Dawn Felagund (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dawn_felagund) wrote2005-10-17 07:59 pm
dawn_felagund) wrote2005-10-17 07:59 pm
Entry tags:
Drabble for Allie (and a drabunculus to hasten the process of going mad)
Okay, I need an excuse to attempt another drabunculus. Yes, I've ignored enough daily drabbles to have enough words for a drabunculus.... *whistles innocently*
(First, though, the boring bit: The words of the last four days. Yes, four. Blame insta-drabbling. Blame lack of motivation. Blame...okay, just blame me.)
aberrant \a-BERR-unt; AB-ur-unt\, adjective:
Markedly different from an accepted norm; Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; abnormal.
Examples
"The impulse toward individual expression is a recent and a possibly aberrant one in art."
-Nicholas Delbanco, "From Echoes Emerge Original Voices," New York Times, June 21, 1999
"These characters are so wild and aberrant they are close to appearing lunatics."
-Bosley Crowther, "Who's Afraid of Audacity?" New York Times, July 10, 1966
"But I could never accept the aberrant dictates of socialist realism which ruled out all mystery and turned literary activity into a propaganda exercise."
-Mario Vargas Llosa, Making Waves
Etymology
Aberrant comes from Latin aberro, aberrare, "to wander off, to lose one's way," from ab, "away from" + erro, errare, "to wander."
lackadaisical \lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl\, adjective:
Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.
Examples
"Drowsy from the heat and from fatigue, he dozed to the steady lackadaisical clips of the mule's shoes."
-Patricia Powell, The Pagoda
"There was an oddly lackadaisical inflection to his speech. A sense of merely going though the motions."
-Lesley Hazleton, Driving To Detroit
"The very title, Hours of Idleness, which the young lord affixed to his maiden volume, sufficiently indicated the lackadaisical spirit in which he came before the public."
-J. F. A. Pyre, "Byron in Our Day," The Atlantic, April 1907
"The simple fact is, whether we admit it or not, there's never been an 'intelligence' or 'achievement' test on which the smart and industrious have not done better than the dumb and the lackadaisical."
-Jonah Goldberg, "Stupid Aptitude Test," National Review, July 1, 2002
Etymology
Lackadaisical comes from the expression lackadaisy, a variation of lackaday, itself a shortening of "alack the (or a) day!"
Synonyms
idle, inattentive, lazy, lethargic
abjure \ab-JUR\, transitive verb:
1. To renounce under oath.
2. To renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to reject; repudiate.
3. To abstain from; to shun.
Examples
"abjure, on his knees, his heretical views that the Earth moves around the Sun."
- Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence
"He closed his eyes as he raised the goblet to his lips and took a small sip of the cool liquid, and then his face paled as he understood how sublime the taste of the forbidden drink was, and how easily one might become enslaved to it. There and then he resolved to abjure it totally."
-A. B. Yehoshua, A Journey to the End of the Millennium
"In the mid-1970's, a young European couple abjure middle-class comforts in favor of travel to India, where the wife, Sophie, grows disillusioned with Eastern spiritualism just as her husband, Matteo, is swept up in it."
-Laurel Graeber, "New and Noteworthy Paperbacks," New
York Times, January 12, 1997
Etymology
Abjure comes from Latin abjurare, "to deny upon oath," from ab-, "away" + jurare, "to swear." It is related to jury, "a body of persons sworn to give a verdict on a given matter."
Synonyms
recant, renounce, forswear.
sinecure \SY-nih-kyur; SIN-ih-\, noun:
An office or position that requires or involves little or no responsibility, work, or active service.
Examples
"I was fortunate to receive the. . . offer, which in practical terms was a sinecure."
-David Freeman, One of Us
"Julian Poe, a wealthy old Estonian, offers what looks like a sinecure: Bennett will live in comfort in Monte Carlo and pretend to be Poe, thus enabling Poe to fulfill his residency requirement in Monte Carlo while continuing to live in Provence without paying French taxes."
