September 2009 – hexachromatic

Foenetic speling

“Foenetic speling wil maek reeding and rieting neerly automatic for evrybody.”

—Ed Rondthaler, quoted in “Edward Rondthaler, Foenetic Speler, Dies at 104”, his New York Times obituatry. Ed was also, not incidentally, a typographer.

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious

a lavender-grey dog

‘The French called her Azor, the story-telling soldier called her Femgalka, but Karatayev called her Greycoat, or sometimes Floppy. She was just a lavender-grey dog, apparently quite unconcened at having no master, no name, no particular breed, not even a definite colour.”

—Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace, 1869; translated by Anthony Briggs, 2005. (pp. 1120-1121)

“ ‘You remember!’ Sonya went on. ‘I saw him. I told you, all of you, you and Dunyasha. I saw him lying on a bed,’ she said, emphasizing every detail by gesturing with a lifted finger, ‘and he had his eyes shut, and he was covered with a pink quilt, and he had his hands folded,’ said Sonya, with growing certainty, as she ran through the details they had just set eyes on, that she had actually seen them before. At the time she hadn’t seen anything at all; she had blurted out the first thing that came into her head. But what she had invented then now seemed as real as any other actual memory. What she had said at the the time—that he had looked round and smiled at her, and he was covered wtih something red—she remembered clearly now, and she was absolutely certain about what she had seen and said: he had been covered with a pink quilt—yes, it was pink—and his eyes had been closed.

‘Yes, it was pink,’ said Natasha, who also seemed to have an inking that it had been a pink quilt, and this little detail was the oddest thing, the real mystery behind the prophetic vision.

‘What does it mean?’ said Natasha, thinking about it.

‘I don’t know! It’s all so weird!’ said Sonya, clutching at her head.”

—Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace, 1869; translated by Anthony Briggs, 2005. (p. 1064)