|k| clippings: 2015-09-24 — conjuring whole cloth

WORK

“Anthony was glad he wasn’t going to work on his book. The notion of sitting down and conjuring up, not only words in which to clothe thoughts but thoughts worthy of being clothed—the whole thing was absurdly beyond his desires.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald
—from The Beautiful and the Damned

WORD(S)

chock-full /CHOK-FUL/. adjective. Filled to the limit. An interesting phrase because of its mysterious origin. Like most, I assumed it must come from choke, as in “full to choking” (choke, incidentally, comes from Middle English cheek, relating to the jaw). But it could also come from the Old French choquier (to collide, crash) and, thanks to non-uniformity of spelling in historical sources, we’ll probably never know.

When you’re before me, then I think you’re meat and bones,
chock-full of blood and tears, a mortal just like me;
but when I see you from afar, in memory’s mist,
then you grow monstrous like a god, and I go daft!
(Nikos Kazantzakis, translated by Kimon Friar)

“For while television has from its beginnings been openly motivated by—has been about—considerations of mass appeal and L.C.D. and profit, our own history is chock-full of evidence that readers and societies may properly expect important, lasting contributions from a narrative art that understands itself as being about considerations more important than popularity and balance sheets. Entertainers can divert and engage and maybe even console; only artists can transfigure.” (David Foster Wallace)

WEB

1. ► A fantastic video on Zipf’s law (which explains, or at least rationalizes, so many things about life and language) with a description chock-full o’ links. Thanks to Reader S., who notes: “apologies if you have covered this in earlier issues and I just missed it, but when I saw [this] I immediately thought of you as it is a phenomenom of language (and other realms) like no other…”

2. Ann Heppermann on the rebirth of audio fiction

3. A roundup of Super Seventies Japanese Film Posters. See also: Swinging Sixties Japanese Film Posters

4. ‘I’m awful, I’m awful’: writers spill the secrets of their diaries

5. Today in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite a turbulent life wracked by mental illness and alcoholism that resulted in his death at just 44, Fitzgerald is now widely recognized as one of America’s greatest authors…but Fitzgerald never achieved significant success in his own lifetime and died believing himself a failure. Watch ► BBC Sincerely: F. Scott Fitzgerald (with Jay McInerney, but don’t let that dissuade you). Read some free books by Fitzgerald on Project Gutenberg.

WATCH/WITNESS

An interactive map of “theories of everything”

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader B. was moved by Joseph Stroud: “Just ordered Stroud’s Of This World. I can’t believe it is not already in my collection of beloved books. Now it will be thanks to you—‘My Father Died’ sent shock waves through me of surprise and recognition in equal measure. Thank you.”

• As did another Reader B.: “That’s a beautiful poem from Stroud. Love the dark machine line. ¶ And once again Nabokov kills it.”

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