Matthew Baldwin I think I love you.

It's funny how a damn good piece of writing can brighten up a bad day.

Thanks InfSum/dracula.

First show!

After some technical hiccups, I recorded my first show for WKLT this past Thursday and Saturday.
Quite an adventure and one that I'm happy to continue.

More information about streaming times to come.

What I learned from Infinite Jest

I apologize in advance for this post. There is no way I could sum up succinctly the entirety of what I have learned from Infinite Jest. The following is a sampling and probably won't make a great deal of sense to someone who hasn't read IJ. Also, I apologize for any accidental spoilers. Item number 6 may be dangerous in that regard.

Today marks the end of Infinite Summer. It's officially fall, reading Infinite Jest together as a community is now officially over. I finished IJ in August, but I will definitely miss the insightful commentary of Infsum.
IJ truly is a masterpiece, not just an over-hyped novel. I heartily recommend it to other determined readers.

Now, not in any particular order, things I have learned from IJ include:

1. New words for Scrabble *
These include (from the top of my head) onanism, nictitate, post-prandial, agnate, lordosis (almost used this last night during a fierce game in which a dad-assisted eight year old sister took home 1st place), micturate, bradykinetic, brody

The only problems with using DFW words for Scrabble are your letter limitations and the likelihood that no one else with whom you're playing will know OED-rank-palabras offhand.**

*plus new slang (like "demap," "Unit," and "eating cheese") and euphemisms ("to hear the squeak")
**AND the official Scrabble Dictionary will have the same problem.

2. That I never want to take drugs.
This was the first novel I've ever read in which drug abuse (aside from alcohol, which is also rampant in IJ) is prominently featured. Wallace does not condone drug/alcohol abuse in any fashion; he addresses the issues (and addicts) in his novel from a standpoint that is as compassionate as it is realistic. Wallace not only describes the actions of addicts but also their mindsets; I found myself cringing throughout most of the novel during his powerful descriptions of the physical and mental "cage" created by Substance abuse (as well as the scenes of Withdrawal where addicts would just as painfully attempt to escape the "cage").

After experiencing these narratives, I know for me it would be redundant to actually try drugs (plus ignoring everything Wallace said). Alcohol, narcotics, cocaine, X, Bob Hope (marijuana)-- these and more and MORE are/were consumed by characters. DFW's endnotes often consisted of the full medical/chemical names of the drug compounds and their original pharmaceutical companies.

DFW's compassionate approach to his "encaged" characters (and that includes more than just the characters who were at Ennet House, a half-way house for addicts) was one of the most moving elements of the book to me. Wallace did not glamorize them; I daresay DFW didn't glamorize any character in this novel. It had been too long since I'd last connected strongly with characters in a novel. Somehow, somewhere in all those endless blocks of text Wallace made me love the people of Infinite Jest. In the back of my mind, I realized how strange it really was to be cheering on and caring for these nonexistent people as they battled against their bodies' respective Diseases.* It was also wonderful.

*Disease being one of the terms used for addiction by counselors at Ennet House.

3. That interfacing is always better.
I read this statement from one of the main characters of IJ and felt that heart-in-mouth truth sense start throbbing:
"...that the worst kind of gut-wrenching intergenerational interface is better than withdrawal or hiddenness of either side."

Wallace's protagonist Hal and his family, the Incandenzas, suffer from acute communicative dysfunction.* Only Mario, the most physically disabled of the Incandenzas, seems to possess health in this regard. If not a pathological liar, Orin is an unreliable source of information and a manipulator thereof; Hal closes himself off from everyone behind his intellect and tennis prowess; their overbearing mother Avril has something about her that gives everyone (including this reader) the howling fantods** and make true communication (which of course involves unpleasantries) impossible.

Wallace stresses the importance of relationships (interfacing) over entertainment, openness and honesty with others instead of being wrapped up (or "encaged" even) within the self. In his Kenyon Commencement Address of 2005***, Wallace also calls this being stuck in the "default setting" where you believe you are the absolute center of your universe and act accordingly.

I can Identify (as they would say in AA) with Hal's problems with openness with others and definitely valued this message in IJ. It was actually eerie at times to see parallels between myself and Hal. At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I remember feeling proud of myself for "being open" with my three roommates--the previous year had been difficult in this regard and I felt I'd grown. To my surprise they approached me and said gently, something to the effect of "We want you to be open with us because we love you. You're still pretty closed off."
So when Hal experiences the unsettling feeling of the disjunction between his inner and outer self (being told to stop smiling so grotesquely when to his knowledge he wasn't smiling at all), I understood.

Like other contributors to Infinite Summer, I too want to try harder with interfacing and getting out of the cage, particularly with my family.

*To say that Infinite Jest is a book chiefly about entertainment and communication is very simplistic but also very true.
** Really awesome way to say heebie jeebies or "an ill-defined state of irritability and distress"
*** Which basically sums up the main moral thrust of IJ in a way that gives me chills.

4. "Do not underestimate objects." -Lyle, the sweat guru
I found myself chanting this phrase while negotiating the semi-terrifying inclines in the local park on my (new) rollerblades. Actually, I'm not sure if this phrase is directly applicable to blading or if I even understand what Lyle means.
Thinking abotu this along with what other characters (Coach Schtitt) have said in the novel, I think this means that you need to know your own limits and fears and act accordingly.

Related: "Don't try to pull a weight that weighs more than you do."
The fact that Lyle (a man who meditates on top of the towel dispenser in the weight room at Enfield Tennis Academy and survives off of students' sweat) is one of the major spiritual counselors at ETA is one of IJ's wonderful quirks that make it so GOOD.

5. AA and the Gospel
I've read Christian literature before that's compared the openness/brokenness that's present in AA meetings to how the Gospel should free us to be open with our fellow Christians about our sins and shortcomings. DFW's AA completely validated that comparison. I didn't know that much about AA before IJ, or rather I knew its raison d'etre but not many specifics. On the copyright page of the novel, DFW thanks the AA groups that allowed him to come in and ask questions: "Besides Closed Meetings for alcoholics only, Alcoholics Anonymous in Boston, Massachusetts, also has Open Meetings, where pretty much anybody who's interested can come and listen, take notes, pester people with questions, etc. A lot of people at these Open Meetings spoke with me and were extremely patient and garrulous and generous and helpful. The best way I can think of to show my appreciation to these men and women is to decline to thank them by name."

DFW does a LOT with AA, NA (Narcotics Anonymous) in Infinite Jest; as heart-rending and horrifying as some of the stories the AAnons told (being abused as children, how they hit Bottom, the way they'd hurt those around them, etc ) these were among my favorite parts of the book. The openness and Identification of their fellow AAers and the cliches "Keep Coming Back" "Hang in There" "Fake It Til You Make It" "But for the Grace of God" and the invocation of a Higher Power to help them through...were immensely encouraging to me. It's funny how Don would be thinking about how it didn't make sense why AA worked when it was mostly platitudes and Meetings. Sometimes it feels that way to me in the Christian life, that I don't understand exactly how I am justified and sinful at the same time, but it WORKS. The baking-a-cake metaphor comes to mind--you don't have to understand the chemistry of how a cake comes into being in the oven, you just have to follow the instructions and it works.


6. You don't always get all the answers.
You gotta learn to live with this or you go crazy. In some ways, IJ felt like real life: just like reality there's more than one explanation for something and you don't always get to know what the real answer is. In this novel, DFW doesn't give all the answers. It was tempting to be infuriated, to feel like reading this book was a waste, that I didn't even know what happened to Hal and to Don and to Pemulis and to the freaking AFR and the Entertainment. I think DFW's just reminding us that some degree of mystery is the reality of things. Plus there's all these theories about tides and annulation and how the novel is constructed that I won't go into here.
And why the hell Stice's bed would end up on different sides of the room when he woke up in the morning. A mystery among mysteries...but one worth mulling over.

Other bloggers (conveniently linked to InfSum) have speculated that DFW's lack of answers have to do with the theme of entertainment that overmasters its partakers. By not supplying all the facts and intentionally having a non-linear, fragmented narrative (with ambiguities! e.g. re: Mario's parentage), Wallace forces the reader to wrestle with this book. There is no passive way to read IJ and enjoy it for all its worth.

One of the first posts on InfSum suggested that when reading IJ, one must swim deep or stay at the surface. Even though I opted for the snorkel-view of IJ, I felt myself being stretched as a reader-- my sense of syntax, my optical attention (blocks and blocks of text= not particularly eye-friendly), my suspension of disbelief (stretched beyond all recognition), my memory for holding details that would string seemingly disparate characters together not to mention abbreviations, etc etc etc. This book made me want to discuss it with others, hear theories, laugh about horrifically funny bits; it made me want to talk to others who were also "wrestling." In this way, DFW's warning in IJ about entertaining ourselves to death by being so self-absorbed we're emotionally dead (or literally with The Entertainment) also came with a solution--this prompting to discuss.

