Category: words

“It is much better for a writer to be underrecognized than over, in terms of keeping one’s head down, like the proverbial Japanese nail, so that one might observe the world unhammered and unimpeded. Abjure fame and avoid obscurity. But between those extremes lies the perch where a writer occasionally might do some good work.”

“The e-reader certainly sorts out the sheep from the goats, and divides those who need to read from those who like to turn the pages.”

“Translation is assumed to be faithful, whereas the substitution of adjectives is clearly a game. Likewise, when we rewrite the book from memory, we are assumed to be doing so faithfully, to the best of our paltry ability.”

“On ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’, Kanye raps ‘I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven’ and weirdly, that’s exactly what happened to Dante. He had a dream, kind of, and then he was in heaven.”

“As an insider’s account, 1F: The Labour Diary of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, has proved popular among readers seeking an antidote to patchy information from the government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), and at times wildly speculative media reports.”

“A comic that recently depicted one of its characters as suffering from a chronic nosebleed after a visit to the Fukushima power plant has been suspended indefinitely after outrage from Japanese officials.”

“The US encyclopaedia has unveiled a series of terms destined to enter their collegiate dictionary in 2014. Those include many pop-culture phrases including hashtag, catfish, freegan, selfie and steampunk.”

“For centuries, English’s defenders have decried the language’s decline. Looking back, it is hard to understand why they created a fuss about words that are now part of polite speech.”

Or, how “Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed” got attributed to, of all people, Arthur Schopenhauer.

“Originally published in 1658 in Latin and German,” Orbis Sensualium Pictus – or The World of Things Obvious to the Senses drawn in Pictures, as it was rendered in English – “with its 150 pictures showing everyday activities like brewing beer, tending gardens, and slaughtering animals, is immediately familiar as an ancestor of today’s children’s literature.”