Nodus Tollens
Nodus Tollens: “The feeling that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore” -John Koenig, from his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
A friend of mine (Kathy Starkey) posted on the facebook, a batch of words with definitions, and this expression was included. I thought she was posting from a collection of obscure words, so I googled a couple of the words and found out that they were actually invented words by a writer and video maker named John Koenig, from a book he wrote called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It’s a beautiful book! It really helps show the value of having a word for emotions that have not been clearly defined. And it helps us see that we as human animals share these complex emotions, that we aren’t alone in this.
In an interview on MPR in 2021 with Cathy Wurzer, when covid quarantine was weighing heavy, she asked Koenig:
In the book, you write that words ‘function as a kind of psychological programming that helps shape our relationships, our memory, even our perception of reality.’ So do you think words can help us process the trauma that we've all experienced the past few years?
Koenig: “Definitely. I think, when a feeling is inexpressible, when we have trouble describing it to people, it feels twice as deep and twice as painful. And so when you have a word to express something — even if it's a kind of isolation, or a measure of the inexpressibility of language itself — if you have a word, you can untangle the tree roots, get at the core of what you're feeling and share it with someone else.
I've gotten a lot of emails from psychologists who say there's actually quite a solid science here, where if you put a word to a feeling, that can help neutralize it and give you a sense of control”.
Here is a fun example of a emotional state that I’ve personally experienced that is given a word in his dictionary:
licotic, adj. anxiously excited to introduce a friend to something you think is amazing,-a classic album, a favorite restaurant, a TV show they’re lucky enough to watch for the first time -which prompts you to continually poll their face waiting for the inevitable rush of awe, only to cringe when you discover all the work’s flaws shining through for the very first time.
Old English licode, it pleased (you) + psychotic. Prounounced “lahy-kot-ic.”
Coincidentally, my little family was having an interesting discussion recently about how language and consciousness and being human are intertwined after reading a headline from the New Yorker regarding AI being able to translate animal language, and I jokingly wondered if the animals might be finally articulate hatred towards our species. :)
Anyway the conversation went on for a while with Mick (my 17 year old kid) taking a strong position on the impossibility of translating a whale’s experience of reality into human terms. I responded with: “Well, Ludo (our cat) shares like 95% of our dna so maybe….?” I don’t know what I was driving at with this percentage that I had just made up, but Mick was unimpressed and responded that a banana shared like 90 pct of our dna, so…? Haha!
Our chart that really doesn’t directly connect with this topic but I find hilarious. :)
Anyhoo, I just wanted to plug this book because when he explains some of the emotions he is describing with his word creation art, I feel very connected to my fellow humans! It’s lovely! And he also makes beautiful videos for some of his words. I’ll post a link below.
Maybe he will let the Dada Duende Record Club use one of his words as a theme for one of our volumes. :)