7. In IJ, Don Gately and Mario are my heroes.
Yes. Yes they are.
Don is my hero for the "realness" that comes through in his character--he's working so hard on turning his life around. He does all the things AA says to do: repeating cliches that don't really make all that much sense until you just accept them for what they are (Fake It 'Til You Make It), every morning his huge knees hit the floor and he Asks for Help from his personal Higher Power. Don's also a counselor at Ennet House trying to help others beat their addictions; I love his conversations he has with the residents.

How can you not love Mario? There were so many notes in my journal where I simply wrote a page number and "Yay Mario!" He is wise, loving, and self-forgetful as he is deformed. I think DFW has to remind the reader throughout of Mario's physical challenges because his heart is so pure and emotionally he's got it together the best of any of the characters. Towards the beginning of the novel, DFW writes that the ETA kids consider Mario the kind of person you just like to have around. I love that he has a passion for filmmaking (and was close to J. O. Incandenza, patriarch and deceased as of the beginning of the novel) and that he's also a spiritual guide to the students of ETA. Mario embodies the person whose life is lived without the default setting--he's quite inspiring (I think I was almost reduced to tears during the Barry Loach episode near the end of the novel).

8. I want to have an awesome radio show like Madame Psychosis.
Simply having a DJ name that neat and not feeling pretentious about it would feel like a good start. Though I am extremely tempted to read aloud from the pamphlet of the Union for the Hideously and Improbably Deformed with strange, ambient music playing underneath, I'll have to figure out my own way of communicating what I deem is important and noteworthy to my listeners.

This of course presumes that I will have listeners. Ha.

9. I know next to nothing about tennis.
Even after reading a book largely about a tennis academy, I still don't really understand it. Except that Schtitt's conditioning programs for the ETA'ers were as tough as his views on the abstracts of tennis were fascinating. Now, however, whenever I walk past tennis courts I can hear that tennis balls being hit do really make a sound like "thwok."

DFW was a tennis player (not medicore, either) and I've heard his renderings of on-court events in the novel are absolutely excellent.

10. "The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you." - DFW
As a Christian, I believe that God is the source of all truth and He places an awareness of truth in the hearts of human beings (see Romans 1 for more on that), even in those whose hearts are not regenerated. When instances of truth occur in the works of people who do not claim Christ, these can be called Common Grace Insights (or at least my Christian college calls them by that: "All truth is God's truth, wherever it is found.")

IJ contains an astonishing amount of CGIs (haha), actually. A couple years ago (oh narrowminded high schooler that I was) I would have worried about how much this book affected me while I was reading it: "Oh no, a non-Christian's work is impacting me... I must not be contaminated!" But really, if DFW's work is pointing me back to the Biblical truths I hold dear (such as "dying to the old sinful self" = getting out of the "default setting"), there's nothing wrong with treasuring this book. Because I have a feeling I'll be treasuring it for a long time. Other bloggers who are long-time fans of IJ have written about how it stays on their bedside table almost like a Bible and they have read it over and over. It's taking everything in me not to immediately start it again but unfortunately I don't have the time I'd want to devote to the novel right now with a new semester upon me.
But I will return to it. I know I will.

I feel like I drop DFW's name into any conversation I can (particulary with friends who have read him before). I admire his compassion, his excellent writing, his vocabulary, and the way he challenges his readers' abilities and normal habits of living (i.e. being encaged to self or addictions). His work makes me want to be a better writer and a better person (and I know I'm not alone in this feeling or else I might feel a little strange).

Thanks again, DFW, and thank you for reading.

Revisiting Wisely

You know when you buy an album because you really like the single that was released and then you find out that the rest of the songs aren't as gripping/iconic/wonderful?

Yeah. I feel that way about Wisely's self-titled album, but for whatever reason I'm giving the man (hereafter called Wisely since there doesn't seem to be a wikipedia article about his music- shocking! Does he really exist?) another chance. Plus Covenant would be analyzing his song "Cracked Worldview" all up and down. It helps that I just finished reading two chapters of Andy Crouch's book "Culture Making" and worldviews/mindscapes were discussed.
The world is not changed by analyzing alone; culture must be made. I like how Crouch emphasizes the practical over the theoretical but at the same time gives some theory as background for the more dealing-with-material-stuff measures he encourages.

Also, the lovely "Pam" (her name escapes me...oh...Jenna Fischer! yeah!) on The Office loves Wisely--and (sadly?) this is another reason why I bought this album.

If you have a minute you should look up "Through Any Window" from this album.


Oh, and I start learning to record for WKLT tomorrow! Yay!

DFW. Rest in peace.

“It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know” -- Mario Incandenza.


I'm fighting tears as I post this.
A couple of days ago I cried in my boyfriend's car after he'd driven me back from studying at his apartment. He's reading IJ too and so he understood.
He understood that it doesn't make sense to me to miss this author whom I've never met---I've only read one book of his (albeit the "masterpiece"), I feel almost like a fraud for having this sadness in the face of his friends, family, colleagues, and really devoted readers who have so much more cause for sadness than I do.

I still haven't posted the "what I've learned from IJ" piece that I (had been) working on. School interfered and I've been feeling my "infinite summer" moving away from me in that gradual way that waves slowly pull objects out to sea. You see it, you see it, you see it, and suddenly the bobbing object's become a bobbing speck out of sight.
That's what I don't want. I don't want those lessons to drift out of my consciousness.

I remember grieving over the Virginia Tech shootings 2 years ago, again feeling like it was not my place to grieve. My high school had lost an alumna, but I didn't know her. I'd transferred in as a senior that year and had no real emotional root to West Springfield.
Yet it hurt.
I'd written a poem and posted it on the memorial website---it's a magnetic poem.
Here it is:


I think those feelings still resonate with me w/r/t DFW.

Dave, thank you for your writing, your humor, the way you've made me consider my world differently. Thank you for your reminder that "this is water" and for your challenge to a graduating class to live a compassionate life that's extended to an audience far beyond that auditorium. Thank you for sharing your love of words, your struggles, and your kindness. Thank you for helping me forget how alone I really was this summer after the move; thank you for Infinite Jest and the real, beautiful, terrifying, eye-opening joy it was to read--the fact that James O. Incandenza's initals are JOI has never ceased to make me suspicious. Thank you for saturating that book with truth, for making it challenging, for making me think hard, for making me struggle with it. I don't know yet how exactly it will have changed me, but I know it has.

The Spanish medieval poets believed that there were three lives: the mortal, physical existence; the spiritual life of glory or fame; and the life eternal which occurred after death.
That second life of honor is not cut off at death; it last as long as the person is held in the memories of those left behind. One's glory can still burn brightly years and years after they themselves have withered away.
This is only the first anniversary, but I think DFW's second life is in no danger of flickering out.
No indeed.

Wallace-isms

Today in 20th Century History my prof said (in a transition):
"Anyway but so"
which is HIGHLY reminiscent of the "And but so's" from IJ.

It made me smile. At one point in the novel I was wondering if anyone really talks like that, and now I have additional Real Life verification.


Eventually I will publish my (currently unfinished) post about what I learned from my first reading of IJ, but other obligations (ie hundreds of pages of academic texts) have arisen.
Just to let you know I haven't forgotten.

Songs I fell in love with this summer.

Certainly going to play these on some show, sometime in the future:

Carina Round - Backseat
- a Brit with a lovely voice; this song is a departure from her other albums that have more of a Patti Smith feel. The sound of the song is Spektor-esque and the piano+choir is absolutely wonderful.

Arkells - John Lennon
- Canadians. Can't look at Canadians the same way since reading IJ but this song has 1. an infectious chorus, 2. John Lennon references, 3. sweet keyboards. YES.

Electric Owls - Magic Show
- Xylophone+ the use of the word "clairvoyant" in the first verse = love

Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
- Really, I blame the wedding music video on this one. Particularly the /"I'm a tiger"/ segment.

Nada Surf - If You Leave (OMD Cover)
- I love the original song because of Pretty in Pink; I love this song because of the laconic feel.

Fleet Foxes (all of their songs)
- After seeing them in concert, this feeling is completely justified.

Pete Yorn - Lose You, EZ
- So why did it take me this long to get into Pete Yorn? I like sad songs.

The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love
- And I missed this when it came out back in high school. The lead's falsetto makes me laugh.

