#philology

A need

What do the bizzare etymologies of Jean-Pierre Brisset, made-up languages for literary fiction, The Dialectic of Enlightenment, Latin grammarians, Horace’s Epodes, and the Papyrus of Ani have in common? Absolutely nothing. Yet, taken together they provide an unusually coherent picture of a hitherto unacknowledged non-tradition of linguistic investigation. At these moments, particularly within the traditions of European writing which can loosely be termed “avant-garde,” philology goes rogue, hearkening to unearthly imperatives and barely comprehended intimations, and producing results well beyond those generated by more respectable – and supposedly more grounded – philological endeavors. ‘Pataphilology: An Irreader seeks to document and analyze such moments of philological speculation, invention, and détournement. In using the term ‘pataphilology, Gurd and van Gerven Oei are not proposing a facile analogy with ‘pataphysics, where ‘pataphilology would be philology’s wacky twin, always out for a lark, never doing anything real. This would presuppose an operation (even if parenthetical) on philology analogous to a shift from physics to ’pataphysics, something which Alfred Jarry, to whom this volume owes the latter neologism, appears to contradict in his initial definition: “Pataphysics […] is the science of that which is superinduced upon metaphysics, whether within or beyond the latter’s limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond physics.” Any way you cut it, ‘pataphysics is a physics that demands — or, better, that relies on — an utmost philological sensitivity to writing, unheard etymologies, unstable translations, incomplete formalizations, and haphazard decryptions. This volume seeks, then, to document how philological practices — no matter how non-standard, disreputable, or academically useless — have played a role in the production of avant-garde literature and knowledge, as well as forgotten, alternative, or fictitious scholarly projects. Ranging from the papyrus of Ani to the future languages of speculative fiction, from the fictional tablets of Armand Schwerner to the Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, from Horace to Lacan, ’Pataphilology: An Irreader is a cabinet of philological curiosity — and a map of the ever-changing constellations that emerge when human language loses its chains.

Okay!

That’s hilarious.

But also stupidly vain and self-aggrandising in the most insufferable way.

“HOORAY FOR ME!!!!!!!”

wait... people will literally listen to me ramble about shit like this? i do this like daily (with myself) as an etymology obsessed (philologist wannabe) writer. now ima have to start actually posting on my yt channel way more now. lol

Suddenly I'm back to tumblr after like two years or so

Working on my final papers rn and I decided to do that one 100 days of productivity challenge hope I won't give up on it on the day two lol

i mean it's not wrong-wrong, but enim is usually the second element unless the element that proceeds it is meant to be emphatic, in which case it can go third (with emphasis on what is now the second element). but in this case that would put unusual emphasis on est, which is approximately the least emphatic word in the latin language. it's practically an enclitic is how unemphatic it is.