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 2 of 2 1 2
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
what I find very interesting is that many of your highlighted words seem quite ordinary to me, though there are some real doozies in there...

Quote:
The pretentiousness adumbrated in that list emerges with febrile ostentation


heh.


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
Quote:
The pretentiousness adumbrated in that list emerges with febrile ostentation


That is tautological, IMO.

Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
T
veteran
Offline
veteran
T
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
Here's a book, jothan, that might make you acceptably erudite if you think that you should really bother...

Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism by John Updike

New York Times Book Review (in part)

"...I am myself familiar with the reviewing cliché, from both ends of the business, so I say deliberately that Updike’s scope is rather breathtaking (from Isaac Babel straight to James Thurber on successive pages), and I add that he seems almost incapable of writing badly. When I do not know the subject well — as in his finely illustrated art reviews of Bruegel [Hi, BranShea :)], Dürer and Goya — I learn much from what Updike has to impart. When he considers an author I love, like Proust or Czeslaw Milosz, I often find myself appreciating familiar things in a new way. I enjoy the little feuilletons he appends, for example on the 10 greatest moments of the American libido. And I admire the way he can construct a classical sentence that makes an abrupt, useful turn to the American demotic:

“Having patiently read both versions” of Philip Larkin’s “Collected Poems,” “this reviewer believes that the second, chastened version, confining itself to the four trade volumes Larkin supervised and the uncollected poems ‘published in other places,’ does give the verse itself a better shake.”

This appears in one of the best long treatments of Larkin’s poetry I have ever read. Those of us who adore this work have a tendency to feel personally addressed by it and to resent any other commentators as interlopers. Updike seems almost to know what we are thinking. It’s of interest, also, that his own vestigial Christianity — or do I mean surviving attachment to Christianity? — proves on other pages to be not dissimilar to Larkin’s own synthesis, in “Aubade” and in “Church Going,” of a bleak materialism fused with an admiration for the liturgy and the architecture.
..."

On second thought just reading the New York Times book reviews of this book should enable you to converse wildly and wrongly with the intellectual chic.



Last edited by themilum; 12/14/07 11:54 AM.
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
J
jotham Offline OP
stranger
OP Offline
stranger
J
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Originally Posted By: Hydra
Quote:
The pretentiousness adumbrated in that list emerges with febrile ostentation

That is tautological, IMO.

It makes more sense if I supply the whole sentence:
The pretentiousness adumbrated in that list emerges with febrile ostentation in “The Gulf of Time,” Mr. Lapham’s lengthy “Preamble.”
It doesn't exactly deserve the label tautological because the pretentiousness in the list is, apparently, only adumbrated; that in the preamble, on the contrary, is febrile.

Last edited by jotham; 12/14/07 12:50 PM.
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
J
jotham Offline OP
stranger
OP Offline
stranger
J
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Originally Posted By: themilum
Here's a book, jothan, that might make you acceptably erudite if you think that you should really bother...
Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism by John Updike
New York Times Book Review (in part)

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll look into that. I noticed John Updike wrote one of the articles displayed on The New York Review of Books website.

Originally Posted By: themilum
On second thought just reading the New York Times book reviews of this book should enable you to converse wildly and wrongly with the intellectual chic.

Well, the subject matter shouldn't matter too much; just as long as the vocabulary is handled effectively: I learn from their writing technique rather than their ideology.
The problem with studying mere lists or the dictionary is I'm not creative enough to think of appropriate contexts to use them. I'd like these words to be right at my fingertips so they can be effortlessly and spontaneously employed when auspicious occasions arise.

Last edited by jotham; 12/15/07 05:22 AM.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Quote:
Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism by John Updike

Thanks for the title, themilum. I really want to see how Updike revieuws Breugel. For the subject matter and for the writing technique. (Our library may have it.)

Last edited by BranShea; 12/14/07 07:09 PM.
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
Quote:
It makes more sense if I supply the whole sentence:


You're right. That's okay.

Hence, contextomy is bad.

Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
J
jotham Offline OP
stranger
OP Offline
stranger
J
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Here's an interesting article in The Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2227650,00.html

Quote:
From albedo to zugunruhe
How often do you bother looking up an unfamiliar word? Should writers make us reach for our dictionaries? Four years ago, James Meek vowed to learn every alien word he encountered, and discovered poetry in obscurity.


Last edited by jotham; 12/21/07 09:25 AM.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
If for every word you do not completely understand you would reach for your dictionary, there would be little enjoyment in reading a book in a foreign language. Only when an unknown word is the key to understanding the content, the dictionary is needed. To make side notes of intriguing unknown words and look them up afterwards is fun.

Page 2 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 674 guests, and 4 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,510
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