The National - like, all of their songs, but especially The Geese of Beverly Road, Start a War, and City Middle
- As another music-lover once wrote, "The National is no secret."

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? and Fight Test
- The first song is now the official rock song of Oklahoma (the Flaming Lips' home state) and the second is simply delicious.

MGMT - Electric Feel
- Ridiculous lyrics+dance music. ("/I said ooo girl/Touch me like an electric eel/")

Michael Jackson - Baby Be Mine
- Glad to have been a fan before he passed away this year, but I hadn't listened to the whole Thriller album (!! awful of me, yes).

Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone with You
- Haunting, simple, beautiful.


As a side note, I definitely don't claim to be on the cutting edge of music. There's just too much out there to keep up with (for me, anyway). Nevertheless I love sharing the songs that I find or others sharing new/old music with me.
For instance, a friend of mine is now a fan of Death Cab for Cutie and Fleet Foxes (she came with me to the concert) thanks to some rather vigorous encouragement (me and another friend). We were absolutely shocked that she hadn't really listened to DCFC, not so much concerning Fleet Foxes.
But that has been remedied-- hurrah for friends who contribute to your musical education.

Very very close and EXPLODE!

I think I may have hit it-- the name I want to use for my radio show (I just typed "album"; just shows where my brain has been with this whole naming thing).

Eclecticity.

Yeah, that's right. Complete with a tagline similar to selected music+verse, conscientiously high-voltage.

It makes me seriously happy, so I think this may be the one.

I'm very excited to share fun.'s album on the show. Currently listening to "I Wanna Be the One" which seems appropriate considering my quest for a name.
A name is a name and is changeable (a good thing in this case).

I'm still undecided w/r/t renaming this blog; such decisions can be made at a later time.
It feels good (a relief, really) to have this figured out.

Name-calling

I'm having problems with name-calling.
*dun dun DUN*

Namely (haha), what to call my show. Owls on the Answering Machine makes for a wonderful blog name, but I don't know if it will be as effective for a radio show.
I have a massive .txt file in the works with some half-baked ideas (and plain atrocity committed against the English language) but none that have cried out to me "Yes. YES! Take me. I am the One."

In any case, I could always use simply "The Show" as a last resort. It would highly amuse me and lower everyone else's expectations so spectacularly that there would be nothing to worry about.
Hee.

VD12- Final

900 sometime yesterday, FINISHED today sometime before 4 pm.
I've heard it's not unusual to be reeling, staggering after you finish. I flipped the book to the beginning and re-read the "Year of Glad" sections...there's something sinister/mysterious going on. Man. It's so weird to go back to the beginning with "all I know now."

Anyway. Vocab...which feels almost pointless to do now that it's all over.
My infinite summer ended a week before my actual summer.

blesser: Fr. to hurt, offend (www.french.about.com)

topology: Topology (Greek Τοπολογία, from τόπος, “place”, and λόγος, “study”) is a major area of mathematics that has emerged through the development of concepts from geometry and set theory, such as those of space, dimension, shape, transformation and others. (wiki)

phocomelic: the congenital absence or abnormal shortening of arms or legs, often with only short, flipperlike limbs projecting from the body (yourdictionary.com)

achondroplastic: achondroplasia - an inherited skeletal disorder beginning before birth; cartilage is converted to bone resulting in dwarfism (Princeton Word Net)

Zog: i.e., ZOG, for Zionist Occupation Government, the acronym coined by American neo-Nazi Eric Thomson (wallacewiki)

The Turner Diaries: Written by William Luther Pierce III (1933-2002), this is a neo-Nazi novel once called the "blueprint" for the Oklahoma City bombing. (wallacewiki)

sinsemilla: cultivated high potency marijuana (wallacewiki)

strabysmic: strabismus - abnormal alignment of one or both eyes (PWN)

prophylaxis: the prevention of disease (PWN)

hemoptypsis: coughing up blood from the respiratory tract; usually indicates a severe infection of the bronchi or lungs (PWN)

pertussive: pertussis- whooping cough: a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane (PWN)

ghost word: A ghost word is a word that has been published in a dictionary, or has been adopted as genuine, as the result of misinterpretation or a typographical error. (wiki)

shillelagh: a cudgel made of hardwood (usually oak or blackthorn) (PWN)

fillip: A flick; the act of releasing the index finger from the hold of a thumb with a snap; Something that excites or stimulates (wiki)

ICBM: intercontinental ballistic missile: a ballistic missile that is capable of traveling from one continent to another (PWN)

imprimatur: An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies; Any mark of official approval (wiki_=)

catadioptric: A catadioptric optical system is one where lenses and curved mirrors are used to form the Image-forming optical system. Catadioptric systems are commonly used in telescopes and in lightweight, long focal length lenses for cameras, where the term mirror lens is often used for them. (wiki)

sinciput: the front part of the head or skull (including the forehead) (PWN)

étagère: a piece of furniture with open shelves for displaying small ornaments (PWN)

delfts: a style of glazed earthenware; usually white with blue decoration (PWN)

kyphotic: crookback/hunchback- characteristic of or suffering from kyphosis, an abnormality of the vertebral column (PWN)

gerontologic: gerontology- the comprehensive study of aging and the problems of the aged (www.merriam-webster.com)

koans: koan - a paradoxical anecdote or a riddle that has no solution; used in Zen Buddhism to show the inadequacy of logical reasoning (PWN)

antigens: any substance (as a toxin or enzyme) that stimulates an immune response in the body (especially the production of antibodies) (PWN)

piaffer: A dressage movement in which a horse trots in a stationary position while using high lifting of the legs (wiki)

Fourier Transforms: In mathematics, the Fourier transform (often abbreviated FT) is an operation that transforms one complex-valued function of a real variable into another. In such applications as signal processing, the domain of the original function is typically time and is accordingly called the time domain. That of the new function is frequency, and so the Fourier transform is often called the frequency domain representation of the original function. It describes which frequencies are present in the original function. (wiki)

mufti: civilian dress worn by a person who is entitled to wear a military uniform (PWN)

and finally

fuliginous: Pertaining to soot; sooty; dusky, gloomy (wiki)

VD11

Passed the 100-pages-left (!!!) mark about 6 pages ago. Feeling almost scared to go on; feeling unnerved by Hal's narration and experiencing the disconnect between himself and others.
And was struck with the thought that maybe the novel is annular as well...that as soon as you finish you begin again in a sort of ellipse.
I'll be curious to see if that is true.

quoins:

• quoin - expandable metal or wooden wedge used by printers to lock up a form within a chase
• quoin - the keystone of an arch
• quoin - corner: (architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone (Princeton Word Net)

inguinal: of or relating to or near the groin (PWN)

sudoriferous: sweaty or sweating, bearing sweat (wiki)

civety: Civets are small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammals native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. Civet may also refer to the distinctive musk produced by the animal. (wiki)

cytological: cytology - the branch of biology that studies the structure and function of cells (PWN)

brody: Intentionally spinning in circles and sliding in an automobile (wiki)

senescence:

• aging: the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age
• agedness: the property characteristic of old age (PWN)

quanta: You can read all about them here.

strigil: a grooming tool used to scrape away dead skin, oil, dirt, etc (wiki)

hulpil: A huipil (from the Nahuatl uipilli, meaning "blouse"`- "dress") is a form of Maya textile and tunic or blouse worn by indigenous Mayan, Zapotec, and other women in central to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras, in the northern part of Central America. (wiki)

amphetaminic: relating to amphetamine- a central nervous system stimulant that increases energy and decreases appetite; used to treat narcolepsy and some forms of depression (PWN)

intubated: intubation- The introduction of a tube into an organ to keep it open, as into the larynx in croup (wiki)

huarache: sandal, pictured below


pleurisy: inflamed membranes around the lungs. (thank you children's center.org)

dextral: Of or pertaining to the right side (wiki)

Liebestod: An aria or duet performed in opera marking the suicide of lovers; a suicide (wiki)
or Liebestod (German, "Love's Death") is the title of a song from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. It is the final, dramatic song of the opera, as Isolde mourns over the body of Tristan. It opens with the famous lines "Mild und leise" ("fair and gentle"). (wiki also)

guilloche: an architectural decoration formed by two intersecting wavy bands (PWN)

internecine: Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare; Characterized by struggle within a group, usually applied to an ethnic or familial relationship (wiki)

cachinated: cachinnation-- loud convulsive laughter (PWN)

bupkus: bupkis, Yiddish-- absolutely nothing; nothing of value, significance, or substance (wiki)

terrazzo: Terrazzo is a faux-marble flooring or countertopping material (wiki)

ommatophoric: having eyes at the ends of stalks (wallacewiki)

synovial inflammation: inflammation of or pertaining to the fluid that lubricates the joints (wallacewiki)

somnolent: drowsy (wallacewiki)

Banfis: a sort of fancy shoe company. Google image "Banfis shoes" for an idea.

