|k| clippings: 2016-03-29 — the impossibility of pugs

WORK

“Miley Cyrus or Manatee?”

What is flat and nothing but skin,
What lolls in a shallow world,
What is watched for its surface,
Between long episodes of water the color of a dead screen’s sea-green glass,
What had a but a few hairs in the snapshot?
A bit of a muzzle,
No more than a pug’s worth for a rented red kayak,
For this sailor swallowed by enormous wax lips,
What is gray and aporial,
Once mistaken for half girl,
Half monster,
Disappointingly naked and slipping under the hull.

—James Reidel
—from Poetry (March 2016)

WORD(S)

aporia /ə-POR-ee-ə/. noun. The expression of doubt. Talking about not being able to talk about (or decide) something. A perplexing, difficult matter. From Greek aporos (impassable). The first quote is an example of aporia:

“A virginal air, large blue eyes very soulful and appealing, a dazzling fair skin, a supple and resilient body, a touching voice, teeth of ivory and the loveliest blond hair, there you have a sketch of this charming creature whose naive graces and delicate traits are beyond our power to describe.” (Marquis De Sade)

“Friends would diagnose me with a really bad, likely terminal case of aporia, but I suspect that my condition isn’t so uncommon, that a little tribe of others feels, each in their own way, just as mystified and baffled as to direction as I do.” (Charles D’Ambrosio)

“Compression to five minutes’ duration would create some serious information loss, and perhaps some lacunae and aporia, but this was unavoidable given the situation.” (Kim Stanley Robinson)

WEB

1. For 26 more days you can stream Samuel Beckett’s “All That Fall” from BBC Radio 4.

2. “Stunning” isn’t hyperbole. → Artist Excavates Discarded Books to Transform Their Pages into Stunning Jewelry

3. An AI-Written Novella Almost Won a Literary Prize

4. Not the Bernie bird, but… → Little bird uses a linguistic rule thought to be unique to humans

5. Today in 1973, months after the release of their hit song ►“The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’” is released, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show do make the prominent magazine’s cover, albeit in caricature form with the caption “What’s-Their-Names Make the Cover.”

WATCH/WITNESS

A global musical collaboration. Beautiful. → Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around the World

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader J. caught me out: “Juxtapose! Psychobiotics and musical neurons. The more we know about our brains the less we know about ourselves and our selfs. And yet yet yet I find myself in these links and poems and bites. ‘What is found there’ indeed. I see you. And what you did. Thanks for all of that.”

• Reader W. asks: “Does caducity come from the same source as ‘caduceus’, the symbol of physicians?” — I’ll note first that the Caduceus isn’t the symbol you are looking for…that would the Rod of Asclepius. As to your question, Nick Humez answered this better than I ever could: “No relation. ‘Caduceus’ comes from kerukeion (note the shift of R to D: easy with a single-tongueflap [as distinct from trilled] R) A kerux was a herald or messenger and the kerukeion (‘thing-pertaining-to -heralds’), usually painted white, was the emblem by which he would be instantly recognizable as such. The persons of heralds were sacrosanct (they were under the protection of no less than Zeus himself, as part of the whole hospitality rule system) and you weren’t supposed to harm them even when they came from the enemy’s lines. (I believe this is the origin of our present-day convention of the white flag of truce.) ¶ Caducity is from Latin cadere, ‘to fall.’ Nothing to do with the caduceus unless you drop yours and then trip over it.”

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

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