-"Eat, Drink and Be Wary," New York Times, June 9, 1996
"When they married, Pu Yi was, officially, employed as a gardener at the Peking Botanical Gardens. In fact this sinecure... only lasted three years, during which time he did very little actual gardening."
-"Obituary: Li Shuxian," Independent, June 11, 1997
Etymology
Sinecure is from Medieval Latin sine cura, "without care (of souls)," from Latin sine, "without" + cura, "care." Originally the term signified an ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.
Every father asks himself: Which is his favorite?
~oOo~
Fëanaro came first, screaming as though enraged at being born—or perhaps eager to seize the world between his teeth.
He was aberrant from the beginning, disturbingly precocious. He watched when a child should sleep. His eyes were sparks, like light on water. His hands didn’t bumble and wave in the ways of an infant: He grasped the air, objects, me with the certainty of possession.
And he asked questions that I could not answer, and his eyes went flat with disappointment at my silence.
Already, I have let you down?
I made up my mind not to fail him.
~oOo~
So I ask myself of my three sons. But how can I choose? Like choosing between the bright, distant stars, the velvet-soft petals of a daisy on my cheek, and the ground that saves me from falling, my three sons are each different and special in his own rights.
~oOo~
Fëanaro was nearly grown when I became twice a father.
Where his brother snapped with the ferocity of a whip, lashing fruitlessly against the air, Nolofinwë pondered things with the expression of an ancient man. He delighted in the tedium of ruling a kingdom: adding columns of figures, writing lists, compiling polls.
To please him, I tried to offer him a sinecure.
No. It was our first argument, and he stormed from my office with a ruthless determination unlike him. He delved into the library and compiled research that made his elders look blushingly indolent, about the topic of paving materials.
~oOo~
I cannot choose! I will not choose, for I sense that such a choice seals my fate with the weight of earth upon a grave.
~oOo~
Given the ambitions of his brothers, I failed Arafinwë in his early life.
I gifted him with books and appointed tutors to teach him and found him daydreaming with his gaze fixed with lackadaisical ardor upon the distant sea, chin in hands.
Bitter at the ridiculous feud between his brothers, I would retire to my office to pace, the weary floor creaking beneath my feet. Back and forth, back and forth. Then: a knock.
It was Arafinwë, his face wrinkled with concern. “If I sang you a lullaby, Father,” he asked, “would you allow yourself to be at peace?”
~oOo~
And so I abjure—or I settle to love most the one in my sights at the moment.
And![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
allie_meril had a wrecked day, and so I have written a drabble in her honor. So, Allie, here's your drabble. Wish I could give you more, but here it is, with a dose of {{{{huggles}}}}
(Eat a sugar cookie for me ;-P)
The words on the page are as fuzzy as the clouds, where I wish I could dwell instead of here.
My ears feel stuffed with cotton—but yet, I hear a harper in the street, a wren trilling, the summer breeze in the oak outside.
I force my eyes to focus on books until tears burn my eyes, but the smell of roses means more to me than the ancient tales of heroes.
At the end of the day, I am a disappointment.
At the end of the day, my father kisses me goodnight and says, “Arafinwë, I love you.”
(First, though, the boring bit: The words of the last four days. Yes, four. Blame insta-drabbling. Blame lack of motivation. Blame...okay, just blame me.)
aberrant \a-BERR-unt; AB-ur-unt\, adjective:
Markedly different from an accepted norm; Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; abnormal.
Examples
"The impulse toward individual expression is a recent and a possibly aberrant one in art."
-Nicholas Delbanco, "From Echoes Emerge Original Voices," New York Times, June 21, 1999
"These characters are so wild and aberrant they are close to appearing lunatics."
-Bosley Crowther, "Who's Afraid of Audacity?" New York Times, July 10, 1966
"But I could never accept the aberrant dictates of socialist realism which ruled out all mystery and turned literary activity into a propaganda exercise."
