Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5
#151380 12/02/05 12:20 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
In my experience, Anu's words are the most interesting; however, he is not the only pebble on the beach.

What other AWAD-type or generally word-related mailing lists are you subscribed to?

(Option : List in order of preference).

#151381 12/02/05 12:48 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
AWAD's the only list I get, but I do check OneLook and dictionary.com on a Dashboard widget. no preference; I just like words.


formerly known as etaoin...
#151382 12/02/05 12:49 PM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
M
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
M
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Word Origins
Quinion
wwftd (http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd)
Slang City (www.slangcity.com)

These are not in pertickly order of preference.

(also used to get TOWFI but no longer)

#151383 12/02/05 12:52 PM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
oh yeah! d'oh! wwftd!


formerly known as etaoin...
#151384 12/02/05 04:01 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
The only other one I get is tsuwms' wwftd. Yes, I am a minion.

#151385 12/02/05 11:13 PM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
I, too, am a minion. That's it, though. AWAD and WWFTD.

#151386 12/03/05 12:19 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
M
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
M
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Over the years I've also tried and dropped at least 8 others including Collins and various other dictionary based services - the feature they tended to have in common was a lack of interesting editorial direction. Sure, if someone just wants to expand their vocabulary on a totally random basis, but!

#151387 12/03/05 12:24 AM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
>lack of interesting editorial direction.

signs and portents, mav... signs and portents. <grin>

#151388 12/03/05 12:27 AM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
AWAD and wwftd. I also get Dave Wilton's weekly but it's more about things in general and not a specific word. I used to get something else but it was kinda boring and I don't remember what it was.

#151389 12/03/05 12:32 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
wwftd is the only one I get.

#151390 12/03/05 05:35 AM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Quote:

wwftd is the only one I get.




... as in "receive" or as in "understand"? [/askance]

#151391 12/03/05 06:30 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

Quote:

wwftd is the only one I get.




... as in "receive" or as in "understand"? [/askance]




as in receive.

#151392 12/03/05 10:54 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
What does pertickly mean? Mock-illiterate for particularly?

Also, what is WWFTD?

#151393 12/03/05 11:16 AM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
from mav's post way above:

> wwftd (http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd)

it's tsuwm's worthless word for the day.


formerly known as etaoin...
#151394 12/03/05 12:13 PM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Quote:

What does pertickly mean? Mock-illiterate for particularly?



Akshully®, we'uns round cheer do mock-illiterate with total abandon. Sumpin' 'bout havin' to know the rules afore y'all can feck with'um, I 'spect...[snapping gum-e]
If you had done some extensive reading on the site before posting, you would notice that we are a relaxed bunch, for the most part. We also have some dyslexic members. Would you like to humiliate them for their misspellings while you are at it? See, if we don't need no steenkin' rulz, we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.

Last edited by consuelo; 12/03/05 12:37 PM.
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Quote:

we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.




So, what?! Me 'n' Father Steve aren't welcome here?

Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
I
Pooh-Bah
Offline
Pooh-Bah
I
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Quote:

Quote:

we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.




So, what?! Me 'n' Father Steve aren't welcome here?




Of course you are, officer! Write me two tickets, officer! If you want, officer! No, I never put anything in the trunk, officer!

Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Quote:

Quote:

What does pertickly mean? Mock-illiterate for particularly?



Akshully®, we'uns round cheer do mock-illiterate with total abandon. Sumpin' 'bout havin' to know the rules afore y'all can feck with'um, I 'spect...[snapping gum-e]
If you had done some extensive reading on the site before posting, you would notice that we are a relaxed bunch, for the most part. We also have some dyslexic members. Would you like to humiliate them for their misspellings while you are at it? See, if we don't need no steenkin' rulz, we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.




Heh®

Love that "jocose banter", mah sistah Connie!

#151398 12/03/05 04:52 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

Loosen up afore ya loose it




Ooookaaay.

Where did that come from?

I knew it was an illiterate meme, my question was was it mock-illiterate for "particularly" or something else. I really hate to spoil the joke, but in order to explain myself I have to tell you that I questioned it because I thought -- I hoped -- there was something more to it. I guess I overestimated you. It was as underwhelming a "joke" as I first reckoned. Nevermind.

