|k| clippings: 2016-02-04 — at the dark root of things

One of my personal reading challenge goals this year is to read “a book that scares me.” Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy might be it…except I’m not sure it’s a book that can be read in the general sense of the term. What book scares you?

WORK

“The last and greatest cause of this malady, is our own conscience, sense of our sins, and God’s anger justly deserved, a guilty conscience for some foul offence formerly committed […] ‘A good conscience is a continual feast,’ but a galled conscience is as great a torment as can possibly happen, a still baking oven, (so Pierius in his Hieroglyph, compares it) another hell. Our conscience, which is a great ledger book, wherein are written all our offences, a register to lay them up, (which those Egyptians in their hieroglyphics expressed by a mill, as well for the continuance, as for the torture of it) grinds our souls with the remembrance of some precedent sins, makes us reflect upon, accuse and condemn our own selves.”

—Robert Burton
—from The Anatomy of Melancholy

WORD(S)

cullion /KUL-yən/. noun. A vile fellow; a despicable rascal. Also, a testicle. Derived from Latin cōleus, culleus (bag, testicle). See also (if you must): colho, cojon and coglione.

“Away, base cullions!” (William Shakespeare)

“That’s a fine thing that cullion of a son of yours is after doing now.” (Benjamin Black)

“If you think me a whore, where are the gifts I have received from my lovers? All the gifts I have are given me by my husband, the whoreson foul-mouthed cullion who tries to buy my goodwill for his own lusts because the priests have made him half a eunuch!” (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

“Do you see nothing? clodpatel Huguenot! varlet! cullion! What brought you here into my studio?” (Honoré de Balzac)

“Their wives and loveliest daughters constuprated by every base cullion, as Sejanus’ daughter was by the hangman in public, before their fathers and husbands’ faces.” (Robert Burton)

"But by the croys which that Seint Eleyne fond,
I wolde I hadde thy coillons in myn hond
In stide of relikes or of seintuarie.
(Chaucer)

WEB

1. Letter of Recommendation is a great NYT feature with “celebrations of objects and experiences that have been overlooked or underappreciated.” Related: Here’s How To Get Around the Paywalls of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and More.

2. Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps—A First

3. Shakespeare Documented is “the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare, bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.” All online!

4. Not really political, just interesting: @TrumpRetweeps simply tweets the bios of everyone retweeted by Donald Trump.

5. Today in 1600, Johannes Kepler meets Tycho Brahe for the first time. Following this meeting in Prague, Brahe would hire the younger Kepler, who would work as his assistant until Brahe’s untimely death not much more than a year later. Both were fascinating characters. Brahe was a lynchpin in the scientific revolution who modified and built new instruments and applied himself assiduously to astronomical observations. He was also a strong believer in astrology and possessed, among other models, an artificial nose made of solid gold, replacing the real one he lost in a duel wit a fellow student over who was the better mathematician. After his death, Kepler made no secret that he used Brahe’s measurements to, among other things, develop the famous Three Laws of Planetary Motion. There has been much speculation as to whether Kepler, in fact, murdered Brahe, who (upon only recent examinations revealed) died of mercury poisoning. While plausible—perhaps for personal gain (Kepler would ascend to the coveted seat of Royal Astronomer that Brahe sought), perhaps at the behest of the King, with whom Brahe was rumored to have had an affair—there’s no solid evidence to support or disprove the theory.

WATCH/WITNESS

“CRAIGLIST” by Briana Forney. One of many great pieces in Found Poetry Review #8.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader B. makes my day: “More riches! ¶ How do you do it, man?” — I don’t know what I’m doing or how I do it!

• Reader M. makes a great point: “The best part about the Byrne article is completely overlooked in the article itself: the animated gifs that reveal the meaning of the textual proofs, without needing to know how to read a mathematical proof at all. A beautiful addition to an already beautiful book!”

• Reader C. has a WORD sighting for the Clamor: “Don’t forget Eliot’s use of haruspicate in The Dry Salvages, V…” — In fact, I didn’t! See it in the expanded references accompanying the Logocopia entry."

• Reader D. has a request: “I wonder if you could also give us the names of the texts the quotations come from for the word of the day. (I’m often curious, but I forget to ask.) I would like to know what kind of book today’s word appears in. :) (I really like the word and never knew there was a special word for those seers.)” — I used to do this, then stopped after multiple requests that I do so in order that people could have the fun of looking them up themselves. That’s not too hard with Google Books and the like. I’m now leaning toward incorporating the references on the Logocopia site but leaving them out of the email. But I often fall behind in maintaining the site!

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

Enjoy the WORD(S) section? Check out my other little project: Concīs Magazine » http://concis.io/

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