I am in love

with Infinite Summer.

I was browsing the forums and found there is a t-shirt in the works for the Infsumerians. (make sure to press the SPOILER! tag in matthewbalwin's post to see the proposed designs).
The second design has gotten the most "I'd totally buy that" votes. Awesome.


Reading IJ has allowed me to completely embrace my inner literature-fiend but reading it in conjunction with InfSum lets me do so with the license of hundreds, say thousands of other bibliophiles simultaneously embracing inner fiendish literature senses.

Community is such a good thing.

Closing in.

800.
Just freaking broke 800 pages.
I feel like this book is an avalanche that got triggered sometime in the 600's and I can't stop it or else I'll wonder forever what happened.

Even Neil Gaiman (Mr. Gaiman!) can't distract me.
Neverwhere has no hold on me in comparison to IJ; I've fallen through the cracks of this pseudo-Boston world and now I'm following Gately, I'm following Hal, I'm following Pemulis and Erdedy and Kate Gompert and yes even Orin and of course Mario and Joelle and the memories of J.O. Incandenza that come up but me, I'm the ghost, I'm just the reader.

On the 4th of August, I was in the 580's and hit 600 later that day.
On the 8th, I was just passing 700.
Today, the 12th, I hit 800.
That's an average of 100 pages every four days.

When InfSum just wants you do get 75 pages a week. Good gravy, I'm going to hit 900 by the 16th (Sunday) if this keeps up and finish before the 20th.
Meaning I finish before school, shy 5 days.

Score.

VD10(!)

When you read until you can't read no more, it's time for a more soothing, mechanical activity.
Like defining.

veronica: a bullfighting maneuver where the matador swings his cape away from the charging bull (wallacewiki)

sartorially: Relating to good clothing or skilled tailoring (wiki)

coffre d'amas: Fr. waste basket (wallacewiki)

Donc: d'accord, Fr. okay (wallacewiki)

frappe: Fr. punch or kick (wallacewiki)

Leur Rai Pays:

Bof: an interjection in French expressing lack of interest (wallacewiki)

de coeur: Fr. of the heard (wallacewiki)

sybaritically: in the manner of one who engages in sensual pleasure (wallacewiki)

mordant: black: harshly ironic or sinister; "black humor"; "a grim joke"; "grim laughter"; "fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit" (Princeton Word Net)

oeuvre: A work of art; The complete body of an artist's work (wiki)

katexia: Wallace wiki has something to say on a definition that is NOT meant here.

restenotic: refers to restenosis, or the re-narrowing of blood vessels after initial stenosis (stenosis: The abnormal narrowing of a bodily passage or opening, such as a blood vessel.)
(thank you rianvision.com)

chanteur fou: Fr. crazy singer (wallacewiki)

protrusive: thrusting outward (PWN)

gonions: the craniometric point on either side at the apex of the lower jaw (PWN)

armamentarium: the collection of equipment and methods used in the practice of medicine (PWN)

brachiatishly: something to do with brachia? or brachiate (To move around in trees by arm-swinging from branch to branch) (ADW)

lalating: ?

heuristic:

• a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem
• of or relating to or using a general formulation that serves to guide investigation (PWN)

parturient: of or relating to or giving birth; "parturient pangs"; "the parturient uterus" (PWN)

thanatoptic: thanatopsis: a meditation upon death (answers.com)

olla podrida: A stew of highly seasoned meat and vegetables; A mixture; a hodge-podge (wiki)

All the pretty girls on a Saturday night

Currently streaming the debut album of fun. "Aim and Ignite" over myspace. I never did use myspace when it was super popular, but it seems to have evolved into some kind of music-dissemination+networking tool.

I was really sad to hear that THE FORMAT broke up; I did hours and hours of math homework singing aloud with Nate and Co. (I think his name was Ruess or some such). Nate's found a different Co. (including a full orchestra) and a different sound (which, thanks to the orchestra, is lushly thick and delicious) but he's still singing about love and belting out his clever word games.

The link for listening is here: fun.
So far, "Benson Hedges" and "I Wanna Be the One" are catching my ears. I probably should list all the tracks I've listened to so far; so far this album is golden.

Pick up THE FORMAT's albums "Dog Problems" and "Interventions and Lullabies" for some background information and general awesomeness.

OAM: Or maybe not.

I will be a DJ for my college (Covenant College, The Scots, liberal arts, Presbyterian of America, atop Lookout Mtn, GA) radio station (streaming, http://wklt.covenant.edu, The Kilt) for my "practical service."

How I lucked out in terms of getting a creative and non-grunt-work (hopefully) job for my final year of PS remains somewhat of a mystery to me.
It helps when you have a sig.other who 1) already does work with the Kilt; 2) encourages the spread of good music and ideas strongly; 3) and can give the insider's perspective on how the organization works.

Sadly, the Kilt doesn't attract many listeners simply because it's the age of ipods, Pandora, and various other forms of audio dissemination. The so-called silver lining of this fact being the relative security it provides a new DJ who doesn't quite know what she's doing to start out.
I've been encouraged to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" not only to hear the "best voice out there" (Garrison Keillor) but to hear some slam-bang awesome radio.

I confess that I have not listened faithfully to the radio since high school. My parents repossessed my cd player/radio sometime after my senior year. I had shipped out to Covenant (more specifically driven hours and hours to said institution) and its silvery surface was dusty and its speakers unused. Soon it was blasting Dvorak symphonies at strange hours of the day due to its automatic timer that no one appeared to know how to disable.

Before the repossession of a once-Christmas present, I listened to the radio quite faithfully. I listened to cds as well, though I'd listened to cds and tapes almost exclusively before middle school. The reasons for this exclusivity being 1) my radio before the elegant silver Panasonic had been an old black Sony boombox with a 2-tape deck/cd player. The radio had a dial selecter complete with tab to scoot back and forth, but the antenna was broken so radio listening was useless anyway. 2) I lived in Germany when I first started using the player for my own listening -- Adventures in Odyssey tapes and classical music from the parental collection-- and we'd dropped a transformer on the player. It broke cd player's door so that henceforth we had to keep something relatively weighty on the door to keep it shut and the music playing. My parents eventually took pity on our (my sister and I; we shared a room) ingenuity in the face of faulty technology or were at least embarrassed enough by it to buy a new sleek Panasonic (with digital radio, on-top tape deck, motorized cd-tray, programming options, AND remote control). The world of radio, hassle-free cd listening, and (later) taping the radio was now open to me.

I was highly familiar with the Christian and classical radio stations thanks to Mom-as-chauffer-and-music-selector. For a time, my curiosity about the less-holy airwaves was limited. From what information I'd gathered, there was only audible "garbage" being strewn about "out there" and it would infect my young mind. Also, thanks to my antenna-less radio and nigh-unshakable belief that my mother wouldn't change the station in the car (and therefore wasn't worth requesting) there was little opportunity for experimentation.

Middle school duly arrived and as is common with middle school, new experiences and the beginning of the excavation of my musical-tunnel-vision.

My first venture into the secular world of radio had been to a top hits station and was pre-Panasonic, oddly. I had a handheld radio; one of those freebies they give at walk-athons or other such events at private Christian schools. Feeling adventurous and even rebellious, I moved it to a (gasp) non-Christian station and furtively listened to the second half of Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." As Sheryl twanged her song that I would later hear many times in the orthodontist's chair, I felt slightly discomfited and simultaneously daring to have moved past the parent-sanctioned airwaves to more popular fare.
It was an experiement.
I had not planned to begin listening to popular "godless" music (meaning that the songs rarely mentioned God and if they did, in a questionable light). I did not set out to learn how to tolerate commercials by creative station-hopping. I did not know I would later avoid morning-talk shows because I preferred music to celebrity gossip or that I'd fall in love 80's music or sing along to 90's singer-songwriters over my algebra homework.
I did not know the next song would insure that all these would come to pass.

The mellow, casading piano chords of Train's "Drops of Jupiter" came small through the unit's earbuds, even a little staticky since cheapie handhelds aren't known for great reception. I shifted, leaning on the bookshelf in my bedroom, and the song came in more clearly. I had been impressed by the rich, full piano intro; I'd been taking lessons since grade two and always admired the skilled. Pat came in with the vocals; I listened closely for evil, negativity, dirty words. Listened for the entirety of the song and found Nothing of the sort.
Nothing but a song about a man singing to the woman he loves who'd been gone "lookin' for [her]self" among the celestial bodies, asking if she missed him while she was "out there."
The way he sings and plays, I daresay she did.

