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Friday, May 18, 2007

Word Geeks?

posted by on May 18 at 14:00 PM

Posted by Sage Van Wing

I interviewed author Amy Fusselman yesterday about her new book 8 (she calls it a “non-fiction novel”). In the book she talks about the Beastie Boys a lot, so I asked her about her relationship to music. She told me that music is the greatest art. She said, essentially, that music is this great invisible force that nonetheless makes us feel something. It has an actual, visceral, physical effect on us, even though it is not something that you can see or touch. Literature doesn’t have this same kind of ability because you have to go through the words to get to the feeling, she said. This made me think of this I Ching quote :

“The wind blows over the surface of the lake. In this way, the effects of the invisible are made visible.”

I think I remember that there is an actual word to describe this phenomenon, but I can’t figure out what it is. I know there’s an italian word—dietrologia—for the invisible forces behind the visible. But that’s not quite right, because it has a more sinister sense—it usually refers to the backroom political negotiations.

What I’m looking for is a word for the exact moment when the powerful, yet invisible, forces of our world (wind, electricity, magnetic attraction, or God, I guess, if that’s your sort of thing), become tangible and real. A wheat field swaying in the wind, the spark of static electricity, etc.

IS there a word for that moment? Can anyone think of it?

RSS icon Comments

1

Spirit move me every time I'm near you

Whirling like a cyclone in my mind

Sweet Melissa, angel of my lifetime

Answer to all answers I can find

Baby, I love you, come, come, come into my arms
Let me know the wonder of all of you
Baby, I want you now, now, now, and hold on fast
Could this be the magic at last?

Lady, take me high upon a hillside
High up where the stallion meets the sun
I could love you, build my world around you
Never leave you till my life is done

Baby, I love you, come, come, come into my arms
Let me know the wonder of all of you
And baby, I want you now, now, oh, now, oh now and hold on fast
Could this be the magic at last?

Could it be magic?

Posted by pgreyy | May 18, 2007 2:20 PM
2

Hey, that's another author who blurbed Tao Lin.

As she writes, "Tao Lin's fiction will kick your ass and say thank you afterwards."

EEEEE EEE EEEE

Posted by Billy | May 18, 2007 2:20 PM
3

This is going to drive me nuts. I know there's a good word for this, but I'm at a bit of a loss.

A quick search has yielded the word "theophany," which is when a diety appears before a person in tangible form. "Darsana" is a Sanskrit word that means "sight," but in the sense of divine visions. Both of these deal with the supernatural, though, so I'm not sure if they'd apply to natural forces as well, except poetically...

Posted by Quinn | May 18, 2007 2:25 PM
4

Groovy?

Posted by elswinger | May 18, 2007 2:35 PM
5

a made up word :

serendichronicity ?

Posted by some geek girl | May 18, 2007 2:35 PM
6

You may have to venture into the realm of spiritual vocabulary, which is my necessity imperfectly precise. First I thought of "limen" indicating the border-like quality of the 'moment' aspect. Then I thought of "numen," but that is not then name of the instant as much as the quality of the thing felt.

Then there is "presence" as in:

"This phenomenon is not simply one of increased awareness, so that more of the rose [or music] is experienced through my eyes and nostrils [or ears] so that nore of the rose [or music] is experienced through my perceptial system. In the experience of increased presence, it is as if I meet my perceptions midway. It is as if something of me, something more or less palpable, is present... we feel as if there is somehow more of us partaking of the experience..." Essence, by A. H. Almaas.

Presence is a pretty plain word - not too impressive, but I think it may be what you are talking about.

Posted by Jude Fawley | May 18, 2007 2:37 PM
7

Satan?

Posted by monkey | May 18, 2007 2:37 PM
8

I don't have the word for you, but I love this section from Chapter 27 of The Pharmacist's Mate in which Amy Fusselman describes attending an AC/DC concert in Madison Square Garden:


And did I say this already? That music is the best theater? That it's so ridiculous it doesn't even make any sense? That there should be these people onstage, standing there, wiggling little strings on blocks of wood slung around their necks? Jumping up and down and wiggling the strings? Jumping up and down and hopping back and forth and dancing on tippy-toes, wiggling strings? And how if you were deaf and just saw them doing that, you would think, what the hell? What is that? And if you were never on earth before and someone had to explain it to you they would have to say there's this thing called music, and it's invisible. And if floats around in the air and it fills up whole rooms, and more than rooms, whole homes, whole football fields, whole stadiums. And we know it's there, because we can hear it through these little holes on either sides of our heads. And if we turn it up really loud we can feel it, we can feel it in our bodies, vibrating. But we can't see it. The only thing we can see it people jumping and wiggling.

Posted by josh | May 18, 2007 3:09 PM
9

I don't know about what the moment is called, but in the moment they "manifest" themselves

I doubt that's what you're looking for

Posted by wrenn | May 18, 2007 3:19 PM
10

"latent structure is the master of obvious form"

--heraclitus

Posted by bing | May 18, 2007 3:24 PM
11

The Godning moments of your life?

(another made-up word)

Posted by Camus4U | May 18, 2007 4:08 PM
12

I, too, was going to say "manifest".

Posted by Seattle Photographer | May 18, 2007 4:11 PM
13

Rush.

Posted by elswinger | May 18, 2007 4:25 PM
14

ghosting?

Posted by billy | May 18, 2007 5:10 PM
15

From what I've been told, the term you're looking for is "acid trip". At least it sounds a good description of "the exact moment when the powerful, yet invisible, forces of our world (wind, electricity, magnetic attraction, or God, I guess, if that’s your sort of thing), become tangible and real. A wheat field swaying in the wind, the spark of static electricity, etc."

Posted by LSD | May 18, 2007 5:17 PM
16

uhh indigestion?

Posted by Flipper | May 18, 2007 6:00 PM
17

utterly fucking pretentious?

Posted by emperor's new clothes | May 19, 2007 6:25 AM
18

you seem to have awakened to vaginal wonder. maybe "epiphany"?

Posted by katherine | May 19, 2007 5:59 PM
19

I LOVE AMY FUSSELMAN! Did anybody go to her reading at E.Bay? Don't lie! I was there and you were not. Everybody please go buy her books 8 and The Pharmacist's Mate. She is the b-e-s-t best!

Posted by ndrwmtsn | May 20, 2007 4:50 PM

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