analepsis and catachresis

pg. 127

"The notes where what she had, and all she would have, and whatever reconstitution she could manage -- was this analepsis? Was it catachresis? From some mist of memory emerged Greek words of a literary theory course at Brown and she wondered whether they pertained to this crisis -- would have to do." ... "Analepsis, catachresis, no: the word she was after was 'floundering.'"

the character is working on a book that has made no progress in years. she is looking back at her notes and trying to make sense of them.

analepsis is the recovery of strength after sickness; it can also refer to a species of epileptic attack originating from gastric disorder. definitions could not be found in the supposed literary sense of the word

catachresis is the misuse or strained use of words. use of the wrong word for the context; use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech, like blind mouths (MW)

anyway, there is too much verbiage between the two hyphens in the first sentence for the reader's brain to accommodate in buffer space;

also, the two words are more 'called upon'/mentioned rather than actually functionally used in the sentence. this reflects poorly on the writer as an attempt to throw some words around?

disingenuous

pg. 123-124

disingenuous -- lacking in frankness, not straightforward or candid, insincere. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated.

"Perhaps if the thought of his life then, of his sister's life now, still had the power to tighten his throat and sour the air (another cigarette lit might clear it), then was it [sic.] disingenuous not to say so?"

the character is wondering whether he should mention his escape from a small town in his memoirs;

Works Cited

THE E'S CHILLUN = The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud; Alfred K. Knopf, First Edition, Hardcover

MW = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, principal copyright 2003

the ironed lace antimacassar on the chintz armchair

pg. 123

an antimacassar is a covering for use on chairs to prevent oily heads from doing soak damage... like the cloth that hangs on the seats of airplane seats. macassar was a hair oil that came from the port city of Makassar in Indonesia...used on the heads of men of Victorian (1837 - 1901) and Edwardian (1901 - 1910) times

chintz is a cloth made out of calico with flowery designs...perhaps like a doily...

the phrase is used in remembrance of a character's mother

blandishment with a jolly kind of bullying

pg. 30

blandishment is "flattery intended to persuade"; something a little bit more extreme than a nanny saying "you be a good boy and take your medicine"

the phrase describes how Blodwen Page treats her sick husband Dr. Page:

"...broken and bedridden, he was at her mercy, subjected to a treatment which combined blandishment with a kind of jolly bullying."

first sentence

"Late one October afternoon in the year 1921, a shabby young man gazed with fixed intensity through the window of a third-class compartment in the almost empty train labouring up the Penowell valley from Swansea."

nostalgia obliterates the past

"No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything."

last sentence

The author, after having recounted the events of a summer, inserts a disclaimer and faults nostalgia for any embellishments.

a sterling group of biologists

sterling: an adjective describing something that is thoroughly excellent

not so excellent < excellent < more excellent in some parts than in others < sterling

from the autobiography of Eric R. Kandel, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2000:

Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2000, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 2001

prestidigitated a perfect cylinder?

pg. 12

prestidigitation is another word for sleight of hand, legerdemain
to prestidigitate something would seem to mean to conjure something, "magically"

the cousin from Prague, Josef, just collected a bunch of cigarette stubs, and made a new cigarette by rolling into a new paper the remains in the stubs. he "had prestidigitated a perfect cylinder, as thick and straight and nearly as smooth as if rolled by machine." well, he 'pressed' the roll with his 'digits' and shaped it into a cylinder, but this is different from "conjuring" it like a magic trick...

the omniveillant maternal loupe

pg. 9

a loupe is a magnifying glass for jewelers and watchmakers

veiller is a french verb meaning to watch over, to take care. veillant is the present participle, watching over, or taking care.

best guess for omniveillant: watching over everything

one of the main characters, Sam, after having exaggerated his roles at his job, is wondering whether his mother knew all about his exaggeration, played along and told his cousin Josef about his job as an "artist"; so that Sam would be embarrassed in explaining his actual position. or whether his mother didn't see through the exaggeration, and really expected that Sam could get Josef a job. whether the omniveillant maternal loupe wasn't really so omniveillant.

first sentence

"In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini."

Works Cited

TDZ = The Discomfort Zone, by Jonathan Franzen
YHCHI = Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, http://www.yhchang.com/

by young hae chang heavy industries

out of the internet and (into the night)

a couple, escaping from their old town, to a new one
have an argument about their insecurities
the car crashes, but they seem to be ok in the end

Lipps Inc's Funkytown:

"Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me,
Town to get me movin'
Keep me groovin' with some
energy."

a penny-ante investment club

pg. 7

penny-ante is an adjective describing a small amount of money, a 'trifling sum of money';

the author's mother was "a founding member of a penny-ante investment club";

on a to-do list of the author's mother who has cancer

"Invite best friends over one by one and say goodbye to them forever."

pg. 5, bottom

the sclerotic buildup of family photographs

pg. 5

an espaliered fruit tree

pg. 4

an espaliered tree is a tree that has been shaped into 2 dimensions. the espalier is the framework on which the tree is grown and "fit" to.

the author is collecting frames from a wall in the family room, and likens it to picking fruit from "an espaliered fruit tree", because the picking area is 2D

first sentence

"There'd been a storm that evening in St. Louis."