mi fanva

Kaldron on Monoskop.

     Pierre Loti i liked very much as i was mopping up the fringe & wake (or "sillage"--the waft of perfume a person leaves behind when they have gone) of Symbolisme. I had not yet encountered the concept of Orientalism but that was definitely a flavor i liked, not only because it was a gateway to various Eastern cultures themselves, but also because of the cultural misunderstandings of the 18th & 19th centuries, fruitful of a certain kind of writing which for me carried the charm of, say, anthropomorphic Disney animal cartoons.

Loti did them all: Japan, Turkey, Morocco, Tahiti... I have [a 30s "privately printed" copy of Ancient Manners (which was not uncommon in our local used book market in those days) &] a wonderful 1912 edition of Carmen Sylva (pic attached), a collection of essays including "Constantinople in 1890" & a couple on Marie of Rumania, who was (according to this) a personal friend. And i am pleased to just now have discovered (via, alas, Wikipedia) that his house was turned into a museum. (More about the house. A Loti collection online.)

The flavor of Loti's writing is, whenever he thinks about exotic women (which is frequently--the other kind, he sentimentalizes quite as much as any Victorian), very similar to the Japanese mood of iroke. From a modern point of view, it's more camp than erotic. I think of Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm (even more than Salome). --Firbank, of course, is hiding in the arras.

"I have followed the moon from evening twilight to morning twilight; and I have gazed on the secrets of that Medusean face which she averts eternally from the earth." --@KlarkashT

Test pattern.

POSTSCRIPT. Oops! Ancient Manners (AKA "Aphrodite") is a different Pierre (Louÿs)--& mine is apparently the 1928 Whittaker Chambers translation, illustrated by Pogany... Obviously, iroke fits this Pierre better than the sailor (but not entirely, e.g. Madame Chrysanthemum...

ascent of mount noum

(via sharably dot net via tyrese gibson on fb)

Jeeg and Talen.

All prayers are carried by a cat.

In the Jungle.

"There are always going to be Autistic people to families who don’t have any idea what autism is. But it’s also the case that most of us can look at our family histories and say, 'There’s that parent or uncle or cousin who nobody quite knew what was going on with, and I recognize.' And what’s interesting to me is that in the next generation, you’re going to be that parent or uncle or cousin. And you’re going to know what’s going on – you’re going to recognize it in the next generation of Autistic children. Because of that, they’re going to get to grow up with something that we never had. They’re going to get to grow up with a sense of Autistic identity that acknowledges the challenges, but is also positive and affirming and supportive from the very beginning." --Ari Ne'eman

crazy

It seems pejoratives never simply condemn (except in Lojban, which has MABLA, otherwise semantically-empty), but have to map out a culture’s shadow-obsessions, whether excremental or sexual, adscititiously. So now we are starting to talk about “the R-word” (analogous to "N-") 'retarded' --& looking askance at such perennials as 'stupid' (JMIBLE 'understand-weak'—which is not pejorative in Lojban) & 'insane' (FENKI--ditto) as well. Though that may make it problematic, in the heat of the moment, to have to actually think about what it is you are condemning, I say that that is a good thing.

In politics, for example, which is another kind of team sports, I am angered by—what, the opposing team behaving like they always do? (We need a verb for this--. JIKPRO?) Them acting out their fantasies about how the world works (XLALI 'bad' by standard of x3: FATCI 'the facts')? Their hypocrisy? (PALCI 'immoral' covers this--.) Their refusal to acknowledge what I consider to be the real problems? (Something with 'refuse' CPAPRO. 'Problem' NABMI, probably.) These can all be specified, & when they are, I am a bit closer to understanding the motives of my enemy. (And maybe, after all, there might be something they have in common with me.)

Other typical human behaviors, I might as well call: ignorant (TOLDJUNO), denialist, selfish (SEZYSE’U), malicious, materialistic, foolish BEBNA (which is making bad choices that are known to be bad), short-sighted, or mistaken TOLDRA in some other way (causality, anyone?)… If somebody nearly hits me in traffic, I can say they’re not paying enough attention to other cars, or else maybe they expect me to get out of their way (this—entitlemented—accounts for a lot of things that aggravate me). (DUSLEBNA 'excessively-take'?)

Somehow when we want to be extremely condemnatory, or dismissive, it’s always the thinking-ability of the other that is called into question. –Not, say: the poorly chosen assumptions/ misleading worldview/ lazy application of reasoning which might have led to this debacle. It’s like I don’t want to argue, because they won’t be capable of hearing it anyway. The problem, not between two humans, but removed to a location inside the head of one of them.

But if I am turning this interpersonal disagreement into a matter which my very own culture regards as definitely not something blameworthy--indeed, a defense to its highest condemnation, the charge of murder--, isn’t this making my assigning-blame into an empty gesture? What I would want to have said, rather, is more like: "You should be prevented from doing that, even by coercive means if necessary." Because that’s what we do with crazy people: we disregard their words.

Mirrored by the other side, who also disregard these words.

The Right Word

As Confucius says (Analects 58): "If terms are incorrect, language will be incongruous; and if language be incongruous, deeds will be imperfect... Hence, a man of superior mind, certain of his terms, is fitted to speak; and being certain of what he says can proceed upon it."

Awhile back i encountered the German term Verschlimmbesserung--an "improvement" that makes things worse (via BetterThanEnglish dot com). This seems very much of our times, when tamper monkeys not only have seized control of the means of production, they also seem infected with a restlessness entirely disconnected from any awareness of the consequence of their actions.

I thought about finding an easier to remember word. Clearly, abprovement & deprovement (rather than simply mux up et al) retain the turn of wit upon the original. As it happens, the latter has already occurred, as well as the slightly more clumsy disimprovement...--Nor unprovement, nor antiprovement.

Investigating the roots brings us to the antonym ameliorate (from Latin ad + melior) & thus, the rare pejorate. A word that survives only in a adjective pejorative--& a meaning not quite what i was thinking of. (Besides, i can't imagine using pejoration in a colloquy!)

Too, some of the same territory is covered by exacerbate (the word i would use in a formal essay), as well as the old meaning of aggravate, before it started dissolving into "irritate"... Alas, you can't really distinguish the noun of the thing-improved from the act of improving, with either of these.

The need is felt. Unless Vulcan or Lojban (malxauzmagau isn't right, though something could be done with the attitudinals .ianai or je'unai; nardragau seems closer still) can come to our aid (okay, in Esperanto you can say plibonigacxo), we may just have to settle for disimprovement.

(Update.) As a thing to symbolize it, the CD (or as i call it, "disco compacto") fits the bill. And most of the real Verschlimmbesserungen we see come as memos, so maybe that will come to be their new meaning... Then, going back to the original idea, we do have bungle & misrepair (too much like disrepair). Better: MISFIX.