When people ask me about my favorite song, I tell them "Drops of Jupiter." While it is very easy for me to fall in love with a song if it has the right combination of magic elements, DoJ's magic was mindscape-scattering; it taught me there was music "out there" that was okay to love, that it was okay to keep turning on the radio, to keep challenging my perceptions about what made music "good."

That all being said, I am excited to be a DJ this fall and to share "good" music--overtly Christian, closet-Christian (the band-made-up-of-Christians phenomenon versus a Christian band), and secular. I cannot write succinctly in this post what my views are on what makes good music, but hopefully my show (whether it will be called 'Owls on the Answering Machine' or not; still can't decide if that's too out there for Cov) will present a working definition every hour, every week.

VD9

Just passed page 700. YES.
I'm now fairly certain I will finish before I return to school.

prima facie: a Latin term meaning “at first sight”; used to describe a fact that is presumed to be true unless disproved by contrary evidence (thank you www.manitobacourts.mb.ca/definitions.html )

Bröckengespenstphänom: "German: Boulder-ghost-phenomenon, as best I can tell; the umlauts are incorrect" (wallacewiki; I remember reading something about this before but can't recall what it was.)

transmural infarction: heart attack (wallacewiki)

plura: a misspelling (likely) of "pleura," which is a thin membrane enclosing the lungs (wallacewiki)

jape: a joke; to jest; to play tricks; to jeer; to mock; to trick (wiki)

anaclitic: denoting a person whose choice of love-interest arises from the dependence of the libido on another instinct (e.g. hunger); pertaining to an acute emotional dependence on another person or persons (wiki)

monilial: apparently related to yeast infections. (amalgamated from google results)

furcated: forked or branched (wiki)

perspicuous: limpid: (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable (Princeton Word Net)

punitive: inflicting punishment (PWN)

vermiform: looking like a worm (wallacewiki)

pule: a plaintive whine (wiki)

pariah: outcast; a person who is rejected (from society or home) (PWN)

deuteragonist: in literature, the second most important character after the protagonist (wiki)

epicene:

• bisexual: having an ambiguous sexual identity
• hermaphrodite: one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made
• effeminate: having unsuitable feminine qualities (PWN)

emetics: emetic - a medicine that induces nausea and vomiting (PWN)

hanuman-faced: hanuman - a monkey held sacred in India (wallace wiki); therefore, monkey-faced

cognoscenti: people having superior knowledge (wallacewiki)

novenas: A recitation of prayers and devotions for nine consecutive days, especially one to a saint to ask for their intercession (wiki)

verger: a church officer who takes care of the interior of the building and acts as an attendant (carries the verge) during ceremonies (PWN)

lapsarian: A person who believes in this doctrine; Of or pertaining to the fall of man from innocence, especially to the role of women in that fall (wiki)

CONTRARIA SUNT COMPLETMENTA: "Opposites are complementary" (http://blog.kyleoliver.net/2007/12/bohr-identity.html)

OAM: Show idea

Here's one: a show featuring songs that (artist or title or album name) contain some reference to owls. I have a 100+ minute playlist of songs that I need to cull.

So far, these are the bands/songs that make the list:
Dead Kennedys-- "I Am the Owl"
Breathe Owl Breathe -- "Drop and Roll"
something by Owl City (think Ben Gibbard but pop-fantastic+ecstatic to be alive)
one of the songs by The Owls
AND OF COURSE---> Electric Owl-- "Magic Show" (I am in love with this song. Sometime I should make a list called "Songs I Fell in Love with this Summer").

VD8

Somewhere solidly in the 600s. Oh yes, with 19 days left until I go back to school.

eubliette: a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling (Princeton Word Net)

adtorsion: a turning inward of both eyes. (thank you medical-dictionary.com)

ailanthus: any of several deciduous Asian trees of the genus Ailanthus (PWN)

collops: rolls of fat (wallacewiki.com)

nostrums: nostrum - A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects (wiki)

coprolaliac: coprolalia- the obsessive use of scatological language. (dictionary.com)

phylogenic: Based on evolutionary development. (thank you www.releasechimps.com-- yes, that's the name of the site)

verdigrised: Coated with a deposit of copper, usually greenish or bluish in color. (wiki)

coruscant: aglitter(p): having brief brilliant points or flashes of light; "bugle beads all aglitter"; "glinting eyes" (PWN; and yes, three/four definitions on the googledefine concerned the glittery planet of Star Wars origin)

carminative: medication that prevents the formation of gas in the alimentary tract or eases its passing (PWN)

buttinski: buttinsky-- one who butts in, interrupts, where he or she is not welcome (wiki)

R.H.I.P: "rank has its privileges"

saltire: St. Andrew's cross: a cross resembling the letter x, with diagonal bars of equal length (PWN)

tektitic: tektite-- Any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth's surface. (dictionary.com)

colposcope: a form of endoscope used to examine the tissues of the vagina and cervix (wiki)

olla: a pot for making stew, or stew itself (wallacewiki)

tsimmes: a fruit and vegetable casserole (wallacewiki)

VD7

I feel sorry for whatever person is reading this blog and happens to wade through my vocabdump posts instead of just skipping them.
Currently in the 580's or 9o's of the novel...it remains astounding to me that I'm over halfway through. While reading IJ it really does feel infinite and the idea of it ending seems foolish.

Anyway.

escutcheon:

• finger plate: a flat protective covering (on a door or wall etc) to prevent soiling by dirty fingers
• (nautical) a plate on a ship's stern on which the name is inscribed
• a shield; especially one displaying a coat of arms (Princeton Word Net)

cyanosis: a bluish discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes; a sign that oxygen in the blood is dangerously diminished (as in carbon monoxide poisoning) (PWN)

sinistral:

• of or on the left; "a sinistral gastropod shell with the apex upward has its opening on the left when facing the observer"; "a sinistral flatfish ...
• preferring to use left foot or hand or eye; "sinistral individuals exhibit dominance of the left hand and eye" (PWN)

Q.v. : quod vide used in books, etc, to make reference to other material (wiki)

raison-d'être:

• reason for being
• the purpose that justifies a thing's existence

ital: italic type (wallacewiki)

brisance: a measure of the rapidity with which an explosive develops its maximum pressure. (wiki)

reseau:

• a net or mesh foundation for lace
• a network of fine lines used by astronomers as a reference for measurements on star photographs (PWN)

diverticulitis: inflammation of a diverticulum in the digestive tract (especially the colon); characterized by painful abdominal cramping and fever and constipation (PWN)

ambit: The sphere or area of control and influence of something; A circuit, or a boundary around a property; A span of actions, thoughts, or words (wiki)

cathexis: the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea (PWN)

threnody: dirge: a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person (PWN)

traversion: apparently to Schtitt-- character is traversion.

anomic: class-alienating

Show and tell

Apologies for the unartistic photography of my carpet+lampstand.

• Pictured L to R, clockwise: Receipt from buying IJ on Amazon.com w/ white space now taken up by the contents of very helpful page 223;
• Copy of IJ (used, excellent condish, two bookmarks);
• Merriam-Webster dictionary that has been used/abused since the fifth grade, first page is now the abbrev. page;
• 2 library slips on which I write words I don't know or don't think will be in the M-WD (the yellow one was the holds slip from the first library copy of IJ I'd started but had to abandon in the move on page 196 and is written on both sides, white one is from the current library and can only be written on one side)
• LOTR/Frodo themed journal I've had kicking around since middle school that was specifically dedicated to recording sporadic thoughts, funny quotations, persevering self-encouragement about IJ
• I think there's also a black Bic pen somewhere between the novel and the journal on the cream carpet.

I'd hoped to have some kind of deep thoughts recorded about IJ that I'd look back at later and feel smart or at least surprised that I knew where the novel was going. Even in such a non-linear novel I can't shake my normal linear reader-predicter routine. Most of my entries have consisted of some form of "Jumping into IJ again. Here we go!" and then page numbers with quotations and "haha" or "Yay Mario!" scrawled next to it. I make a point of writing down at least an allusion+pg# for every section that makes me laugh aloud. I cackled today at Lenz being chased by the flaming cat. I actually felt rather guilty for thinking it was so funny, but when DFW puts it like in such academic/frank terms "...on which the alight cat ran (as alight cats will, like hell)" I can't help myself, animal cruelty or no. For all the sadness and down-right sickening elements the novel contains, it's important to hold onto the bright spots (of which there are many, so the danger is limited to how bogged down you let yourself become. )
It might be good to have written out all my theories on how things work in the IJ universe, but it would take too much time away from actually getting through the novel. The folks at I-S recommended to either dig deep or stay near the surface of the novel--I'm doing my fighting best to stay snorkeling since I'm sure I lack the lung capacity for the kind of deep depth to which I'd want to swim.

