WORK

“Moon”

Then are you the dense everywhere that moves,
the dark matter they haven’t yet walked through?

(No, I’m not, I’m just the shining sun,
sometimes covered up by the darkness.)

But in your beauty—yes, I know you see—
There is no covering, no constant light.

—Annie Finch
—from Calendars

WORD(S)

zugzwang /TSOOKTS-vang/. noun. In chess (and in life), a position in which the player must make a move but cannot do so without putting herself at a disadvantage. Also, the unpleasant feeling of being in such a position. From German zug (move) and zwang (compulsion, obligation).

“…he reads of a position called Zugzwang, in which the player is unable to move any piece in any direction to any square without making his already imperilled state worse. This is what Arthur’s life feels like.” (Julian Barnes)

“Each life is a game of chess that went to hell on the seventh move, and now the flukey play is cramped and slow, a dream of constraint and cross-purpose, with each move forced, all pieces pinned and skewered and zugzwanged… But here and there we see these figures who appear to run on the true lines, and they are terrible examples. They’re rich, usually.” (Martin Amis)

“The Malaysia Airlines disaster seems to have put Putin in zugzwang.” (Alec Luhn)

WEB

1. Mithu Sen’s Border Unseen installation is an 82-foot long hanging sculpture made mostly of dental polymer and false teeth. A ribbony, cloudy, fence-like, vagina-dentata invoking thing that will haunt my dreams for a few nights. Right now on her site, Sen is also giving away art (probably not made of the same materials) to people who send her a letter.

2. Somehow I missed the 2006 film Paris Je T’aime—comprised of 20 segments by different directors and writers—so naturally hadn’t seen ► Joel and Ethan Coen’s entry featuring Steve Buscemi.

3. The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows is, in the author’s words, “a compendium of invented words … each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language … Each sorrow is bagged, tagged and tranquilized, then released gently back into the subconscious.” One of the words, sonder (“n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”), pairs well with the recently noted This is Water and even has a video. Hat-tip: Reader N.

4. The problem of designing to communicate with humans in the inconceivable future (aka 10,000 years from now).

5. Today in 1709, the original Dr. J—Samuel Johnson—is born. Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language remains one of the greatest achievements in language scholarship and he was a fascinating, formidable, quotable and quirky man. Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson should be required reading for all word lovers. If that’s too long, try out the Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page. Or watch the delightful BBC 4 documentary film “The Dictionary Man”. Finally, if none of that grabs you, how about Hugh Laurie sharing some coinages with Dr. Johnson in Blackadder?

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader J. writes: “I’m using that Flaubert quote (which, among other things, is about expressing/repressing emotion, and also about ways in which emotion is nuanced and individuated) in my advanced poetry-writing seminar tonight. Thanks for the lead…” — You’re welcome! It’s a tricky and deep little passage.

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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/clippings/.