1. CRUMB. GRIFFITH. SHELTON. THESE (AND other “sequential artists“) were the visual architects of my immediate post-adolescent universe; whose spare-but-dense works were strewn reverently on the couches and mattresses of my very late teens and very early 20s; whose fractured…
Category: Crit
Examination, interpretation, appreciation.
Words to Bring Back: “Contretemps”
– Definition: n. a minor dispute or disagreement. – Used in a sentence: The current Administration* is one big contretemps after another. – Why: Because “kerfuffle” could use a bit of adulting.
On “Secret Fame”
IN ANY HUMAN AFFINITY GROUP, of whatever size, there are always one or two people whom “everybody knows” — be it for their work, skills or sheer ubiquity. This is the concept of Secret Fame: celebrities of the specialty worlds…
“It’s Just That…”
THERE’S A THING — WELL, LET’S call it a verbal placeholder-prefix — used by writers of audiovisual entertainments when they want a character to segue away from or into an awkward conversation. My friends, meet: “It’s just that…” You’ve heard…
Words To Bring Back: “Reverie”
– Definition: n. Abstracted musing; dreaming. – Used in a sentence: Since late 2016, my reveries have been somewhat disturbed. – Why: Although it comes from an Old French word meaning “dream,” it also reminds one of “revere” or “reverent.”…
Let Us Sit Upon the Ground and Sing Glad Songs to the Memory of Groovy English Teachers
WHEN MRS. BOISVERT TOLD ME in ninth-grade English class that I had the soul of a poet, I grimaced. “I want to be a scientist,” I said. She had no answer to that. But she had answers to lots of…
Words to Bring Back: “Pellucid”
– Definition: adj. Permitting to a certain extent the passage of light. – Used in a sentence: O, for a more perfectly pellucid presidency*! – Why: I’m in favor of this one strictly for the sound of it; the feeling…
Why I Love: Robert Anton Wilson
IT’S THE WAY HE BLOWS my mind. It’s the way he mixes conviction with doubt. It’s his searingly funny prose. It’s his search for Ultimate Relativity. It’s that he taught me some important Latin phrases, like “Cui bono?” and “Non…
Words to Bring Back: “Concatenation”
– Definition: n. The act of linking together. – Used in a sentence: One positive effect of the 2016 election was the concatenation of disparate progressives, some actually lucid. – Why: Who could argue with a pentasyllabic synonym for “gathering?”
Words to Bring Back: “Adduce”
– Definition: v.t. To present for proof or consideration, as an example; cite; allege. – Used in a sentence: Rod Serling could have saved himself a couple of seconds per episode if he had only prefaced his Twilight Zone introductions…
First Graf(s): The Fellowship of the Ring
IF YOU HAVE ONLY SEEN the movie version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you are missing out on an extraordinary literary work. Granted, it takes a while to get into — a criticism also (and often) leveled against…
Why I Love: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
IT’S THE EPISODE-BY-EPISODE CONTINUITY. It’s the attention to detail (even in the direction). It’s the character development. (It’s also the characters.) It’s the insiders-feeling treatment of religious faith. It’s the strong female roles (mostly). It’s the sometimes-complicated political schemes. It’s…