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nincompated Lit Genius – List of Interesting Words

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A word made up by poet Wallace Stevens, found in his poem “The Comedian as the Letter C” as part of the phrase “nincompated pedagogue.” Scholar Eleanor Cook explains:

“A ‘nincompated pedagogue’ is a pedagogue with a nincompoop’s pate–nincompated and also syncopated (the syllable ‘poop’ is omitted).

Got that? (A “pedagogue” is a teacher, and the “pate” is the head or top of the head.)

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googol Lit Genius – List of Interesting Words

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Googol is a term from mathematics, meaning the number 10¹⁰⁰, or

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

It has famously been borrowed (with spelling changed) by these folks:

The company name Google suggests both the vast number of pages it searches (and results it brings) and the way eyes “google”–they are, after all, the searching “eyes” of the Web.

“Googol” is not to be confused with the Russian author Gogol, who’s associated more with the nose.

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“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.” T.S. Eliot – The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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Prufrock is already anguished at his failure to communicate with the woman: see “It is impossible to say just what I mean!” above. Here he dreads failing to understand her. The first of these parallels failure as a writer (a professional communicator); the second, failure as a critic (a professional interpreter). Eliot himself would become both a famous writer and critic, though not until after the publication of “Prufrock.”

Immediately after this vision of having his “interpretation” of the relationship and his inner psyche shot down, Prufrock turns his criticism inward, radically re-assessing his place in the drama of life.

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9 years

I don’t think Prufrock is empathizing so much with the female character(s?) that he would worry about whether /he/ understands /her/. I think his fear is not of her inner frustration or hurt feelings, but of her spoken and acted rebuke: he doesn’t want to be humiliated. He shows little interest, in the rest of the poem, in what the women have to say (they’re “talking of Michelangelo”; that’s all we know); instead he’s thinking of what /he/ has to say, and what this or that woman’s response to it will be.

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List of Idioms Lit Genius (Ft. Lit Genius) – List of Idioms

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An alphabetical list of popular idioms in the English language.

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344,302

8 years

@perfectrhyme are we free to add any idioms?

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124,747

8 years

@jjk01 ya :)

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I was drunk all the day, Li Bai (Ft. Arthur Waley) – Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志)

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Li Bai was a poet famous for his love of wine, and for exploring the changing moods and sensory derangements of intoxication. He was one of the group of scholars his fellow poet Du Fu dubbed the “Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup.”

“Drunk” here is a slightly inadequate translation of the word zui:

James J.Y Liu comments that zui in poetry “does not mean quite the same thing as ‘drunk,’ ‘intoxicated,’ or ‘inebriated’, but rather means being mentally carried away from one’s normal preoccupations…“ Liu translates zui as "rapt with wine.”

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6,157

10 years

Just a little literary connection here. Although I prefer the translation of Baudelaire which says “Be drunken,” rather than “Be drunk.” The distinction seems to be similar to the one you make above.

http://lit.genius.com/Charles-baudelaire-be-drunk-annotated

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Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志) Li Bai (Ft. Arthur Waley) – Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志)

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Translated by Arthur Waley.

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Life in the world is but a big dream; Li Bai (Ft. Arthur Waley) – Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志)

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A common theme in the poetry of the ages. See e.g. Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Or Poe:

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

Or “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat”:

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.

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ungulate Lit Genius – List of Interesting Words

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A term meaning, roughly, “hoofed mammal.”

Includes horses, deer, sheep, cow, pigs, giraffes, zebras, etc.–but also, strangely enough, whales and dolphins, who are descended from early ungulates. That’s right, whales and dolphins are mammals who went back in to the water during their evolutionary history.

What the hell, why not? Looks like they’re enjoying themselves.

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To a Butterfly William Wordsworth – To a Butterfly

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Of Mice and Men: Chapter 1 John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men: Chapter 1

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A classic 1937 novella by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men tells the story of migrant ranch workers George Milton and Lennie Small and their struggles to make a life for themselves in the California of the Great Depression.

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260

9 years

The book has a prominent theme of mercy killing those that would be deemed burdensome upon other members of society illustrated with Lenny who is mentally handicapped, the puppies the character Slim is forced to kill because his dog had too many, and Candy’s dog who many deem as being to old. Although, the reasoning behind these mercy killings is the idea that death would be better for them. Slim tells everyone that his dog wouldn’t have survived feeding all of the puppies she gave birth to. Everyone except Candy believes the old dog is suffering in old age. Ultimately, Lenny’s mental handicap has gotten him in trouble before, and this time it has led to him murdering someone. This idea of mercy killing though is interesting to see in the given that it takes place during a time period when the U.S. was being pushed towards an almost social Darwinian mentality. The main groups that would be negatively affected by the poverty of the Great Depression are the elderly because they might be too old to work or sick from old age, the children of parents that don’t have enough resources to feed them, and the mentally handicap that are quite able to function at the level that is expected. All three of these groups would easily be perceived as burdens upon society.

The book has a prominent theme of mercy killing those that would be deemed burdensome upon other members of society illustrated with Lenny who is mentally handicapped, the puppies the character Slim is forced to kill because his dog had too many, and Candy's dog who many deem as being to old. Although, the reasoning behind these mercy killings is the idea that death would be better for them. Slim tells everyone that his dog wouldn't have survived feeding all of the puppies she gave birth to. Everyone except Candy believes the old dog is suffering in old age. Ultimately, Lenny's mental handicap has gotten him in trouble before, and this time it has led to him murdering someone. This idea of mercy killing though is interesting to see in the given that it takes place during a time period when the U.S. was being pushed towards an almost social Darwinian mentality. The main groups that would be negatively affected by the poverty of the Great Depression are the elderly because they might be too old to work or sick from old age, the children of parents that don't have enough resources to feed them, and the mentally handicap that are quite able to function at the level that is expected. All three of these groups would easily be perceived as burdens upon society.

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734

9 years

The title “Of Mice and Men” is a reference of the poem “To a Mouse” – “The best laid schemes of mice an' men / Gang aft angley” (“Gang aft angley means often go wrong). Already, the title is foreshadowing that things will go wrong for George and Lennie, and the reference to the mouse and how Lennie likes to pet them and how George is described similarly to a mouse makes this even more obvious.

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J1M

9 years

This is spoiler heavy for a page that discusses the opening of the novel. Whilst interesting in content – could you not comment on themes without giving away key plot details on the first page of reading for many?

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101

8 years

I think the paragraph could be written more interestingly, one of the ways with minor edition to the original is as below:
The evening of a hot day started a little wind to move among the leaves. The shadows climbed up the hill towards the top. On the sandy river bank sat the rabbits as quiet as the cobbled stones, indistinguishable untill the serenity was disturbed by the sound of heavy foot steps crushing the sun dried crisp sycamore leaves.

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bob

8 years

lol

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8 years

Steinbeck seems to be celebrating the natural beauty of the setting, while juxtaposing the damage that human interference has caused.

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8 years

…and Mrs. Pruett makes an obvious comment with big words

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8 years

btw, Lennie dies in the end

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Mrs.Rottenburrow

8 years

Mrs.Prueeet ur a faget. fuk off m8

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8 years

ur a faget

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yaboi

8 years

its not gay if its a 3 wayyyyyy ;0

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jean paul gautier

4 years

fleur

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