lexicon-scape : down and out in paris and london
17 October 2010
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| orrery | pedantry | neurasthenic |
| celerity | parboiled | congenital |
| hecatombs | altercation | drudgery |
| darning | genially | inimical |
| auvergnat | scruples | acquiesce |
| bordels | din | excrescence |
| fastidious | cadging | obsolescence |
| exigeand | cadaverous | parsimony |
| expound | paroxysm | covet |
| prosaic | chauvinistic | damnably |
| squalid | veritable | extempore |
| anodyne | wept | benefactor |
| ingratiating | oratorical | grotesque |
| flocculent | incorrigibly | sired |
| dace | baize | furtively |
| abject | duns | |
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above is a list of words taken from down and out in paris and london, by george orwell.
the words are in order as they appear in the book. the collective's common denominators [for there are many] are that the word made me pause reading; usually due to a distracting interest in the word's sound, its phonetics, meaning, etymology, geographical origin, potential malapropism or some other quality of the word. these qualities set out the criteria for a type of survey.
it is a list of words, and it is a survey of a book. i like the idea that this survey can be a reduced reading of the book, granted the particular parameters/filters i employed irreversibly garble any broad meaningfulness from orwell's pages. these three columns of words represent a lexicon-scape, an essence in some form, albeit a contrived one.
the process needs more discipline in order to produce a rigorous series of lists of different books; the criteria needs more elaboration and understand - but as a framework for the re-cognization of text there seems to be at least some obvious benefits for the reader [...questioning the meanings of seemingly unambiguous prose; testing the rhythm of text etc] and i suspect many curious, literally abstract interpretations of books and text out there [...graphing the number of syllables per word?]
i'm reminded of borges' library of babel; more to follow with next lexicon-scape. [note to self; think of a less clumsy word. perhaps into the portmanteaux archive]Labels: borges, lexicon-scape, london, orwell
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