Now the race is to finish before school starts. Counting today, I have 23 days until school begins. If IJ gets as exciting as they say after page 600 (the rumors whisper like pages of banned books in the library storeroom), it should be no problem.

One of my friends (my boyfriend, actually, in complete disclosure) is trying to catch up to me in pg#'s since I'd leapt ahead in my non-working, non-busy summer. I daresay he'll catch me sometime this week, which I welcome since we'll be able to discuss "current events" rather than my constant fear of committing spoilerage or simply saying "Oh yeah, I remember that."

Here's to you, IJ. May we never never ever give up.

YES.

I've just passed page 500.
Not quite the halfway point...but counting the endnotes (now into the 200's) perhaps I am almost halfway through. 17 + 34 = 51 pages of endnotes, so YES. I am halfway through now.
That took about a month and a half with a week taken out for vacation (from IJ).

Huh. So at this rate I'll perhaps finish the second week in September.
I either need to speed up or just be ready to read it at school and finish with everyone else at I-S.

Whew.

VD6

mysticetously: in the manner of a baleen whale (wallacewiki)

crèche-type : Nativity scene, a group of figures arranged to represent the birth of Jesus Christ (wiki)

propinquous: nearness or proximity, similarity or affiliation (wiki)

finial: an ornament at the top of a spire or gable; usually a foliated fleur-de-lis (Princeton Word Net)

stelliform: shaped like a star (wiki)

cerise-gloved: gloves that are red like the color of ripe cherries (PWN)

teratoid: An abnormal tumor similar to a teratoma; A mutant; Monster-like, exhibiting abnormal development (wiki)

patina: (in this context) a sheen on wooden furniture (wiki)

culcate: Page 488, 10 lines from bottom: culcate, doesn’t appear to be a real word, but inculcate means to impress upon somebody’s mind; to fix something in somebody’s mind through frequent and forceful repetition. The latin root, inculcare, means literally “to stamp in”, from its root calcare, meaning “to step on or press in”. In this sense, culcate might mean to impress upon somebody’s mind but without the frequent and forceful repetition. (View from the Cage, another Blogspot blog)

inguinal canal: The inguinal canal is a passage in the anterior (toward the front of the body) abdominal wall which in men conveys the spermatic cord and in women the round ligament. The inguinal canal is larger and more prominent in men. (wiki; creepers that broomstick was shoved all the way down there?!)

palisade: A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure. (wiki)

metastisate: sic- metastasize: the spreading of a disease (especially cancer) to another part of the body (PWN)

dihedral triangle: A right triangle is one whose largest angle is 90º. Dihedral means "having two sides." (thank you wallacewiki)

ebullient: joyously unrestrained (PWN)

Powell's "Peeping Tom": Michael Latham Powell (1905-1990) was a British filmmaker, and Peeping Tom was one of his films. (wallace wiki)

anechoic: not having or producing echoes; sound-absorbent; "an anechoic chamber" (PWN)

catalepsy: a trancelike state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli (PWN)

anhedonia: an inability to experience pleasure (PWN)

styptic: contracting tissue (wallacewiki)

samizdat: a system of clandestine printing and distribution of dissident or banned literature (PWN)

jongleur: French wandering minstrels (which included musicians, acrobats, jugglers, and clowns), usually from the lower class (www.renaissancemagazine.com)

pantalone: is a stock character that is classified as one of the vecchi (old men) in Commedia dell'arte. He is a miserly and often libidinous character who is portrayed as a Venetian and often speaks in the Venetian dialect. (wiki)

VD5

I haven't read IJ since...last Tuesday, but I MUST do a vocab recap before I go any further.


Uberad: Like a "super" ad. (wallacewiki.com)

The Sherman Act: The Sherman Antitrust Act (Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch. 647, , ) was the first United States Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies. (wikipedia)

declivity: descent- a downward slope or bend (Princeton Word Net)

mafficking: Noisy rejoicings of a multitude (wiki. and AWESOME)

cuirass: medieval body armor that covers the chest and back (PWN)

vig: A commission taken for certain bets by the house. (crapspit.org)

Kafka-esque rules: (interesting enough that I'll copy the whole thing. Wiki)

"Kafkaesque" is an eponym used to describe concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of Prague writer Franz Kafka, particularly his novels The Trial and The Castle, and the novella The Metamorphosis.

The term, which is quite fluid in definition, has also been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies"^[1] and "marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence" — The New Yorker.^[2]

It can also describe an intentional distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats. "Lack of evidence is treated as a pesky inconvenience, to be circumvented by such Kafkaesque means as depositing unproven allegations into sealed files ..." Another definition would be an existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigatable control.

The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish type of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and the possibility of escape. The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

cordite: A smokeless propellent made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine used in some firearm ammunition (wiki)

yutz: Yutz is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in northeastern France. (wiki)

OR from the Yiddish, it means ditz, clutz, dumkoft, ninny, nincompoop, socially incompetant boob, twit, dumbass. (urbandictionary.com)

orts: the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. (wiki)

acromegalic: marked or affected by enlargement or hypertrophy of the extremities or the face; "a protruding acromegalic jaw" (PWN)

tract house: Tract housing (also known as cookie-cutter housing) is a style of housing development in which multiple identical or nearly-identical homes are built to create a community. (wiki)

genuflecting: genuflect - bend the knees and bow in church or before a religious superior or image (PWN)

revenant:

• a person who returns after a lengthy absence
• of or relating to or typical of a revenant; "revenant shrieks and groans"
• someone who has returned from the dead
• recurring: coming back; "a revenant ghost" (PWN; how many times have I had to look this up?)
• Hal, according to Schtitt.

picric: Designating a type of bitter yellow acid (wiki; and you thought it was "picnic" misspelled.)

Gaugin-motif:
Here is a painting by Gaugin called "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (wiki commons)


morendo: musical term- fading away in tone or tempo (wiki)

misprision: neglect or wrongful execution of official duties; misinterpretation or misunderstanding (wiki)

spic: Spic is an ethnic slur used in English speaking countries for a person of Hispanic descent. (wiki; I love that I have to look up ethnic slurs. Egad.)


Finished for now.
Gonna dive in even though I can't even dive in real water.

An affinity, a sadness.

According to the Handy-Dandy Infinite Summer Reading Schedule and Bookmark In One, I've made it to August.
It's getting to the point where the weeks in pages are flying by and I can't help it.
I have to keep reading. I can't wait around for all the discussion and recapping. I have to know what happens to Hal and to Mario and to Pemulis and Don W. Gately and to Joelle Van Dyne and hear more about J. O. Incandenza (is it any coincidence that his initials spell out JOI? Joy...Jest? anyone? )

It appalls me how much I am enjoying this novel. Laughing is understandable--Infinite Jest is a satire, after all. But aside from all the humor, there is so much pain and dysfunction (relationships, bodies, Substances, ambition gone awry, suicide, abuse, etc etc etc) in the novel I'm surprised I haven't broken down crying yet.

A fellow colleague commented (obliquely) on how he's jealous of my emotional connection to the novel.
I find myself doing things like making literal thumbs-ups at characters (today at D. W. Gately on him "now go[ing] to Any Lengths to stay clean") or wincing in pain (at Detox stories) or just wanting to give some of these characters hugs (Mario, of course) and of course, laughing aloud REAL laughs at some of the ridiculous comparisons or roundabout references (the 'Help' lady from the Alzheimer's center at Ennet Marine was heard at the dawn drills at ETA).

DFW, somehow, has taken all these characters from somewhere inside of his brain and captured them in a web of connections, albeit in a fascinatingly fragmented fashion.
But what's most fascinating to me is that he's made me Love Them.
I'm drawn day after day to the bright blue cover with green letters because of the people inside who aren't actually existent but who are nevertheless compelling Alive, though only on paperback-weight leaves of an off-white mass-produced beige.

Many of the commentators on IJ at Infsum have said that by reading DFW's novel again (or for the first time, or all the way through for the first time, etc) they are again slapped in the face with the loss the literary world has suffered since DFW passed away.
The blog entry from one of his colleagues was especially touching to me. She emphasized the importance of not trying to understand Wallace and his decision to "eliminate his personal map" (as he'd put it IJ would put it) through his fiction... not looking for it to explain anything.
Separating 'Wallace' from 'Dave' was how she put it.

