Monopsony - My Ennui & Weltschmerz
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
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| Coyoacán, Mexico 1962 |
Globalization has helped standardize
language. Not too many days ago I was lambasted by a friend for using a word,
flummox.
Amazon these days is being accused of being
a monopoly in its battle with book publisher Hachette. Paul Krugman the economist/NY Times
columnist does not agree and uses a word I had never seen before, monopsony,
which he defines as: a dominant buyer with the power to push prices down.
The reason for my bringing up the subject
and the word is that I have long taken the advice of a book I used when I
taught high school in the early 70s in Mexico
City. It was called 30 Days Towards a More Powerful
Vocabulary by Doctor Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis. Central to the book was
the idea of using the new words in sentences orally and then writing them. This
was a way of making these words “your own”. Thanks to the book I was able to
teach my students the difference between an ophthalmologist (a medical, as in
MD, eye doctor/surgeon) and the optometrist (someone I would not only not buy a
used car from but would not trust for an eye check-up). The book taught the
students and teacher the meaning of ennui and its difference from weltschmerz.
1. The ennui induced by persistent
solicitations to join new social networks.
2. 'Sunday Morning ' is sweet as a picnic
and full of cut-price weltschmerz to luxuriate in, even though I was only just
nineteen.
I feel both these days and perhaps because
of their joint participation in my state of mind I don’t flame people who use:
1. Absolutely!
2. At the end of the day.
3. Award-winning (writer, photographer,
designer, idiot, etc)
I would suggest that for 1 you might
replace it with a simple Yes! or even Exactly! For 2, I thought that at the
finish line might work or perhaps at sunset. And for 3. I would list the awards or not use the
combination award-winning at all.
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| Guanajuato, Mexico 1962 |
All the above serve but as excuse to place
two photographs I took in Mexico in 1962 which I entered into a an art
competition at the University of the Americas where I was struggling to become
an engineer, a task I failed when I had to face figuring out the difference
between capacitance and inductance. My
photographs, including these two won the photography side of the university
competition and the award I got was signed by Rufino Tamayo. As far as I am
concerned that is the only award I am proud of and the scads that I won
later have left me in complete ennui.
Addendum: How could I forget the "I am going to curl up with a good book."
Addendum: How could I forget the "I am going to curl up with a good book."
