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ee cummings

language, random facts 0 Comment »

I have always wanted to know what the true background of non-capitalizing “ee cummings” is – the usual story is that “he preferred it like that”.
It turns out, the internet (all hail!) doesn’t help, for once.

Cummings’s publishers and others have sometimes echoed the unconventional orthography in his poetry by writing his name in lowercase and without periods, but usual orthography (uppercase and periods) is supported by scholarship, preferred by publishers today. Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, though he most often signed his name with capitals.

The use of lowercase for his initials was popularized in part by the title of some books, particularly in the 1960s, writing his name in lower case on the cover and spine. In the preface to E. E. Cummings: the growth of a writer critic Harry T. Moore notes ” He [Cummings] had his name put legally into lower case, and in his later books the titles and his name were always in lower case.” According to his widow, this is incorrect, She wrote of Friedman “you should not have allowed H. Moore to make such a stupid & childish statement about Cummings & his signature.” On 27 February 1951, Cummings wrote to his French translator D. Jon Grossman that he preferred the use of upper case for the particular edition they were working on. One Cummings scholar believes that on the rare occasions that Cummings signed his name in all lowercase, he may have intended it as a gesture of humility, not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use.

Critic Edmund Wilson commented “Mr. Cummings’s eccentric punctuation is, also, I believe, a symptom of his immaturity as an artist. It is not merely a question of an unconventional usage: unconventional punctuation may very well gain its effect… the really serious case against Mr. Cummings’s punctuation is that the results which it yields are ugly. His poems on the page are hideous.”

– Wikipedia


January 14th, 2012  



history of the english language

link of the day, random facts, science 0 Comment »

I received a message by Open University to remove this video here. I wonder if it is illegal to imbed youtube videos? It doesn’t matter, since the youtube video has been taken down as well:

“HOW THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE …”
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by The Open University.

I’ll google this in a few days and hope I can find a “legal” source for this wonderful video.

A wonderful 10 minute video about the development of the English language. The best chapters for me were the chapters about science (“Acid” 1626, “Gravity” 1641, “Electricity” 1646, “Pendulum” 1660, “Penis” 1693, “Vagina” 1682, “Cardiac” 1601, “Sternum” 1667, “Tonsil” 1601) and words from other languages (Carribbean: BQQ, canoe, cannibal; India: stairs, bungalow; Africa: voodoo, zombie; Australia: walkaround, nugget; Holland: cookies).


November 24th, 2011  



plagiat

random facts 1 Comment »

lat. plagiarius = Menschenraub, Seelenverkäufer (kidnapping, soulseller)


August 2nd, 2011  



kipipeo

random facts, worth living for 0 Comment »

kipepeo ~ butterfly (Kiswahili)

Good luck in Tansania, guys.


July 28th, 2011  



propagare

random facts 2 Comments »

“Mit dem Gerundivum [des Verbs propagare] wurde von Papst Gregor XV. im Jahre 1622 eine kirchliche Kongregation namens Sancta congregatio de propaganda fide geschaffen, deren Zweck es war, dem Protestantismus entgegen zu treten sowie die Neue Welt zu missionieren. Abgeleitet von der Bezeichnung dieser Organisation wurde der Ausdruck Propaganda in die meisten Sprachen übernommen.
Der Club de la propagande, eine Geheimgesellschaft der Jakobiner im Frankreich des 18. Jahrhunderts, wollte die Verbreitung revolutionärer Ideen fördern.”
—
“The English term [propaganda] is an 18th century coinage, from the Latin feminine gerund of propagare “to propagate”, originally in Congregatio de Propaganda Fide “Congregation for Propagating the Faith”, a committee of cardinals established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.”
– Wikipedia


June 22nd, 2011  



NATO, military, US and education

random facts 8 Comments »
  • The US military spending of currently $710 billion (that’s 23% of the US Federal Spending) dwarfs the combined military annual expenditures of its European allies, which total about $280 billion.
  • In comparison, Germany spends $31 billion on military, which is around 11 percen. And we spend the incredible sum of … 3% on education and research.
  • America’s defense budget went up by 59% (!) since 2001.
  • 50% of the world’s military spending is done by the US.
  • NATO members must spend at least 2 percent of their total of their GDP to defense.

Pretty insane.

(via Franz sources: yahoo.com & wikipedia (US Federal Spending) (German Federal Spending))


March 28th, 2010  



empathy (updated)

random facts, science 5 Comments »

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him.

– Adam Smith (1759, p. 1)

Random facts about empathy I dug up during the last week:

The word empathy is not – as one might think – derived from Greek. It appeared for the first time in 1909 in English literature. When we say empathy today, we mean “feeling with someone”. It might be a more adequate translation to go with “suffering with someone” (see: pathos).

In contrast to this, the term sympathy does actually have Greek roots.

Researchers have tried to differentiate between cognitive and emotional empathy, and found different brain regions connected to these concepts. People suffering from antisocial personality disorder are capable of cognitive empathy (enabling them to act extremely manipulative), but they do not actually “feel” with the other person (showing a severe lack of emotional empathy). Autists, on the other side, actually do have the ability to show emotional empathy as long as they are at least acquainted with the person suffering, but don’t show any signs of cognitive empathy. These concepts are heavily discussed in the current literature, and there also seems to be some data this rather simple differentiation cannot account for.

Read the rest of this entry »


March 1st, 2010  



adoraxia ~ ataraxia

random facts 0 Comment »

Ataraxia (ἀταραξία “tranquillity”) is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a lucid state, characterized by freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.

– wikipedia


February 27th, 2010  



psephology

random facts 0 Comment »

Psephology (“Lore of Pebbles”) is the statistical analysis of elections.

– via Basti


February 3rd, 2010  



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