And seeing as you are dragging dyslexics into this from your moral high horse, let it be said that no dyslexic in his right mind would want to see literate people imitating illiteracy; not only because he would feel like it was a joke at his expense, but also because it would defeat the point of coming to a word forum to improve his literacy.

God help us it has all gotten suddenly very, very childish :

Quote:

Akshully®, we'uns round cheer do mock-illiterate with total abandon. Sumpin' 'bout havin' to know the rules afore y'all can feck with'um, I 'spect...[snapping gum-e]



Quote:

Love that "jocose banter", mah sistah Connie!




Shite and onions! That'll do! Life is too short.

Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.

I have turned my certificate from the Word Police Academy toward the wall in order to be allowed to continue to post here. Tell me when it is safe to turn it back around.

~Officer Father Steve

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Quote:

we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.

I have turned my certificate from the Word Police Academy toward the wall in order to be allowed to continue to post here. Tell me when it is safe to turn it back around.

~Officer Father Steve




upon seeing this, I recovered my certificate from the dustbin. somebody has to maintain order arou.. oh, wait. that's Jackie's job. never mind.

<fold.. fold.. fold.. fling>

#151401 12/03/05 07:04 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Interesting website tsuwm.

Do you have to be a Yahoo! (so to speak) to get wwftd? The "subscribe" link takes me to the Yahoo! group, but I'm with gmail.

Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

Quote:

we don't need no steenkin' word police neither.




So, what?! Me 'n' Father Steve aren't welcome here?




I think maybe lots of us got our badges from The Atlantic before it stopped issuing them. I very nearly printed mine up, back in the day.

#151403 12/04/05 10:59 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Forgive me, I should have corrected this in my original post. Mock-illiterate is not the appropriate term to use for this type of writing. It would be more appropriate to call it writing in dialect. I think if I were dyslexic, I would be more upset by you equating my disability to illiteracy than by reading anything that was written in dialect. Several of us personally have met one member here that is dyslexic and she has never objected to any of us purposefully misspelling words on this board and she does not come here to "improve his(her)literacy", but to engage in interesting discourse and enjoy playing with words and ideas. She knows that we value her vast knowledge and keen wit more than her spelling abilities and that we would never pick her posts apart, pointing out the errors she makes. Could you say the same, Ulrich?
Quote:

God help us it has all gotten suddenly very, very childish



I would say instead "God help us it has all gotten suddenly very, very holier than thou."
I was merely practicing "jocose banter", trying to lighten a bit the load you have suddenly dumped on this board while you, on the other hand, appear to be an equal opportunity insulter. The majority of us come here as a haven from shite and onions and do not appreciate it when someone like you comes along and makes life on the board a miserable place to seek refuge. As TEd said in another thread,
Quote:

I think you have a lot to offer, but not when you call people idiots and accuse them of ineptness.



#151404 12/04/05 05:29 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

The majority of us come here as a haven from shite and onions and do not appreciate it when someone like you comes along and makes life on the board a miserable place to seek refuge.




Really? Is that what I am doing? According to who?

What an extraordinarily unexpected twist this query about mailing lists has taken!

It is certainly not my intention to make your lives miserable, and so, seeing as this thread has already reached the all-time low watermark of ad hominem digression from the discussion of words, I propose a game:

Two more affirmative answers to the above question (by two more posters save yourself, whose vote has been counted) and Homo Loquens strikes out, thereupon to tie up his immigrants' handkerchief bundle of Joycean abstrusiosities, and disappear into cyberspace.

P.S.
Ulrich? My name is Sebastian. You are mistaking me for another poster, probably because I mentioned in another thread something I read in the AWADtalk archives.

Last edited by Homo Loquens; 12/06/05 03:31 AM.
#151405 12/04/05 06:21 PM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Quote:



P.S.
Ulrich? My name is Sebastian. You are mistaking me for another poster, probably because I mentioned in another thread something I read in the AWADtalk archives.




You're certain about your name? Here's a post from Homo Loquenz on another board, two months ago, at high noon:

Mudge,
Do you know what? I began reading your essay 'Be Brief" without at first knowing it was "instruction by negative example". Something was fishy all right, but what? I was well near half-way through it before I realised that surely to God a written excoriation of verbiage that used so much first-class verbiage had to be a joke! I'd been duped!

