From the Powell's newsletter
Nov. 20th, 2002 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidA quote, which I thought interesting.
TRAIN-CAR CONSTRUCTIONS
"Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in 'sadness,' 'joy,' or 'regret.' Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, 'the happiness that attends disaster.' Or: 'the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy.' I'd like to show how 'intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members' connects with 'the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.' I'd like to have a word for 'the sadness inspired by failing restaurants' as well as for 'the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.'"
--from "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
I think having more precise words (or word phrases, but then people would be less likely to use them) would help communication. Words can have so many different meanings, or default preferred meanings, to different people. Though it would mean seriously expanding everyone's vocabulary...
And a Lemony Snicket book is #2 on their best-selling list. I like that.
TRAIN-CAR CONSTRUCTIONS
"Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in 'sadness,' 'joy,' or 'regret.' Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, 'the happiness that attends disaster.' Or: 'the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy.' I'd like to show how 'intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members' connects with 'the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.' I'd like to have a word for 'the sadness inspired by failing restaurants' as well as for 'the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.'"
--from "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
I think having more precise words (or word phrases, but then people would be less likely to use them) would help communication. Words can have so many different meanings, or default preferred meanings, to different people. Though it would mean seriously expanding everyone's vocabulary...
And a Lemony Snicket book is #2 on their best-selling list. I like that.
Okay, I'm game.
Date: 2002-11-20 09:26 am (UTC)Enttaeuschungzufreidenheit -- "dissapointing satisfaction"
intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members
Anderesterblichkeitfurcht -- "others aging fear"
the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age
Alternspiegelangst -- "aging mirror dread" (extra points for "angst")
the sadness inspired by failing restaurants
Traurigaenderung -- "sad change" (went more general here)
the excitement of getting a room with a minibar
(can't think of one. "excitement" and "minibar" don't usually occur in the same sentence for me.)