|k| clippings: 2015-04-21 — been there, done that, got the t-shirt

Today’s WORD—and likely several more over the next weeks—comes from the delightful book Figures of Speech by Arthur Quinn. Characterized by a subtle, dry wit I sometimes aspire to and a love of Shakespeare I share, anyone who loves words and languages should have a copy of this short, idiosyncratic, intentionally incomplete and funny tour of the more interesting rhetorical figures and devices.

WORK

“One day Atticus lay down in the snow, and called out, ‘Help me up! Help me up!’ His mother came and gave him some cold-pressed juice. Atticus got up and went away because that’s how unschooling works.”

—from “Postmodern Zen Koans”
—by Elisa Abatsis

WORD(S)

asyndeton /ə-SIN-də-tən/. noun. A rhetorical figure in which an expected conjunction between words or sentences is omitted. A classic example is the (likely apocryphal) claim by Caesar, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” From Greek asyndetos (unconnected), from syndein (to bind together).

“Strange to say, at least one passage above achieved the typical effect of asyndeton without actually omitting the conjunction, This is just one of those cases in which the rhetorical practice can cause consternation for the poor philosopher. ‘Is that an asyndeton?’ It is and it isn’t. ‘Aren’t you in saying that violating the law of contradiction?’ I are and I aren’t.” (Arthur Quinn)

And some examples of asyndeton:

“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword”
(Shakespeare)

“The unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea.” (Matthew Arnold)

“The breath coming out the nostrils was so faint it stirred only the furthest fringes of life, a small leaf, a black feather, a single fiber of hair.” (Ray Bradbury)

“An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish.” (Joseph Conrad)

WEB

1. A brief analysis of Eliot’s “The Waste Land” by a 22-year-old Barack Obama

2. Not sure how many are brilliant, but I love me some portmanteaus and a few are clever. At work, I often suffer from destinesea (and occasionally run across askholes) → 28 Brilliant New Words to Add to Your Vocabulary

3. Nickelback fans are most likely to agree with the death penalty (but for whom?)

4. At the always-interested Futility Closet, a table for converting a Gothic romance into a sentimental novel (and vice-versa).

5. Today in the year 753 BC, according to tradition, Romulus kills his brother Remus and establishes the city of Rome, beginning its fascinating history. Livy’s extensive History of Rome is essential reading (or, if you’re like me, skimming) as are Tacitus’s Annals and Histories. For your listening pleasure, the History of Rome will keep your ears busy for months, if not years. G. G. Belli documented the lives of 19th-century working class romans in sonnets. In dialect. Caroline Lawrence has helpfully shared 10 things Romans used for toilet paper (I leave it to you to search out her more extensive piece on “pee and poo” in Rome). Also, the Rome television series was both horribly inaccurate about even the small slice of Rome’s history it conveyed and terribly entertaining.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader B. shares a beautiful quote: "I read the Victor Hugo quote and remembered a similar thought (from The Return of the King):

‘There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.’"

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