In the order of literature, as in others, there is no act that is not the coronation of an infinite series of causes and the source of an infinite series of effects.
Jorge Luis Borges, "On Literature," c. 1960 (via quote)
Definitions of the Month (September 2012)
September saw Reading Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word
- Catoptrics (n): The branch of optics that deals with reflection often investigating the phenomena ofreflected light andimage-forming optical systems usingmirrors.
- Etiology (n): The study of causation, or origination; The cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition; An etiological myth is a myth intended to explain a name or create a mythic history for a place or family
- Cenacle (n): A group of people, such as a discussion group or literary clique; The room in which the Last Supper was held.
- Aperçu (n): a brief survey or sketch, an outline; an immediate impression, especially an insight.
- Fuliginous (adj): Pertaining to or resembling soot; sooty, dusky.
- Oleaginous (adj): Rich in, covered with, or producing oil; oily or greasy; Exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious.
- Sigmoid (n): Curved like the uncial sigma (C); crescent-shaped; S-shaped.
- Appurtenance (n): An accessory or other item associated with a particular activity or style of living.
- Davit (n): A small crane on board a ship, esp. one of a pair for suspending or lowering a lifeboat.
- Heuristic (n): Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves.
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Definitions of the Month (July 2011)
July 2011 saw the reading of Rosalind Krauss' "Grids" in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and other Modernist Myths, 1985
- Apotheosis (n): The action of ranking, or fact of being ranked, among the gods; transformation into a god, deification; divine status; the ascription of extraordinary, and as it were divine, power or virtue; glorification, exaltation; the canonization of saints
- Resonance (n): The reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection or by the synchronous vibration of a surrounding space or a neighboring object; the power or quality of evoking or suggesting images, memories, and emotions; an allusion, connotation, or overtone
- Abrogate (v): To repeal (a law, established usage, etc.); to abolish authoritatively or formally; to annul, to cancel
- Autotelic (adj): Having a self-contained goal or purpose
- Autochthon (n): A person indigenous to a particular country or region and traditionally supposed to have been born out of the earth, or to have descended from ancestors born in this way; Hence more generally: an indigenous person; an earliest known inhabitant
- Sacrosanct (adj): Of persons and things, especially obligations or laws, secured by a religious sanction from violation, infringement, or encroachment; inviolable, sacred.
- Polysemic (adj): Having a multiplicity of meanings
- Introjection (n): A theory whereby external objects are images of elements within the consciousness of the individual; The action of throwing in; the forming of a subjective image of an object and the transfer to it of emotional energy previously given to the object itself
- Cesura (n): In meter, it is a complete stop in a line of poetry
- Etiology (n): The science or philosophy of causation; that part of philosophy which treats of the demonstration of causes; That branch of medical science which investigates the causes and origin of diseases.
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