Henry, you're very tech savvy if you're as old as Mudge implies you are! Do you know my mother cannot even TURN ON the computer, and she's only... no, if she found out I told you her age, my life would be over.

Regards,

--Ulrich.
.

That board is found at this URL: http://snipurl.com/khem



Sancho Panza:

A little gossip... a little chat...
A little idle talk of this and that...
If no one listens,
Then it's just as well,
At least I won't get cuaght in any lies I tell


TEd
#151406 12/05/05 12:20 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Why not use the new, improved "vote-a-lator" feature in this board to conduct an informal poll?

#151407 12/05/05 12:32 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?

#151408 12/05/05 01:59 AM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Ulrich, you are doing the same thing you did when you were posting as ullrich: implying that the rest of us are ignorant/foolish/stupid. I have noticed that this occurs pretty much whenever someone voices a different opinion from yours. Different tastes do not equate to stupidity. Hmm--let's say that I had tried to get you to embrace, oh, say Eminem, and you told me that you didn't care for him. But if I were passionate about him, I might tell you something like, "Trying to run down Eminem is so very silly. He is one of the most important singers of the modern movement. Even the New York Times will tell you that. And unlike the hack blurb-authors of teen magazine hyperbole, qualified reviewers don't throw superlatives at singers willy-nilly. At the risk of offending you, I have to say that you are only making yourself look stupid. Eminem represents the voice of the people." Now--if you agree that not liking or understanding Eminem doesn't make you an ignoramus, then I hope you can also see that someone who doesn't like or understand Joyce isn't necessarily stupid. The vast majority of regular posters here have very high intelligence. Very high. And despite that, we have managed to learn not to insult each other, or at least to work it out if we have, and at the very least agree to differ. So far, you haven't seemed willing to concede that anyone who doesn't think the way you do might be just as entitled to his or her opinion as you are to yours; and if that doesn't change, I think that once again you will not be welcome here.

Also, posting insults and then saying you were only bantering won't soothe people's feelings, either. The right of teasing-by-insult comes only after a long-enough and well-understood relationship that ensures that all parties know it IS teasing. You are still too new here--in any persona--to have earned that right.

#151409 12/05/05 02:17 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Great post, Jackie. Truly excellent, take a bow! [looking-for-standing-o-emoticon]

#151410 12/05/05 02:53 AM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Mercy--thank you, Mizter S. Isn't it nice, when people who disagree--even violently in some instances--can still be friends and love each other?

#151411 12/05/05 03:16 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

Mercy--thank you, Mizter S. Isn't it nice, when people who disagree--even violently in some instances--can still be friends and love each other?




I would say vehemently, rather than violently. If you disagree on that, I'll have to kill you.

#151412 12/05/05 03:22 AM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
T
veteran
Offline
veteran
T
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
------------------------------------------------------------
Mercy--thank you, Mizter S. Isn't it nice, when people who disagree--even violently in some instances--can still be friends and love each other?
-------------------------------------------------------------------


Maybeso Moderator, but still you are left with a small clan of disagreeable folks, violent in some instances, who are friends and love each other.

Christian Love, if you will remember, requires you to love those who you had rather hate.

I can, can you?

#151413 12/05/05 04:30 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

Hmm--let's say that I had tried to get you to embrace, oh, say Eminem, and you told me that you didn't care for him. But if I were passionate about him, I might tell you something like, "Trying to run down Eminem is so very silly. [...] At the risk of offending you, I have to say that you are only making yourself look stupid [...]" Now--if you agree that not liking or understanding Eminem doesn't make you an ignoramus, then I hope you can also see that someone who doesn't like or understand Joyce isn't necessarily stupid.




There is an important difference or oversight here between your analogy and what happened on the arruginated thread.

Did I claim that not liking or understanding Joyce makes you an ignoramus?

I did not.

However, to proclaim that trying to understand Joyce is a complete waste of time (as one poster asked facetiously, and another saw fit to reiterate: "And trying to make Joyce make sense serves us how, exactly?) is a horse of an entirely different colour.

To summarily foreclose the possibility that a book of the significance of Ulysses has anything to offer without, evidently, having read it, is the worst kind of ignorance. Now that truly is to content yourself "with a place in the lower intellectual orders."

Quote:

[..] and if that doesn't change, I think that once again you will not be welcome here.




