The Vulgar Eclectic
Vulgar: of the usual, typical, or ordinary kind
definitions courtesy of Merriam-Webster
Eclectic: composed of elements drawn from various sources
recent blog posts
- Nubilous
I recently came across a word I wasn’t familiar with. That happens a lot when I’m reading but it was surprising in that, this particular time, I was reading a comic book. That’s not a medium usually thought of as having a difficult lexicon.
The word is “nubilous,” an adjective meaning “cloudy, foggy, misty” or “obscure, vague.” It is derived from the Latin word for cloud, “nubes.”
The panel above is from Dagar the Invincible issue #7, published in April 1974 by Gold Key. Don Glut handled the writing and Jesse Santos did the art. Notice the very “cloudy, foggy, misty” elements!
- Red Milkweed Beetle
I came across this red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) while on a walk a few evenings ago. They are part of the milkweed ecosystem and not harmful to milkweed plants or monarch butterflies.
The beetles are adapted to eat the milkweed plant, which is toxic to many species of animals. Because they ingest these toxins, the beetles, like monarch butterflies, are in turn toxic to many predators. The red milkweed beetles are brightly colored, advertising their toxicity to potential predators. I learned that the use of these kinds of signals as a defense mechanism by a wide range of animals is referred to as “aposematism.”
We can see this in monarch butterflies, poison dart frogs, skunks, blue-ringed octopuses, black widow spiders, and many other animal species. There are even animals that mimic aposematism in an attempt to ward off predation.
- Old Sign in the North Woods, Pileated Woodpecker
- The Well-Beloved by Thomas Hardy
I finished reading The Well-Beloved by Thomas Hardy. This novel was first serialized in 1892 and published in book-form in 1897. Although it was his second to last novel written, it felt fresh and somewhat experimental to me as the reader and as if it had come from earlier in his literary career.
The novel focuses on a character named Jocelyn Pierston and his evolving sentiments of love and attachment. The story passes through three large jumps in time in roughly twenty year increments. This feature of the narrative combined with the ways in which the object of Pierston’s love changes makes me think, as I am considering what to say about reading this book, about the theory of evolution and two common ways of speaking about how species may travel along an evolutionary path.
One avenue is the “leaps and bounds” mode of evolution, in which a species exists in a state of punctuated equilibrium, characterized by stretches of stable stasis which periodically undergo upheaval in response to specific environmental and biological scenarios. This framework of evolutionary theory can be contrasted with what is sometimes referred to as evolution by “dribs and drabs,” or change characterized by a slow and steady, incremental series of responses.
As I think about Pierston’s life and the structure of the novel, I am reminded of the leaps and bounds conceptual framework of evolution. Pierston seems to move through life in periods of relative calm and stasis, only to be upended by the arrival of a new object of his attention and love. These relationships do not tend to evolve through the small, incremental attentions of daily life the way a long-term loving companionship may transform throughout one’s lifetime. Likewise, the narrative jumps along in two-decade leaps, reflecting this tendency in Pierston’s emotional life. Only near the end of the book does the reader see a changing emotional and relational landscape. It is this change that highlights the preceding 60 years of Pierston’s life and the ways in which he pursued love and human connection.
The Well-Beloved, although set as so many of his stories in his fictionalized Wessex County, feels different than the other Wessex books I’ve read. I’m finding it difficult to put my finger on it…the writing style and the characterization felt perhaps lighter and stripped a little of some of the idiosyncratic convulsions of his early works. The perspective is slightly more withdrawn and less intensely focused on the interior world of the main character, making the book feel more like a parable.
After looking into the chronology of his novels’ publications, I realized there are still several of his books I haven’t read and this was cause for happiness. I love reading his books, and The Well-Beloved was another example of this.
‘You cannot live your life and keep it, Jocelyn,’ he said. Time was against him and love, and time would probably win.
- Sometimes a man stands up during supper
Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.
And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.
And another man, who remains inside his own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which he forgot.-Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Robert Bly