The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on November 12, 2014, 09:06:31 pm ---... by David McCord.
I know a little man both ept and ert.
An intro-? extro-? No, he’s just a vert.
Sheveled and couth and kempt, pecunious, ane,
His image trudes upon the ceptive brain.
When life turns sipid and the mind is traught,
The spirit soars as I would sist it ought.
Chalantly then, like any gainly goof,
My digent self is sertive, choate, loof.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/11/10/_5_poems_with_fantastic_wordplay_prepositions_kempt_twinkle_twinkle_little.html
--- End quote ---
:laugh: It sounds faintly Gaelic!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on November 13, 2014, 11:01:31 am --- :laugh: It sounds faintly Gaelic!
--- End quote ---
I see what you mean. Of course, the "little man" automatically calls to mind a leprechaun-like figure.
Many of those must have been ordinary words at one point, don't you think? Then they were modified with in and un and non and the like, and somehow the root words fell out of use, perhaps because better words came along for the positive form of the adjective but no better negative forms emerged.
Front-Ranger:
Yes, I agree. They also sound Shakespearean, especially "couth".
Front-Ranger:
In this week's issue, the fiction offering is "The Alaska of Giants and Gods", by Dave Eggers. I have read his books before, and if this story is an excerpt from an upcoming book, I will probably read it. Although it is yet another commentary on the breakdown of families and civilization as we know it, he does manage to convey the depths of a woman's psyche admirably. The writing is rather quirky as it always is with Eggers. Stream of consciousness, but the exact opposite of Joycean. It can be offputting but I warmed up as the story went along and it had a very strong finish. I've often felt exactly like the protagonist, Josie, adrift (literally) and thinking "these people are nuts!"
serious crayons:
How did I miss that? I went through the table of contents and didn't notice his byline. I must be so used to skipping the "Fiction" section.
I see it now, though, and will probably also read it. I've read only one of his books, his memoir, but it was good. I'd rather read him than Tom Hanks any day (from what I heard about the Tom Hanks story).
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