What are you doing? You have no right to threaten me. Do not abuse your position as moderator. We have had a difference of opinion on a public domain message forum. I have not broken the law.

Surely you would not want to edit my voice from this forum simply because you disagree with me or dislike my tone? Particularly when I have explained this tone as jocose banter, apologised, and nevertheless had a certain cretinous yahoo tell me to "f**k off" without retaliating.

I may take a dim view of stupidity, but I would never deny someone the freedom to continue expressing it.

This brings me to my next point.

In the interests of your position as moderator, it is important that you hear candid feedback.

As you say, some of the posters here are intelligent. I enjoy their repartee; and their rich lexical palette. It is for this reason that I must tell you that to the cerebral hum of these posters' threads your saccharine bromides and mawkish sentiments are so like unto a meddlesome old aunt in a home-knit cardigan who would like AWADtalk to be a conduit for the bibble-babble of crossword biddies.

Personally, I find this smothering. Your flock will here no doubt here fly to your defence, but they know exactly what I am talking about.

And yet however much I would prefer the cold meshing gears of logical syntax, I have tried to accept your shortcomings. I only ask that you accept mine.

#151414 12/05/05 05:57 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
(1) "It is certainly not my intention to make your lives miserable, and so, seeing as this thread has already reached the all-time low watermark of ad hominem digression from the discussion of words, I propose a game: Two more affirmative answers to the above question (by two more posters save yourself, whose vote has been counted) and Homo Loquens strikes out, thereupon to tie up his immigrants' handerchief bundle of Joycean abstrusiosities."

(+1) "Why not use the new, improved 'vote-a-lator' feature in this board to conduct an informal poll?"

(+1) "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?"

(=) non sequitur.

#151415 12/05/05 11:01 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
M
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
M
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
> a certain cretinous yahoo tell me to "f**k off" without retaliating.

What a perfect example of paralipsis! Well, actually I suggested that you fuck off – I never cower behind the pathetic cloak of bowdlerised orthography. But I count it a pleasure to be so labelled by you. Since I am patently not a cretin nor a yahoo (and could probably out-dance you on the head of almost any literary pin you chose to name) it confirms your own true colours. Every time I wade though one of your spiels I am reminded of that antanaclastic gem from Benjamin Franklin: “Your argument is sound... all sound.”

#151416 12/05/05 11:20 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
OP Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

What a perfect example of paralipsis! Well, actually I suggested that you fuck off – I never cower behind the pathetic cloak of bowdlerised orthography. But I count it a pleasure to be so labelled by you. Since I am patently not a cretin nor a yahoo (and could probably out-dance you on the head of almost any literary pin you chose to name) it confirms your own true colours. Every time I wade though one of your spiels I am reminded of that antanaclastic gem from Benjamin Franklin: “Your argument is sound... all sound.”




This has suddenly gotten very boring.

Goodbye thread.

Last edited by Homo Loquens; 12/05/05 11:29 AM.
#151417 12/05/05 11:37 AM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 33
newbie
Offline
newbie
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 33
Your attack on Jackie is most uncalled for, HL. One of the duties of a moderator is precisely to warn a poster when he or she has overstepped the bounds, which you clearly have done, and ban them when they refuse to lay down the flamethrower. I expect to see a public apology to all members you have offended by your insults. I officially cast my vote with Consuelo. I believe Maverick's post should count as the first vote, so mine makes three. Will you now leave as soon as you post your apology? Why would anyone want to stay where they are not welcome?

Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Quote:

Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?




HL/U:

First off, we are not your enemy. You have met the enemy and it is you, to paraphrase the immortal Pogo. You are the one who came in here and started attacking, once while Ulrich and now while wearing the Homo Loquenz sock. There is a term for this: trolling, and there are whole treatises on the subject. I think if you were to read a couple of them with open mind you'd recognize that you're the problem, not the solution.

I said this privately to a guy who wanted to turn AWADtalk into a Christian talk show:

Every board needs new blood to keep it healthy, functional and interesting. However, just like a human body, the new blood must be compatible with the old blood, otherwise there is a reaction which causes either the rejection of the new blood or the death of the organism.

No matter what you think, this board IS an organism. Many of us have been here over five years; some of us have moved on, all too frequently because of a reaction to an infusion of new blood that was incompatible with the organism. We hate it when that happens.

