LPPM MMV "The Badlands of the Heart"
Dave Monroe
monropolitan at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 19 16:28:06 CDT 2004
"She went on in the same way for fifteen minutes
more, layng bare, like a clumsy brain surgeon,
synapses and convolutions which should never have been
exposed, revealing for Siegel the anatomy of a disease
more serious than he had suspected: the badlands of
the heart, in which shadows, and crisscrossed threads
of inaccurate self-analysis and Freudian fallacy, and
passages where the light and perspective were tricky,
all threw you into that heightened hysterical edginess
of the sort of nightmare it is possible to have where
your eyes are open and everything in the scene is
familiar, yet where, flickering behind the edge of the
closet door, hidden under the chair in the corner, is
this je ne sais quoi de sinistre which sends you
shouting into wakefulness.
"Until finally one of Brennan's friends, whom Lucy
introduced as Vincent, wandered in and informed them
that somebody had already walked through the French
windows without opening them ...." (MMV, p. 7)
"the badlands of the heart"
Main Entry: bad·land
Pronunciation: 'bad-"land
Function: noun
: a region marked by intricate erosional sculpturing,
scanty vegetation, and fantastically formed hills --
usually used in plural
http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary
Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands
National Park consists of 244,000 acres of sharply
eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires ...
http://www.nps.gov/badl/
"crisscrossed threads"
Main Entry: text
Pronunciation: 'tekst
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French texte,
from Medieval Latin textus, from Latin, texture,
context, from texere to weave -- more at TECHNICAL
1 a (1) : the original words and form of a written or
printed work (2) : an edited or emended copy of an
original work b : a work containing such text ....
[...]
8 a : something written or spoken considered as an
object to be examined, explicated, or deconstructed b
: something likened to a text <the surfaces of daily
life are texts to be explicated -- Michiko Kakutani>
<he ceased to be a teacher as he became a text -- D.
J. Boorstin>
http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=text
But any specific "innacurate self-anaylses" and/or
"Freudian fallcies" here? Let me know ...
"light and perspective"
Main Entry: chiar·oscu·ro
Pronunciation: -'skyur-(")O, -'skur-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ros
Etymology: Italian, from chiaro clear, light + oscuro
obscure, dark
1 : pictorial representation in terms of light and
shade without regard to color
2 a : the arrangement or treatment of light and dark
parts in a pictorial work of art b : the interplay or
contrast of dissimilar qualities (as of mood or
character)
3 : a 16th century woodcut technique involving the use
of several blocks to print different tones of the same
color; also : a print made by this technique
4 : the interplay of light and shadow on or as if on a
surface
5 : the quality of being veiled or partly in shadow
http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=chiaroscuro
"heightened hysterical edginess"
Cf. ...
"She could, at this stage of things, recognize signals
like that, as the epilectic is said to--an odor,
color, pure piercing grace note announcing his
seizure. Afterward it is only this signal, really
dross, this secular announcement, and never what is
revealed during the attack, that he remembers. Oedipa
wondered whether, at the end of this (if it were
supposed to end), she too might not be left with only
compiled memories of clues, announcements,
intimations, but never the central truth itself, which
must somehow each time be too bright for her memory to
hold; which must always blaze out, destroying its own
message irreversibly, leaving an overexposed blank
when the ordinary world came back ...." (Lot 49, p.
76)
"je ne sais quoi de sinistre"
Main Entry: je ne sais quoi
Pronunciation: zh&-n&-"sA-'kwä
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, I know not what
: something that cannot be adequately described or
expressed
http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=je+ne+sais+quoi
I.e., "something [of the] sinister that cannot be
adequately described or expressed." Tres sublime ...
Vincent
VINCENT m
Usage: English, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish
Pronounced: VIN-sent (English), ven-SAWN (French)
>From the Roman name Vincentius, which was from Latin
vincere "to conquer". This was the name of several
saints....
http://www.behindthename.com/nm/v2.html#vincent
E.g. ...
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434b.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434c.htm
"French windows"
Main Entry: French window
Function: noun
: a pair of casement windows that reaches to the
floor, opens in the middle, and is placed in an
exterior wall
Main Entry: de·fen·es·tra·tion
Pronunciation: (")dE-"fe-n&-'strA-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: de- + Latin fenestra window
: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window
- de·fen·es·trate /(")dE-'fe-n&-"strAt/ transitive
verb
http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary
Cf., e.g., ...
"'... it's become your MO, diving through windows
...'" (VL, Ch. 1, p. 8)
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