“Conflation (noun): A combining or blending or two or more versions of a text; confusion or mixing up. Adjective: conflated; Verb: conflate.
‘Big, heavy textbook….They aim to take in a typical freshman, gawky and clueless, process him cover to cover, and turn out a conflation of Walter Pater and George Orwell.’ Richard Lanham, Style.”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Roland * Oliver de Vienne * Naimon of Bavaria * Archbishop Turpin * Ogier the Dane * Huon de Bordeaux * Fierabras * Renaud de Montauban * Ganelon * Guy de Bourgogne * William of Gellone * Giard de Rousillon * Aymeri de Narbonne
The Twelve Paladins (or Twelve Peers) dominated the imagination of medieval Europe for at lest 500 years. At the heart of the story is a band of twelve noble nights who assist the Emperor Charlemagne in defending Christendom form the assaults of Saracens from the south (especially Muslim Spain) and pagans from the north, Into this central epic are woven fragments of Norse and classical mythology, doomed love, chivalric duels, legendary quests, as well as real battles transformed into romantic legend. This bundle of stories is known as The Matter of France and is consciously interlinked with The Matter of Britain (the Arthurian cycle of tales) and The Matter of Rome.
There are many variant lists of the Twelve Peers but the first seven given here have to be included. Roland, an historical marcher-lord of the Carolingian Breton frontier, fated to die protecting the Christian army at the battle fought at the Roncevaux Pass, is at the center of the tale. Key tales recount how he won his horse Veillantif, his magical sword Durendal and his battle-horn Oliphant. Second in chivalric glory is Oliver, brother of Roland’s love, Aude. Naimon is the German straight guy, Charlemagne’s most dependable soldier and father of Sir Bertram. Archbishop Turpin of Reims is a historical figure who died in 800 AD fused with another warrior cleric. Ogier is both knight-errant and the once and future king of Denmark, asleep beneath Kronborg Castle wrapped up in his beard. Huon is set a series of near impossible quests by his emperor to cleanse him of the blood-guilt of killing Prince Charlot. Fierabras is the Saracen champion who converts to Christianity.
Renaud is another major figure, supported by three brothers (Alard, Guiscard, and Richard), a magical sword (Froberge) and a magical horse (Bayard). Ganelon is the Judas-like traitor within the band of twelve brothers who will be torn apart by four wild horses. Guy de Bourgogne marries the Saracen beauty Floripas (sister of Fierabras). And William of Gellone is the archetypally adventurous second son who advances himself to become the Marquis Court Nez.
But unifying all these characters is their purity and chivalry. So a Spanish soldier about to be executed on the banks of the Rio Plate in Argentina in 1536 could look his commander in the eye and declare, ‘Some days things will as God wills, and the Twelve Peers will rule,’ and know that these last words would be remembered by his comrades.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
“An editor should have a pimp for a brother, so he’d have someone to look up to.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
“social skills training: A type of behavioral therapy in which a therapist describes and models appropriate behaviors (such as waiting for a turn, sharing toys, asking for help, or responding to teasing). Through role-playing, a child has the opportunity to practice these skills in a therapeutic setting.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“Molding: Strip of material, usually of stone or wood, which may be shaped into a concave, convex, projecting, or sunken forms to be a decorative edging for doors, windows, cornices, panels, etc.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
“Never despise fashion. It’s what we have instead of God.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.
“Bad News: Those who have power always complain that journalists are only interested in bad news. ‘But if the newspapers in a country are full of good news, the jails are full of good people.’
Elsewhere, bad news comes as light relief from the unrelenting rightness of those with expertise and power. They insist that they are applying the correct and therefore inevitable solution to each problem. And when it fails they avoid self-doubt or a public examination of what went wrong by moving on to the next right answer. Bad news is the citizen’s only substitute for public debate.”
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Social Sciences
“Godwin earnestly sticks by her characters… The only trouble is, like the people next door, they’re nice but not very interesting.”
Saturday Review
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
“Confession (noun): Admission of acknowledgement, especially of personal sin, wrongdoing, responsibility, etc; a public disclosure of one’s misconduct or fault in a matter; declaration of faith or love; candid, often soul-searching or remorseful memoir or autobiographical discourse. Plural: a spiritual autobiography or book of frank reminiscences or revelations. Adjective: confessional; Adverb: confessionally; Noun: confessionalism; Verb: confess.
‘I’m catching her up on the details only to make a point about bad confessional writers (the Voice is full of them): they’ve got their eye on the effect their making. Far too often they confess something only to make us admire their anguish, their courage, their honesty; or they squeeze a little bit of experience until it’s dry, hoping to make in yield up some grand historical truth.’ David Denby, The New Republic”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“story map: A graphic used to illustrate the various elements of a short story. Typically, these elements include setting (time and place); conflict; protagonist; antagonist; minor characters; and elements of the plot (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, crisis, falling action, resolution, and denouement).”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
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