I Know This Isn’t Really Original But Im Obsessed With How English Words That Refer To The Bodily,

i know this isn’t really original but im obsessed with how english words that refer to the bodily, the tangible, the elemental etc are so often of anglo-saxon/germanic origin e.g. (heart, blood, jaw, flesh) or observable phenomena, like adjectives describing light (glisten, gloaming, glitter, gleam, gloom, glow, dark, fire) or places (hearth, hall, hill), and the most stark, primal emotions or states (hate, love, life, lust, death) and of course fuck, shit, bitch, cunt etc– these often monosyllabic, consonant heavy words…and then you have the lilting, limpid romance/latinate, words like acquiesce and exacerbate and agrarian and pellucid and clemency and lucidity…and how maybe the secret of all great english language poetry is a textural balancing of the push-pull of the germanic and the romantic/latinate, a balancing of these two energies. like some of the most powerful moments in shakespeare are where the verbosity falls away and you have these plain utterances (“to be or not to be” or lear’s dying “look there look there”– all anglo saxon words) that are so powerful precisely because the language is so ornate elsewhere. i once came up with an elaborate wildly incoherent theory about this in the pub with some drunk american masters student who was dressed like harry styles

More Posts from Urnihilistgirlfriend and Others

if cannibalism in media has a million fans, im one of them

if metaphors using cannibalism has 5 fans, im one of them

if art of cannibalism has 1 fan, that one is me

if descriptions of cannibalism has no fans, i am no longer alive

if the world is against cannibalism i am against the world

5 years ago

Take me to church talking about being disenchanted by organized religion and instead finding worship in the your lover and finding commune through esoteric rituals comprising of the very things considered unholy in the religion you were poisoned by on incident of birth…. hozier really did That

6 years ago

i have the complexion of a sickly victorian child, the disposable income of a 10th century serf, and the fashion sense and eccentric personality of a professor of the arts in the 1920s who does a lot of cocaine

6 years ago

Due to personal reasons my heart will be thrilled by the still of your hand, that’s how I know now that you understand.

5 years ago

ok so just to soothe my aching sickened soul id like to point out that catcher in the rye is about a boy dealing with intense depression and grief over losing his younger brother and this is why he fails out of school. he spends the book searching for deep human connections and grows increasingly frustrated that no one seems to understand him and everyone only seems to be surface level interacting. he just wants to feel seen and loved. 

he also recalls, upon visiting his old teacher, the way that he was molested as a child. the entire point of this book is that holden caulfield is a boy struggling with depression and trauma and he wants to save other children from experiencing the harshness of the world that he had to experience when he was younger. 

pls stop saying this book is pretentious and that he’s sociopathic. all that is doing is demonizing very common depression thought patterns and making people who suffer from trauma and mental illness seem like they are sociopaths. ty send post 

6 years ago
Sad, Sad Day.

sad, sad day.

6 years ago

Awesome Knot Theory video. Enjoy!

4 years ago

wholesome student life things that we should collectively start romancizing

waking up and being genuinely thrilled to go to class because today is THAT CLASS you love so much you’d like it to never end

coffee breaks with friends, chatting and joking about this particularly hard essay and the prof’s mannerism

coffee breaks on your own, as you absent-mindedly watch the people around you, while thinking about what you’re working on

finding this book you’ve been dying to read for so long, and borrowing it from the library

the feeling of excitement that goes through you whenever you remember The Book is in your backpack

understanding everything during demanding classes and being genuinely interested in the subject

buying a New Special Pen and taking colorful notes that look super pretty

not being able to shut up about your school projects (no your friends dont really care about the intricate details of what you’re working on, they don’t even have the same major as you, but they’re happy to hear you rant with such a burning passion)

actually doing the extra reading and having your curiosity so piqued by what you’re reading that you go on and on and suddenly its 1am and what happened

printing the project you’ve spent so much time and energy on and feeling the paper’s warmth

actually submitting that project without feeling awful about it because you know you did your best and aren’t responsible for what happens next

when you finally finish this Super Hard And Important Essay at like 3am, open the window and feel the cold night air on your burning cheeks and everything is dark and quiet and you can see the moon and you’re at peace with everything for a few minutes

when this professor you admire says you did a great job and/or that you’re talented!!!!

realizing two concepts that seemed so far away from each other and that you discovered in wildly different contexts are actually interlinked, then Realizing™ things and linking concepts/works/articles to each other at the speed of light & being super excited about it

being so deeply immersed in your work that you didn’t realize two hours have passed

finding the Perfect Spot at the library

that Pure Joy moment when you FINALLY understand that super obscure sentence/text

when you feel anxious because you’re not done with your homework & the deadline is super tight & your friend tells you they aren’t done yet either

same but with an even more intense relief feeling when you realize you both haven’t even started yet

when the professor starts a new reasoning and you can predict what the next idea/the final conclusion will be

when the professor mention your favorite novel/author/fictional character in class and you feel like your internal screech of joy could shatter glass

the Academic Salt™ that has you like 👀👀

when the professor tears apart an author or scholar you hate and you’re like YES I WANT BLOOD GIVE ME BLOOD

when you learn that Cool New Fact that makes you reconsider your whole life

leaving the library after a long productive day and feeling like nothing is real but experiencing everything more intensely

leaving the library at night after a long study session and everybody has left already and its just you and the long neon-lit corridors then stepping outside and smelling the crisp night wind

feel free to add your own!!!

6 years ago

today my literature prof was daydreaming about being a existentialist poet in 1960’s paris. he was going on about how he just wanted to drink wine in dusty bookshops and argue philosophical theories with strangers and i swear the entire class let out the most dreamy sigh… i’m convinced everyone who loves literature is the exact same person

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i am pretentious

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