I've never read DFW before but I too am finding that I am sadder and sadder as I read IJ because the astounding mind that crafted this novel is no more. There's still plenty more of his that I haven't read, but that's hardly a consolation in comparison with a vibrant intellectual life.

Anyway, more Marathe/Steeply tomorrow.

Vocab dump FOUR

Eventually I will have other posts that don't appear to be dalliances with Google define.
I should move up to a fling with the OED.

confluential: confluence - a place where things merge or flow together (especially rivers); "Pittsburgh is located at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers" (Princeton Word Net)

apr'es-garde: "after guard"--- DFW-derived, referring to J.O. Incandenza's filmic category. (Google shenanigans)

atavism: (how many times have I defined this?) a reappearance of an earlier characteristic (PWN)

abstruse: difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge (PWN)

chyme: a semiliquid mass of partially digested food that passes from the stomach through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum (PWN)

William Blake: visionary British poet and painter (1757-1827) (PWN) (apparently Patti Smith likes him too.)

sucrotically: something to do with sugar?

hats:

1. toque:

2. aigrette: I believe it is the feathery part that is in fact the aigrette.


3. sallet:



4. calpac:



5. harquebus

Apparently is also spelled arquebus: an obsolete firearm with a long barrel (PWN)
Couldn't find an image of a hat by this name.

6. calotte:



7. shako (I have a note that says "bearskin" next to it):




amanuentic: amanuensis- One employed to take dictation, or copy manuscripts; A clerk, secretary or stenographer, or scribe (wiki)

agnation: patrilineage: line of descent traced through the paternal side of the family (PWN)

jingoist: One who is overly patriotic or nationalistic (wiki)

muftipants: motorcyclewear?


jejune:

• insubstantial: lacking in nutritive value; "the jejune diets of the very poor"
• adolescent: displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; "adolescent insecurity"; "jejune responses to our problems"; "their behavior was juvenile"; "puerile jokes"
• insipid: lacking interest or significance or impact; "an insipid personality"; "jejune novel" (PWN)

fulgurant: dazzling: amazingly impressive; suggestive of the flashing of lightning; (PWN)

glabrous: having no hair or similar growth; smooth; "glabrous stems"; "glabrous leaves"; "a glabrous scalp" (PWN)

hagiography: a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint) (PWN)

turpitude: Inherent baseness or depravity; corruptness and evilness; An act evident of such a depravity (wiki)

sigmoid:

• curved in two directions (like the letter S)
• of or relating to the sigmoid flexure in the large intestine (PWN)

panatela: a long slender cigar (PWN)

Merry Widow : A strapless corset with long garters and half cups for the breasts (wiki)

dirndls: a type of traditional dress worn in southern Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria, based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants. Dresses that are loosely based on the dirndl are known as Landhausmode. (wiki)

infarction: localized necrosis resulting from obstruction of the blood supply

aspersion: a) an unfavorable or damaging remark; slander b) the act of defaming or slandering 2. a sprinkling, as with water or dust, in a literal sense 3. [rare] a sprinkling with holy water, as at a baptism (thank you http://www.gdiproductions.net/srdamd/)

saprogenic: causing or resulting from putrefaction

faute-de-mieux: For want of something better; for lack of an alternative. OR A loose, practical or formal method of proof. (wiki)

Tyrolean-hats: county of Tyrol in the Austrian Alps (wiki)



bien sur: French for "well" (google)

brinkmanship: Pursuit of an advantage by appearing to be willing to risk a dangerous policy rather than concede a point (wiki)

imbroglio:

• an intricate and confusing interpersonal or political situation
• a very embarrassing misunderstanding (PWN)

pique:

• tightly woven fabric with raised cords
• cause to feel resentment or indignation; "Her tactless remark offended me"
• a sudden outburst of anger; "his temper sparked like damp firewood" (PWN)

catastatic: catastasis - In classical drama, the third and penultimate section, in which action is heightened for the catastrophe (wiki)

M.O. :

Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated forms M.O. or simply Method) is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "method of operating".^[1] The plural is modi operandi ("methods of operating"). The term is used in English to describe someone's habits or manner of working, the method of operating or functioning. It is often used in a criminal sense, to profile the methods employed by individuals during the execution of a crime, and may also be used in offender profiling,^[2] where it can also be used to find clues to the perpetrator's psychology.^[3] It largely consists of the methods used to execute the crime, prevent detection, and facilitate escape.^{[1] (wiki, of course)}

^{meme: French--}

1. same
2. actual
3. selfsame

Vocab dump 3

It's thundering and lightning-ing outside, but my library slip is now completely stuffed with words that need defining, if only for my own benefit.

thanatopic: thanatosis - The act of feigning death (wiki)

advertorial: an advertisement that is written and presented in the style of an editorial or journalistic report (Princeton Word Net, PWN...the irony of which I think just hit me)

microcephalic: having an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain; "a nanocephalic dwarf" (PWN)

finski: a five dollar bill (urbandictionary.com)

eminence grise: (French) a secret or unofficial decision-maker ; the power behind the throne (wiki)

Kertwang: A term used in the novel Infinite Jest roughly meaning to insult or mess with someone. It can be used as a noun, e.g. Bobby felt his third nipple was an existential kertwang. Or a verb, e.g. God enjoyed kertwanging Bobby by sending gusts of wind to blow up his shirt to reveal his third nipple. (thank you AllExperts.com)

solander: A box, in the form of a book, used for keeping botanical specimens etc (wiki)

imbricate: place so as to overlap; "imbricate the roof tiles" (PWN)

peritonitis: is an inflammation of the lining of the body cavity and the surface of organs within it. Ruptured ulcers lead to peritonitis when the gut wall is no longer intact. There is seepage from the gut into the body cavity and adhesions may form. (www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/pigs/4449.html)

nephritis: an inflammation of the kidney (PWN)

Balaclavan: A wool hood covering the head and neck, first worn by troops in the Crimean War. Balaclava (or Balaklava) was the focal point of the "Charge of the Light Brigade."
(thank you www.civilwarhome.com)

prognathous: having a projecting lower jaw (PWN)

enuresis: inability to control the flow of urine and involuntary urination (PWN)

onanism:

• masturbation: manual stimulation of the genital organs (of yourself or another) for sexual pleasure
• coitus interruptus: a method of birth control in which coitus is initiated but the penis is deliberately withdrawn before ejaculation
  (PWN; this brings whole new levels of irony to the organization O.N.A.N.)

coprophilia: a marked interest in excrement; especially the use of feces or filth for sexual excitement (wiki)
coprophagia: eating feces; in human a symptom of some kinds of insanity (PWN)

fremitic: fremitus - a sensation felt by a hand placed on a part of the body (as the chest) that vibrates during speech (thank you www.history.navy.mil/library/online/influenza_terms.htm)

magisculed: Majiscule- uppercase (www.reference.com)

cunctations: procrastination: the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or defering an action to a later time (PWN. ... That sounds so dirty.)

venulated: ?

aphasiac: someone who has: Partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease. (thefreedictionary.com)

schlep:

• schlepper: (Yiddish) an awkward and stupid person
• shlep: pull along heavily, like a heavy load against a resistance; (PWN)

The end. FOR NOW.

Moar vocab

This seems to help me remember the words better. And no one reads this (that I know of, sneaker mcsneakersons) so it'll only annoy me when it comes time to scroll.

proviso: a stipulated condition (Princeton WordNet, hereafter known as PWN)

breviary: RCC - a book of prayers to be recited daily certain priests and members of religious orders (PWN)

gynecopia: DFW-constructed. Use your imagination.

solecistic: solecism- a grammatical mistake or absurdity. (wiki)

lissome: flexible (Webster)

cui bono: "to whose benefit?" is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be. (wiki)

falcate: shaped like a sickle (wiki)

Anchluss: (German for "link-up"), also known as the '''''', was the 1938 incorporation of Austria into Greater Germany by Nazi Germany. (wiki. Don't know what's going on with those wild air-quotes)

blepharoprothesis: prothesis for the eyelid (South Plains College Biology)

corticate: sheathed in bark or in a cortex (wiki)

mucronate: having an abruptly tapering point (wiki)

hyperfloriate: floriate : made of or decorated with floral ornamentation. (dictionary.com)
Over flowered?

attenuate: reduce in strength (PWN)

a-clef : ? does the context have anything to do with music? I can't remember.

ablate:

• wear away through erosion or vaporization
• remove an organ or bodily structure (PWN)

redemised: Reconveyed, as an estate. (Webster's 1828 dictionary)

Gaudeamas Igitur : De Brevitate Vitae (on the Shortness of Life), more commonly known as the Gaudeamus, is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at University graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song dates back to 1287[1], and was already known by the time of the founding of the alma mater of all European universities, the University of Bologna. It is in the tradition of carpe diem (seize the day), with its exhortations to enjoy life. (thank you wiki)

frisson: an almost pleasurable sensation of fright; "a frisson of surprise shot through him"
(PWN, I must start using this word)

The lack of a book

is the same as lacking companionship.

