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Science Fiction » alt.fan.douglas-adams » The Future Dictionary of America
| The Future Dictionary of America [message #143762] |
Mi, 05 Oktober 2005 19:33 |
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Has this book been mentioned here before? It's a dictionary of mostly
political terms contributed by mostly American authors in the run-up to the
2004 presidential elections, and is reminiscent of The Meaning of Liff.
Here's the publisher's URL:
http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.det ail/object_id/C8FD2BCA-CDAB-4E96-80A3-7E6457B2D7A7/TheFuture DictionarybrofAmerica.cfm
I've pasted an AP article on it below my signature.
-- Dave
http://starry-starry-nights.blogspot.com/
New Dictionary Imagines Liberal Future
Wed Jul 14, 2:53 PM ET
If you've never dropped the word "dubyavirus" into casual
conversation, urged that an official be "ashcrofted" or commented upon "The
Cheney Effect," then you haven't seen the future, at least the future
according to McSweeney's.
The ever-expanding genre of anti-Bush books has now entered the
reference field. Coming in August from McSweeney's, the publishing house
founded by author-activist Dave Eggers, is "The Future Dictionary of
America," a Utopian tome set "sometime" beyond the present.
Contributors include Eggers, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan
Franzen, Wendy Wasserstein and more than 100 others. Proceeds will be
donated to "groups working for the public good in the 2004 election."
"The dictionary was conceived as a way for a great number of American
writers and artists to voice their displeasure with their current political
leadership, and to collectively imagine a brighter future," reads an
introductory note from the editors, who include Eggers and novelist Jonathan
Safran Foer.
The McSweeney's dictionary includes both new words such as
"dubyavirus" and old words such as "environment" with new definitions. Most
of the entries are political. Some are philosophical, some simply playful.
Author T.C. Boyle offers several definitions of "environment,"
including "a conceptual space, like the airspace over Iraq, which will
create a sucking void if not filled to repleteness with high explosives."
Under the entry "dubyavirus," fiction writer Thisbe Nissen imagines
that President Bush has been indicted as a war criminal, thus ending "an
aggressively invasive and tragically widespread disease." Another fiction
writer, Paul Auster, defines "bush" as "a poisonous family of shrubs, now
extinct."
In homage to Vice President Dick Cheney, Pulitzer Prize winning
novelist Jeffrey Eugenides invokes the "Cheney Effect," reserved for "the
manifestation of personality changes brought on by the reception of a
transplanted organ, usually the heart."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is the basis for "rumsfeld,"
defined by Vonnegut as "one who can stomach casualties." Attorney General
John Ashcroft inspired novelist Robert Coover to coin "ashcrofted," when one
is "removed from or disqualified for public office on grounds of religious
delusions."
Daniel Handler, known to young readers as Lemony Snicket, gives us
"fraudeville," in which "white-collar criminals were punished by performing
tricks live on stage." Eggers has fun with "lactose intolerance," which he
predicts will be cured in 2005 by one Ronald Frame, who will receive a
"Nobel Prize and a tricked-out Camino." Franzen, author of the award-winning
novel "The Corrections," invents "the silence parlor," a soundproofed cafe
"equipped with noise-cancellation technology."
Joyce Carol Oates presents "dark natter," which she labels "continuous
chatter of an ominous sort." Stephen King contributes "sloudge," his term
for the endless political opining on cable television. "Most sloudge," King
writes, is conducted by "overweight white men" seated around "shiny tables"
and mouthing off against the liberal state.
Sample usage of sloudge, a la King: "The President's press conference
was followed by over three hours of sloudge on MSNBC and six hours of
sloudge on Fox-TV."
Some liberals, too, receive entries. "Dean depression," named for
failed presidential contender Howard Dean, is defined by short story writer
Ken Foster as "the surprising and illogical defeat of a populist candidate."
Cartoonist Art Spiegelman contributes "ralphnadir," which is "the lowest
point in any process," so low that the process must be changed.
Some examples:
_"The ralphnadir of America's unrepresentative two-party system led to
the establishment, in 2012, of our current proportional allnite-party
system."
_"He ralphnadired their relationship when he condi-scendingly denied
that he'd cheneyed their joint account."
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| Re: The Future Dictionary of America [message #146075 ] |
Fr, 07 Oktober 2005 17:54 |
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Dave Adalian wrote:
> Has this book been mentioned here before?
Yeah, you just posted about it.
^_^
--
John Coxon
A mathematician is a machine for converting coffee into theorems.
Email: john[dot]coxon[at]gmail[dot]com
Website: http://alphacentauri.8k.com
Missing footnotes: http://www.nut.house.cx/cgi-bin/nemowiki.pl?ISFN
ZZ9 - the official HHGG appreciation society: http://www.zz9.org/
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