#36568
07/26/2001 5:26 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Tsuwm's wwftd had a quotation containing the word "malefic" that also contained a phrase from James Joyce's Ulysses:- "agenbite of inwit"
Subject:
today's wwftd is... malefic
Date:
Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:08:36 -0500 (CDT)
From:
wwftd master <mikef3@cfsmo.honeywell.com>
To:
wwftd minions <tsuwm@aol.com>
the worthless word for the day is: malefic
1) having an unfavorable or malignant influence: baleful
2) malicious
the film critic Richard Corliss discribes Humbert in the movie
'Lolita': "The agenbite of inwit gnaws at him, robs him of the
malefic majesty that makes screen villains entertaining."
A quotation from James Joyce's "Ulysses"
His hands plunged and rummaged in his
trunk while he was called for a clean
hankerchief. Agenbite of inwit. God,
we'll simply have to dress the character. I
want puce gloves and green boots. Do I
contradict myself? Very well, then, I
contradict myself. Mercurial Malachi. A
limp black missile flew out of his talking
hands.
-- And there's your Latin quarter hat, he
said."
agenbite of inwit
ME ayenbite of inwyt, transl. of L remorsus, REMORSE + ME inwyt, inwit, conscience, intellect: phrase revived by JOYCE (1922) in Ulysses remorse of conscience
CHAPTER THREE: AGENBITE OF INWIT: PERSISTENCE OF PAIN
A word on this chapter title: it is a phrase taken from James Joyce's writing, meaning roughly the looking again into the pain of
the self as perceived by the self. There is an iterative and increasingly powerful effect of this inner watching that can sap already
vulnerable energies and deepen already substantial self-doubt. This inner watch is, I think, very typical of wanderers.
|
|
|
#36569
07/26/2001 5:39 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
already two (2) emails have poured in questioning the inclusion of more wwftds within today's wwftd citation (to say nothing of the misspelling of describe) -- my intent, of course, was to follow up with this phrase; but I don't know if the agenbit of inwit which I now suffer will allow me to produce *anything tomorrow....
|
|
|
#36570
07/26/2001 5:44 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
a phrase from James Joyce's Ulysses:- "agenbite of inwit"
And Joyce got it from Dan Michel, who used it as the title of his 1340 translation of a French treatise. See http://www.bartleby.com/211/1613.html
|
|
|
#36571
07/26/2001 7:04 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
I don't know if the agenbit of inwit which I now suffer will allow me to produce *anything tomorrow....
Awwwwww, poooor tsuwm, here you are trying your best to raise the level of vocabulary and you're being caviled at .. well, as for me... keep on throwing those words into the definitions ... keeps me from getting too, too comfy.
|
|
|
#36572
07/26/2001 7:51 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
tsuwm "caviled at" ? By whom? Not by me. I am grateful to him for giving me a chance to make a post.
Dear Faldage: thanks for the link. I found it very interesting.
|
|
|
#36573
07/26/2001 8:06 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>tsuwm "caviled at" ? By whom? Not by me. I am grateful to him for giving me a chance to make
a post.
the two hereintofore nameless twits who complained by email, that's by whom. and you're welcome.
|
|
|
#36574
07/26/2001 10:15 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I don't know if the agenbit of inwit which I now suffer will allow me to produce *anything tomorrow
Calme-toi, Chéri, calme-toi. 'Tisn't necessary, beating yourself up over something that does no more than reveal that you're human. Truly. We are very grateful indeed, for the parts of your vast storehouse of knowledge that you have shared with us. [blowing kiss]
Dr. Bill, thank you so much for posting this! I did know malefic, as it happens, but I have never heard of the
"achin' bite of introspection"---cool term!
Joyce got it from Dan Michel, who used it as the title of his 1340 translation of a French treatise.
Faldage, I am impressed. Not for the first time by you.
|
|
|
#36575
07/26/2001 11:02 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
oh, jackie... always the infracaninophile.
|
|
|
#36576
07/27/2001 1:46 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
From Cool Word of the Day http://features.learningkingdom.com/word/archive/1999/06/21.html1999-06-21
infracaninophile [n. IN-fruh-kuh-NIN-uh-fyl]
An infracaninophile is a person who favors the underdog. Example: "Those infracaninophiles are always giving out money to the homeless people." This word, which is absent from many dictionaries, was coined by Christopher Morley, a novelist and poet who died in 1957. =========================================================== Honey, 'round these heah pahts, you be the BIG dog! 
|
|
|
#36577
07/27/2001 3:10 AM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Christopher Morley, in the preface to "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" [of Conan Doyle]
What other man led a fuller and heartier and more masculine life? [it was another age] Doctor, whaler, athlete, writer, speculator, dramatist, historian, war correspondent, spiritualist, he was always also the infracaninophile -- the helper of the underdog.
|
|
|
#36578
07/27/2001 3:26 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself.
Interesting, also, that Joyce lifted this from Walt Whitman:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
--Song of Myself, verse 51, lines 1324-26
Hmmm...are we discovering a pattern here?...in the "Greatest Novel of the 20th Century" yet!?
|
|
|
#36579
07/27/2001 4:20 AM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>are we discovering a pattern here?
one man's plagiarism is another's literary allusion.
|
|
|
#36580
07/27/2001 7:56 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
>are we discovering a pattern here?
one man's plagiarism is another's literary allusion.
Too true. Joyce questioned whether anything one creates is ever more than just a rehash© of that which one has learnt up to that point. A major aim of the book was (at least ab extra) to cover all literary styles from all ages in the book. So he used a line or two of W. Whitman to help the reader understand - that's not a crime, it's a homage :-)
Edit in: btw, great wwftd!!
|
|
|
#36581
07/27/2001 2:42 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I
contradict myself.
are we discovering a pattern here?
Or, as Woody Guthrie put it, "Oh, they just stole from me, but I stole from everybody."
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts230,263
Members9,208
| |
Most Online4,606
Sep 17th, 2025
|
|
|
|
