i think that's nice deconstruction of 'news' as a virus hysteria brings out the best in people
On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 6:09 PM Max Herman via NetBehaviour < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > Some odd emails are arriving. Such as, from the local Theater, announcing > that my tickets to *Twelfth Night* are canceled, as are performances of *The > Bacchae* and a new work called *CenterPlay*. > > Canceled by what? A non-living yet self-reproducing molecule. An ironic > creator of empty theaters, unplayed plays both Shakespearean and hockey. > How novel! > > I got another email from the Public Broadcasting System called "what you > need to know about the Novel Coronavirus." > > Novel, is a word, it means book, or narrative, new narrative, nouvelle, > and in this sense is old as *Don Quixote* or *Moll Flanders*, not that > new anymore (though perhaps newer than *Hamlet Prince of Denmark)*. > At one time it meant "the new books" arguably, neobiblia, novi libri. > Corona means crown, but going farther back meant garland for military > service, from the PIE "bend," as in, you bend a branch of leaves so that > you can place it on someone's head, "they fought." (Art is from a similar > PIE root for joint, arthritis, arm, a bend that bends?) An identifier of > something done and of identification. Virus means poisonous fluid, > possibly from PIE "ueis-" to melt away, flow, rot perhaps? I often think > of the PIE root weid- to see, but I don't know if they are related. Flow, > see? I try to imagine two hominids trying to talk to each other at some > point, one more motivated, the other patient, one scribbling with a stick > or spoken words, saying "see? see what I mean?" scribble scribble chatter > chatter. > > So, book-garland-poisonflow? In any case, it all seems very like > haunting, very like memory. The novel is what we don't know yet, right? A > virus isn't new if we have memory of it. Our whole immune system is like a > library. We each have our own, but we also are part of each other's. > Similar perhaps to how libraries are connected. > > All of which calls to mind Hippocrates I think. > > Best regards, > > Max > > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=novel > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=corona > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=virus > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=vision > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=art > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=medicine > > https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Telomere-structure-A-Telomeres-are-composed-by-a-double-strand-region_fig2_323523320 > Chapter Four: Hippocratic Medicine and Greek Tragedy > https://brill.com/view/book/9789004232549/B9789004232549-s005.xml > https://www.etymonline.com/word/*weid-?ref=etymonline_crossreference > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=*weis- > > PS - sadly or happily, that same Public Broadcasting Service email > announces Niall Ferguson's new TV show Networld, tragically or comically, > debuting on March 17, the night I was supposed to see *Twelfth Night*, > the night on which Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. > https://www.pbs.org/video/niall-fergusons-networld-preview-cpi5cf/?utm_source=whattowatchnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=secondarypromo6&utm_content=20200228&utm_campaign=networld_2020 > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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