Finally received my copy of Frank Stanford’s collected poems and it is, as I expected, phenomenal.
And today’s word and some choice examples via Reader C. Thanks!
WORK
“The Quiver”
Come back dull and bloody all of you
let it hold the shame inside
itself like a helmet
bring a little soil each time
for a pillow
you aren’t as many as you were
—Frank Stanford
—from What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford
WORD(S)
tatterdemalion /ta-tər-di-MAYL-yən/. noun & adjective. One garbed in ragged, tattered clothing or such clothing. Of disreputable or tattered appearance, decayed or dilapidated. From tattered plus, as the OED puts it, a “factitious element suggesting an ethnic or descriptive derivative.” Tattered comes from Old Norse tötrar and Old French tatereles (tatters). But perhaps also influenced by Tartar, an old term for a vagabond or beggar.
“Florry Talbot, a blond feeble goosefat whore in a tatterdemalion gown of mildewed strawberry, lolls spreadeagle in the sofacorner, her limp forearm pendent over the bolster, listening.” (James Joyce)
“Venomous weeds grew here, and tatterdemalion flowers, white, blue and rose; among crevices in the rust and tangled ancient iron a lizard would peep out drunkenly at the burning sun.” (William Styron)
“Most promising of these, to my mind, had been a small, tatterdemalion math constructed on a lookout tower originally put there to detect forest fires.” (Neal Stephenson)
“The occult knowledge of the Egyptians passed from Hermes Trismegistus to Moses, who took care not to pass it on to his band of tatterdemalions, their craws still stuffed with manna; to them he offered the Ten Commandments, which was as much as they could comprehend.” (Umberto Eco)
“…the company around the table grew a little closer together, their tatterdemalion garments rustling as a wind of consternation blew through them…” (Angela Carter)
WEB
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The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America examines and maps regionalisms of syntax (as opposed to the more common studies of slang and vocabulary) such as the “Drama So” and “Double Comparatives.” Fun to browse. Nothing from Alaska, sadly.
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A break-down showing, shot-by-shot, how the “Ozymandias” episode of Breaking Bad visualized the poem. → Breaking Bad and “Ozymandias”
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Man does something cool—busking with a typewriter, writing stories on the spot for one and all—and the Internet Outrage Machine turns on him. → I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything
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Today in 1958, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the Fairweather Fault in the Gulf of Alaska, triggering the Lituya Bay Megatsunami, the largest in modern times. The tsunami devastated vegetation more than 1720 feet above the bay thanks to a wave that crested over 100 feet on the open ocean. Scars and changes in vegetation are still visible there today.
WATCH/WITNESS
On August 21, 2017 (my son’s 25th birthday…coincidence?) there will be a total solar eclipse across the United States. The last one was in 1991. GreatAmericanEclipse has created an awesome 10-foot long map tracing where it will be visible across the US.
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader G. sees a change: “If authored by a man than of course he would think the Bycorne would be always plump and the Chichevache always starving. A woman author would have the opposite point of view (at least in my experience). Or perhaps over time women have gotten better and men have gotten worse. Present company excluded. ;)”
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Reader M. is inspired by the same: “Bycorne and Chichevache are going to be two characters in my next age-inappropriate children’s book. Very inspiring stuff!”
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(A different) Reader G. asks a good question: “I love the Deutscher book you quote from, there are so many insightful ideas about language in there. His perspective in color reveals a lot about how we think. ¶ Regarding this quote, I wonder if expressive power was sacrificed to some degree for expressive ability? Some words, because of the physical limits of our mouths, tongues, lips, etc, are just more difficult to pronounce than others.”
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Reader B.’s reaction mirrors my own: “‘Innocent Man’ was powerful, worth every paragraph. ¶ Such buried horror in the child’s statements!”
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