I went without either today after my haircut. My transportation wouldn't be able to come for a little while (the parental unit and the sibling units were at the local UberCuts getting locks shorn for summer), so I sauntered up the sidewalk past Ruby Tuesday's until I reached Texas Roadhouse. Upon reaching TR I turned back to the first building.

"They might have cheesecake or something," I'd said to my mother on the phone.

A man was crouching in front of the door with an Exacto knife, moving the shiny gold new hour sticker (1 o'clock, which side of the meridian I'm not sure). Begging his pardon, I slipped into the dark interior to be confronted with a salad bar. No "please wait to be seated" or other friendly instructive rectangles. I peeked around the wall to the near empty dining area, looked over towards the bar. The bartender regarded me briefly, then ignored me.

A young woman with chin length, angled straight hair (very cute. Slender, short, dressed in black like the other waitresses) appeared in the empty expanse of the dining room.
"Have you been helped yet?"
"No." I shook my head.
"How many in your party?"
"Just me." With a smile, feeling sheepish, never having dined alone in a sit-down restaurant before. Also feeling vaguely pathetic.
Later Mom would say I could have said that I was waiting for someone but then that'd be even more pathetic because he (or she) would have never showed up.
No novel, no notebook, no texting (plan, anyway).

A bussing waitress (also cute, skinny, straight long hair, glasses) says loudly in my direction "We have five dollar margaritas...."
"Too bad I'm underage." With a smile, wondering if I were twenty-one how I would drive safely home from drinking alone.
"Really? When will you be twenty-one?"
"Next year. I'll be twenty at the end of this month. So I'm still waiting!" With a bit of wistful frustration, maybe even threw my hands up.
"Oh, it'll go fast. I remember twenty going by really fast. You're twenty and all of the sudden you're in a bar."
She finishes with the table she's at and goes to check the status of other customers. I'm in nonsmoking; there is one other occupied table--a couple at whom I didn't look too closely.

Dessert page. Blonde brownie with vanilla ice cream. (Blondie for One, a variant of the dessert is called and is what I order). More interactions with another waitress, tanned, very cute (of course), with light eyeshadow and long highlighted straight hair. All in black, everyone in black.
I'm wearing brown shoes with ribbon-bows and no makeup and my hair is crunchy from too much mousse and a brown shirt with buttons that are shiny.
Yet as I sit waiting for my water and my brownie/ice cream and pretending to text or to pass the time I feel strangely beautiful, like I am a mysterious young woman here by herself ordering a dessert. As if I sought out RT for the mere reason of confectionary delight instead of waiting out the ticking of second hands on the invisible wrist watch of the universe.

It comes. The plate is beautiful. White, square, crosshatchings of caramel, creamy scoop of creamy white vanilla ice cream diagonal from the triangular blond brownie. The whole display seems oddly geometric, much like the lampshades with their oblong squares and the hanging copper-colored plates on the far wall. The spoon has a small bowl and a long handle, the brownie is appropriately warm, nutty; its tango partner is sweet and cold but just soft enough to curl away under the spoon like the skin of a yielding orange.

Delicious. I pretend I'm alluring as I eat and to some extent believe my pretension, wishing I was in costume or at least in Audrey Hepburn wayfarers.
The long haired waitress swoops by.
"Is it good?"
"It's delicious." Emphasis, mouth half-full.

I wonder if I should have ordered two waters simply so I could pretend you were coming. I think about the difference between eating alone and eating with you and the difference in this outing if you'd been present. I toy with the idea of calling you, I don't (you're working. Probably). I play with the notion of texting you, I don't (Expensive. Don't have a plan).

Have I ever eaten a dessert this slow, I wonder.
Waste not, want not.
Not wasting, but I do want.

One second before the last bite, my pocket vibrates, I say I'll be right out.
In the plastic folder I leave a 5 dollar bill, generous tip and payment in one crisp Lincoln.

Out the door, out of silence, back to books and companionship (still no texting).

But for now, I'm still
without
you.

Periodic vocab dump

Just to make things more fun for me, here are words and definitions from unknown palabras from DFW's Infinite Jest.
Also, I don't know which page these begin on--I'm just starting from where I left off on my list.

subrosa: The Latin phrase sub rosa means "under the rose" and is used in English to denote secrecy or confidentiality, similar to the Chatham House Rule. (source: wikipedia)

selvage: the edge of a fabric that is woven so that it will not ravel or fray (Princeton Wordnet)

trumbrel: a farm dumpcart for carrying dung; carts of this type were used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution / instruments of social humiliation or censure (wikiPrincetonpedianet)

hack: Among other things, a kick on the arms. (PWN) I wish I could remember the context of the sentence in which I found this particular use of "hack."

asperity: harshness of manner (PWN)

afflatus: a strong creative impulse, "divine inspiration" (PWN)

labile: A susceptibility to change; instability (wiki)

annular: shaped like a ring (PWN)

bathetic: effusively or insincerely emotional (PWN) I must use this when insulting my enemies.

acclivated: possible misspelling of acclimated?

apotropaic: having the power to prevent evil or bad luck (PWN) I did make a note of the context for this one. "apotropaic barn signs"

micturation (sic)/ micturition: fancy word for urination (wiki)

lacuna: a blank gap or missing part, also an extended passage in a musical work in which no music is played (PWNwiki)

telemarchy: ? Telemachy? Homer, anyone? First four books of the Oddessey?

telemetry: automatic transmission and measurement of data from remote sources by wire or radio or other means (PWN)

ad hoc: often improvised or impromptu / for one specific case (PWN)

coccyges: pl. of coccyx, i.e. the human tailbone (wiki)

embolism: occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus (a loose clot or air bubble or other particle) (PWN)

revenant: a person who returns after a lengthy absence / someone having returned from the dead (PWN, no "spice of life," eh?)

transom: architectural-- a window over a door or other window or something having to do with the stern of a ship. Lots of definitions...google it for clarification.

reticulate: to form a net or network (PWN)

kibitz: make unwanted and intrusive comments (PWN)

nictitate[d]: to wink or blink (wiki)

egregulous: I think is a derivative of "egregious"

tremens: Delirium tremens (DT) is a potentially fatal form of ethanol (alcohol) withdrawal

mokus: apparently, "squirrel" in Hungarian. (google)

suppurating: producing pus (wiki)

nystagmic: nystagmus--rapid involuntary eye movement, usually lateral (wiki)

levantine: from the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean at large) (wiki)

lordotic: of or related to lordosis; having an abnormal backwards curvature of the spine (wiki)

"Tenabrae Factae Sunt" : Fifth of the nine responsories for Matins of Good Friday. (wiki)

anthracnose: Any of several fungal diseases that affect many plants and trees (wiki)

strabismic: strabismus - abnormal alignment of one or both eyes (WPN)

Actaeon: Dude stumbles upon Artemis bathing in the woods, amazed by her naked beauty, she is angry, tells him he'll turn into a stag if he speaks, he ends up speaking when he calls for his hunting party, his dogs turn upon him and tear him to bits. (wiki)

avuncular: being or relating to an uncle (PWN)

phylogenic: something having to do with the evolutionary history of an organism? (wiki)

ascapartic: Ascapart or Ascupart was an enormous giant, thirty feet high, who carried off sir Bevis, his wife Josian, his sword Morglay, and his steed Arundel, under his arm. Sir Bevis afterwards made Ascapart his slave, to run beside his horse. The effigy of sir Bevis is on the city gates of Southampton.—rayton: Polylbion, ii. (1612). (many thanks to kathy who commented on a blog post on The Ill Quill)

aegis: auspices (PWN)

neurasthenic: a person suffering a nervous breakdown (PWN)

Zuckung: twitch (German) (germanwikigoogletrans)

candent: incandescent (PWN)

eustacian: duh, like the tubes in your ears!

felo de se: Latin "felon of himself", suicide

detente: relaxing or easing (French) (wiki)

dentition: teething (WPN)

paucity: scarcity (wiki)

maunder:

• wander aimlessly
• mumble: talk indistinctly; usually in a low voice
• chatter: speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly (WPN)

That's all I have for now.
And more than enough for you the invisible reader, isn't it?