Thursday, November 17, 2011

A Finnegans Wake Up Call


There's a challenge and here's another list to help.

After some digging I came across this great guide to the Wake. The Wake he says and only a few lines into this post and not even the book bought; the temerity of this man.

Anyway the digging uncovered this behemoth of a word:

honorificabilitudinitatibus

(used in Ulysses)

that according to Wikipedia is

"the dative and ablative plural of the medieval latin word honorificabilitudinitas that can be translated as the "state of being able to achieve honours." It is mentioned by the character Costard in Act V, Scene I of William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost."

Costard is referring to two pretentious and pedantic idiots, Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel

"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master has not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap dragon."

Flap dragon being a game involving terying to eat hot raisins from a bowl of flaming brandy.

Put that word in your pipe and smoke it. There's enough there for a couple of years.

Also this word only appears once in Shakespeare's canon so is a hapax legomenon. It comes from the Greek apax lenomenon meaning something only said once. Also it is the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.

Good advice about reading it is passed on by the digitarian on the list page FW page
"The best advice I've read about reading this is the first time you do, don't bother trying to make total sense of it. Just go with the flow. Read it to yourself out loud, in about half hour blocks. Just enjoy the fun of the language. I spent over a month on the first two pages before I opted for this advice. You start to get a sense of the "language" by the end of your reading, when it'd be a good time to go back and start again, as the opening and closing make it apparent you should."









99 books


Anthony Burgess' list to be found at Library Thing. It's going to be a tall order to read all these but let's give it a go. Also this site is good for other lists and being a sucker for a list is at the top of my list of things I'm a sucker for.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

LRB Painter



Sadly, the painter of the LRB's covers Peter Campbell has died. I think his covers were what got me into reading the LRB, I wasn't drawn by discursive reviews on books about attic greek slang or cathar lesbianism, but by the lightness and curiosity piquieness of the covers.

The diary item by mary-Kay Williams on page 31 of the 17 nov edition gives a short insight into how amazing Peter Campbell was.

Things to check and look up

his articles, on a search there are 377 items, right.

great passage:

"And that the time has come honestly to enjoy the shine on the rump of a Munnings horse, the discretion of a Nicholson relief, the fresh-as-paint prettiness of a Susie Cooper teapot, the housewifely amateurishness of an Omega Workshops painted table, the wit of a Shell poster: to chuck exclusive theories overboard."

Munnings horse



a nicolson relief @


susie cooper teapot


an omega workshop painted table

Duncan Grant's painted 'Lilypond' table for the Omega workshops bloomsbury group

shell poster @

and there are more references to be followed up in his article about the Hayward's 30 exhibition.

Lubetkin and Tecton High Point flats

ArchWeek Image


William Lescaze buildings for the Darlington Hall Estate (typo in the article Darlington)



McKnight Kauffer posters



Edward Johnston calligraphy






this is for stuff that crosses the transom of my mind; stuff that i don't want being buried by the humdrum:

so today so far that German photographer Andreas Gursky and the selling of his Rhein II for 2.7M knicker and at and also other pricey photos.

Apparently he only makes 6 copies of each photo, but I suppose they are so expensive because each of his snaps are the size of a bus. Imagine getting that back in a snappy snaps envelope. Some more of his photies can be seen at Poul Webb's blog and also at The World of Photographers.


hello world