{"id":3401,"date":"2019-05-13T18:15:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T23:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/?p=3401"},"modified":"2019-05-13T18:21:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T23:21:23","slug":"words-i-had-to-look-up-while-reading-this-fabulous-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/archives\/2019\/05\/words-i-had-to-look-up-while-reading-this-fabulous-novel.html","title":{"rendered":"Words I Had to Look Up While Reading This Fabulous Novel."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Go read this: <strong>&#8220;The Angel of History&#8221; by Rabih Alameddine<\/strong>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com\/index.php\/bookreview\/the-angel-of-history-a-novel\">Here&#8217;s a review<\/a> if you want a synopsis.) My dad introduced me to this author last year (with his novel &#8220;An Unnecessary Woman&#8221;) and then I just happened across this new(er) novel in the library on Saturday. It was So!GOOD! And so literate and compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>caisson = a large watertight chamber; a chest or wagon<\/li><li>chelonian = basically turtle-esque<\/li><li>jellabiya = traditional Egyptian garment<\/li><li>dithyrambic = a frenzied impassioned hymn and dance; an irregular poetic expression; a wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing<\/li><li>rachitic = rickety; like having a inflammed spine<\/li><li>recrudescent = revival of material; recurrence of symptoms; renewal<\/li><li>inanition = exhaustion; lack of mental or spiritual vigor<\/li><li>cephalore = a saint who is generally depicted carrying their own head<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Cephalore was my favorite. \ud83d\ude42  Inanition I do feel like I should have already known, heh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was also really proud of myself for picking up on random literary\/musical references: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t write, I couldn&#8217;t write, stop all the clocks, poetry has gone and left me&#8230;&#8221; (W.H. Auden reference, a poem I JUST taught my students!). <\/li><li>&#8220;Hope might be the thing with feathers but in the Middle East we hunt those birds for sport. (Dickinson)<\/li><li>&#8220;I sound like a Miles Davis trumpet, like a Bach partita, no, wait, a Bendel bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet, whereas you&#8217;re a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop, but baby, if you&#8217;re the bottom, I&#8217;m the top.&#8221; (Cole Porter)<\/li><li>&#8220;Do you understand me now, Satan said, when things go wrong I seem to be bad, I&#8221;m just a soul whose intentions are good, oh lord, please don&#8217;t let me be misunderstood.&#8221; (Nina Simone, et al.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(I&#8217;m sure there were more I didn&#8217;t notice!!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Go read this: &#8220;The Angel of History&#8221; by Rabih Alameddine. (Here&#8217;s a review if you want a synopsis.) My dad introduced me to this author last year (with his novel &#8220;An Unnecessary Woman&#8221;) and then I just happened across this &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/archives\/2019\/05\/words-i-had-to-look-up-while-reading-this-fabulous-novel.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,27,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-mots","category-readin","category-recommending"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3404,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3401\/revisions\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}