You've said that you didn't call anyone stupid, that you just said we look stupid. In my estimation that is just so much hairsplitting.

Here's what you said:

"Trying to run downt Joyce is so very silly. He is one of the most important writers of the modernist movement. Even the dictionary will tell you that. And unlike the hack blurb-authors of dust-jacket hyperbole, lexicographers don't throw superlatives at writers willy-nilly.

"At the risk of offending some of you, I have to say that you are only making yourselves look stupid."

First off, having a different opinion from yours does not make one silly. It means only that someone disagrees with you. I think Joyce is unreadable, verbose, incomprehensible, meandering, maudlin, overbearing, and oh did I mention unreadable. If, as you say, he is among the best of the modernist movement, that may go a long way towards explaining why I and a whole bunch of other people don't read the stuff. WE DO NOT LIKE IT! We have an opinion on it that is just as valid as yours, though in disagreement with it. I didn't say this makes you look stupid as you said of me.

When called upon it, you said that you didn't say I was stupid, you said I looked stupid. That's utter crap, and you know that as much as I know that. You sling pejoratives around, referring to Betsy as an idiot, and expect that you can fall back on the "I was only joking" excuse.

You cannot. We may forgive, but we will never forget that you attacked indiscriminately, safe in your little self-contrived world, pulling the strings of one puppet after another.

I will not vote on your staying or going because neither I nor any of the other people here are enfranchised; your asking for a vote does not empower anyone to do so; that decision lies solely in the hands of the Wordmaster, who runs a benevolent dictatorship. In the five-plus years this board has been in operation almost five thousand people have registered here yet only one person has been banned. For an unmoderated board I consider that an excellent track record since it shows that we are willing to tolerate a lot of stuff.

As I said in a previous post, get along or get along down the road to some other place; though it's obvious that you've been pooping in several other punchbowls and you probably will find your welcome there very short unless you change your attitude and lose the anger that poisons you from within.


TEd
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
B
old hand
Offline
old hand
B
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
> I think Joyce is unreadable, verbose, incomprehensible, meandering, maudlin, overbearing, and oh did I mention unreadable.

That doesn't sound like an opinion, but an outright rejection or brushoff, a dismissal. For so-called wordsmiths or language lovers to offer such statements up as sweeping reviews of the preeminent English-language author of the 20th century doesn't seem stupid, so much as utterly incongruous.
Finnegans Wake, readable or not, breaks all novel (pun intended) records with regard to vocab, orthograhpy and so on; and the collective understanding of said work might benefit greatly if some of the scholarly minds here applied themselves to a discussion of his works. If not it might just be fun;-)

This clearly seems unlikely considering the slating of Joyce along the lines of it simply being too 'wacky' or 'nonsensical'. So be it. But IMO, it does seem to indicate a certain unwillingness to engage in the messiness and yes, nonsense ... or 'non-sense' that is celebrated in anything deserving of the title 'literature' and indeed is self-evident to many in everyday life. This in turn seems to indicate that the aversion to Joyce may be symtomatic of an still stronger and more general unwillingness to accept the idea that (without going into too much detail) we tend to couch our ourselves in linguistic clothing to make us feel better about our lives, loves, losses, etc., leading in turn to disunion, misunderstandings and bad things:-) Perhaps Joyce was looking to provide a way out, a 'wake' for language, or an 'awake' language. But such discussion is apparently undesirable here; one might argue that 'haters' aim to bob on the cushy surface of the linguistic ocean and avoid wetting feet - oh well.

That said, I doubt anyone here has read the 'classic' Principia Mathematica, so mebbe(sic) that above is hot air. I just hope that when people say of Joyce that it is not written to be 'understandable' they mean that in a jovial, throw-away-comment way and don't disregard study of the works outright - that would be a shame. W. Faulkner said of Joyce he "had more talent than he could control", and that he was "electrocuted by the divine fire." That is a minimum one might expect from a good artist. And clearly Joyce certainly has the power to polarise <g> and reveal it in the world ... Finn's Wake is either The Holy Grail or the longest, best written book of utter nonsense ever written. Clearly divinity and stupidity are closer together than some might admit - it's a little like those knobs on you're oven .. at one point turning a little further brings you from full power to off. Conversely Joyce mysteriously went from (cliche for today) 'zero to hero' overnight, apparently without anyone's consent. If his books truely are almost utterly incomprehensible, then I would suggest that this is a true case of a (dangerous term alert) miracle or, if you will, magic in book form. This should give anyone pause for thought who would earnestly claim to 'hate' this author on a word site - 'dislike' fine, choose to avoid, fine, but 'hate', really? I'm not looking to engage in the ongoing argument on behaviour, but it seems HL does have a valid point in this regard and fault lies with both parties. Proportions another matter.

