before he would come to his dinner. Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
—W. Somerset Maugham
—from Of Human Bondage
sclerotic /SKLəR-aw-tik/. adjective. Of or related to the sclera (tough white outer layer) of the eye. Characterized by hardening and/or thickening of the cell walls. Figuratively: hard, unmoving, unchanging. From Greek sklēros (hard).
“Always this problem of re-entry. How the strands of duplicity tightened, like the veins on the surface of a sclerotic soul.” (Martin Amis)
“…with fine features and a Byzantine profile; deep sad eyes, set at a curious and touching angle to the line of the nose; the expression of a statue, all statues, eyes looking gently upward from the inclined head, revealing a sclerotic pattern of unhappiness and yearning regret, endlessly repeated…” (J.M.G. Le Clézio)
“The two women had dust smeared on the backs of their skirts; one of them wore a brooch with its stone missing. The short man looked like a squashed head on a sack of clothes. The tall one had magnanimous eyes, a sclerotic nose, and a liver-spotted white head.” (Mary Gaitskill)
A bit of a meander here, but bear with me. First, Steven Pinker says something about the “n-word” that sounds reasonable but is pretty stupid, backing himself up with something even more stupid (that people somehow take seriously). Corey, AKA TiltedListener, does a fine job dismantling the latter sentence-by-sentence and Taylor Jones, a linguist cited in the article, demolishes whatever credibility is left. Where all this ultimately led me was to some writing about “ableist language”, which poses an ongoing challenge in my own speech. Particularly the word “crazy,” which, for some reason, I battle with myself about changing. || See also, John McWhorter’s interesting take on the poem that started the whole thing.
“Shocking” is right. → The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage
Forensic linguist reveals how murderer was snared sending texts because of commas || See also: Words on Trial and What is Forensic Linguistics?
Whither Clark Bars, Mary Janes, Thin Mints and the eponymous half-chalk-dust half-sugar wafers? → Necco shuts down abruptly, is sold
Fore-edge painting! → A Hidden Art Form You’ll Flip For (fore-edge painting) || Fore-Edge Paintings at the Lilly Library || Fore Edge Painting - An Introduction | On the Edge. Previously: The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.
“Kurt Vonnegut compared the role of the artist in society to that of the canary in the mines: Both alert us to the presence of danger. The reading brain is the canary in our minds. We would be the worst of fools to ignore what it has to teach us.” → Screen Time Is Changing Our Brain Circuitry || Pairs well with Why ‘getting lost in a book’ is so good for you, according to science.
Katexic Clamorites know one of my favorite topics is words we mispronounce(d) because we learned them by reading. Daniel Midgley, host of the fab Talk the Talk podcast, proposes calling them “calliopes” (rhyming with ropes), “persephones” (rhyming with telephones), or “booklish.” Then he and the Speakeasy hosts share many great examples. → Speakeasy: accidental mispronunciations
I Say LOL, You Say Ek Number: How People Around The World Laugh Online
This week in visuals and visual art: The Daring Golden Bridge || Visarute Angkatavanich’s amazing betta fish photos || Dennis Isip - The Neon Archives
Today in 1927, Wings, the only silent film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (at the first annual award ceremony in 1929), premieres at the Criterion Theater in New York City. Starring famed flapper Clara Bow, Wings not only set the standard for aviation films thanks to the technical achievement of its air-combat scenes, but was also the first movie to show two men kissing and among the first wide-release films to show nudity. This was perhaps in keeping with the debauchery around the set in San Antonio (where The Rough Riders was simultaneously being filmed), which director William Wellman would later describe as the “Armageddon of a magnificent sexual Donnybrook.” Remastered by Paramount in 2012, you can watch ► clips of wings on YouTube and, naturally, pay to see the rest.
► Wild Life tells “the story of a dapper young remittance man, sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching in 1909. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. A film about the beauty of the prairie, the pangs of homesickness and the folly of living dangerously out of context.”
I’d eat that. → ► Watermelon Smoked to Look Like Meat.
Reader B.: “That Chang-rae Lee quote is dizzying to think of. Buddhist? Quietist? ¶ Where’s the Powers quote from? A fine snapshot of early punk. ¶ PS: another barge floated down the wild river flowing out of Katexia, freighted with delights. The crowd surged the piers, every member demanding more sweetness.” — Thank you! The Powers quote is from Orfeo!
Reader M.: “Who would have thought photos of coin-operated laundries could be as mesmerizing as watching laundry tumbling in the dryer?”
Reader N.: “All the talk of ‘othering’ and ‘privileging’ in our speech and writing wears me down. But the article about italicizing non-English words in English texts hasn’t been so easily dismissed.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Try Notabilia http://ktxc.to/nb for a new WORK every day.
And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/.
You just read issue #384 of katexic clippings. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.