The Hagakure suggests that if one is in tune with their own way, then learning of the many ways of others will only strengthen one's own commitment to one's own way and one will not view the ways of others as challenges but confirmations. Let that be so for all here. Good tidings AWADers!

#151420 12/05/05 04:45 PM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
M
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
M
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
> sweeping reviews of the preeminent English-language author of the 20th century

That's half the problem, belli - I won't speak for TEd since he can more than adequately convey his own ideas, which you clearly mistake here since he starts by saying "I THINK..." For my part, I have read every published word Joyce has written, enjoyed much of it, and studied him for English Literature as a specialist subject. I was perfectly happy to discuss the minutiae of some of Joyce’s language coinings, insofar as it lay within my capacity or interest. But I have come to a point in my life where I don't choose to try and bloviate on the topic in the kind of lit-crit detail the subject demands since this is a generalist language board. What pisses me off completely is to be told that I am "stupid" or (weasely lawyerly term) "look stupid” simply because I have come to a different view to someone who loves the sound of their own voice above any notional enquiry into language.

I do also note that you simply assert the rank of Joyce; assertion doesn’t make something true.

#151421 12/05/05 05:14 PM
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389
enthusiast
Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389
Please excuse my mantling, (is that the term?), but if it's a routine of trash talking you're after HL, go from this thread and from the board entirely, and find it elsewhere. That's my vote. This is my third rewrite, and nicer than I annaw be.

#151422 12/05/05 08:25 PM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
T
veteran
Offline
veteran
T
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
Father Steve suggested...
"Why not use the new, improved "vote-a-lator" feature in this board to conduct an informal poll?"
______________________________________________________________________

Great idea, Father! Somebody go set up the new "vote-a-lator"!

See...first we vote Homo off because he is a smart aleck...and then we'll vote Maverick off because he is just too damn smart...and then we'll vote Annastrophic off because she is...you know,whatever.

Get it?
See, we vote everyone off the Awad board one-by-one until there is only one poster left here to post.

O boy o boy, this is gonna be fun, what we'll do is...mmm?

Wait! Wait just a cotton picking minute! What if I'm the last man standing because everyone else here has put me on their "ignore list"?

How would I know that I had won? Huh?

Forget that!

Last edited by themilum; 12/05/05 08:27 PM.
#151423 12/05/05 09:10 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
B
old hand
Offline
old hand
B
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
>he starts by saying "I THINK..."

That's fine .. okay, it IS opinion, it might be mistaken for something else though<g>. I for one find it a shame that someone as well schooled in Joyce as yourself and others here choose to only speak irreverently of him - even if it is somewhat in jest. Though I do understand this is not the place to pick apart books in detail.

>I do also note that you simply assert the rank of Joyce

Well, that was kind of my point, that he is an odd case ...seemingly out of nowhere (or magically:-) his works became 'modern classics'. Ulysses was practically admitted into the canon upon publication. Are there any other modern authors who have been critically received in this way and have maintained that position to this day?

#151424 12/05/05 10:21 PM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

Are there any other modern authors who have been critically received in this way and have maintained that position to this day?




Dan Brown?

#151425 12/05/05 10:28 PM
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Thomas Pynchon? J. D. Salinger?


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#151426 12/05/05 11:05 PM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Eco?


TEd
#151427 12/06/05 01:49 AM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
if that doesn't change, I think that once again you will not be welcome here.

Well--I guess HL won't be seeing this, but for my own peace of mind I have to say that I don't understand how the above statement could possibly have been interpreted as a "threat". It certainly wasn't meant as one.

Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,334
Members9,182
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
1 members (wofahulicodoc), 744 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
wofahulicodoc 10,543
tsuwm 10,542
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5