-Mario Vargas Llosa, Making Waves
Etymology
Aberrant comes from Latin aberro, aberrare, "to wander off, to lose one's way," from ab, "away from" + erro, errare, "to wander."
lackadaisical \lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl\, adjective:
Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.
Examples
"Drowsy from the heat and from fatigue, he dozed to the steady lackadaisical clips of the mule's shoes."
-Patricia Powell, The Pagoda
"There was an oddly lackadaisical inflection to his speech. A sense of merely going though the motions."
-Lesley Hazleton, Driving To Detroit
"The very title, Hours of Idleness, which the young lord affixed to his maiden volume, sufficiently indicated the lackadaisical spirit in which he came before the public."
-J. F. A. Pyre, "Byron in Our Day," The Atlantic, April 1907
"The simple fact is, whether we admit it or not, there's never been an 'intelligence' or 'achievement' test on which the smart and industrious have not done better than the dumb and the lackadaisical."
-Jonah Goldberg, "Stupid Aptitude Test," National Review, July 1, 2002
Etymology
Lackadaisical comes from the expression lackadaisy, a variation of lackaday, itself a shortening of "alack the (or a) day!"
Synonyms
idle, inattentive, lazy, lethargic
abjure \ab-JUR\, transitive verb:
1. To renounce under oath.
2. To renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to reject; repudiate.
3. To abstain from; to shun.
Examples
"abjure, on his knees, his heretical views that the Earth moves around the Sun."
- Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence
"He closed his eyes as he raised the goblet to his lips and took a small sip of the cool liquid, and then his face paled as he understood how sublime the taste of the forbidden drink was, and how easily one might become enslaved to it. There and then he resolved to abjure it totally."
-A. B. Yehoshua, A Journey to the End of the Millennium
"In the mid-1970's, a young European couple abjure middle-class comforts in favor of travel to India, where the wife, Sophie, grows disillusioned with Eastern spiritualism just as her husband, Matteo, is swept up in it."
-Laurel Graeber, "New and Noteworthy Paperbacks," New
York Times, January 12, 1997
Etymology
Abjure comes from Latin abjurare, "to deny upon oath," from ab-, "away" + jurare, "to swear." It is related to jury, "a body of persons sworn to give a verdict on a given matter."
Synonyms
recant, renounce, forswear.
sinecure \SY-nih-kyur; SIN-ih-\, noun:
An office or position that requires or involves little or no responsibility, work, or active service.
Examples
"I was fortunate to receive the. . . offer, which in practical terms was a sinecure."
-David Freeman, One of Us
"Julian Poe, a wealthy old Estonian, offers what looks like a sinecure: Bennett will live in comfort in Monte Carlo and pretend to be Poe, thus enabling Poe to fulfill his residency requirement in Monte Carlo while continuing to live in Provence without paying French taxes."
-"Eat, Drink and Be Wary," New York Times, June 9, 1996
"When they married, Pu Yi was, officially, employed as a gardener at the Peking Botanical Gardens. In fact this sinecure... only lasted three years, during which time he did very little actual gardening."
-"Obituary: Li Shuxian," Independent, June 11, 1997
Etymology
Sinecure is from Medieval Latin sine cura, "without care (of souls)," from Latin sine, "without" + cura, "care." Originally the term signified an ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.
Every father asks himself: Which is his favorite?
Fëanaro came first, screaming as though enraged at being born—or perhaps eager to seize the world between his teeth.
He was aberrant from the beginning, disturbingly precocious. He watched when a child should sleep. His eyes were sparks, like light on water. His hands didn’t bumble and wave in the ways of an infant: He grasped the air, objects, me with the certainty of possession.
And he asked questions that I could not answer, and his eyes went flat with disappointment at my silence.
Already, I have let you down?
I made up my mind not to fail him.
So I ask myself of my three sons. But how can I choose? Like choosing between the bright, distant stars, the velvet-soft petals of a daisy on my cheek, and the ground that saves me from falling, my three sons are each different and special in his own rights.
Fëanaro was nearly grown when I became twice a father.
Where his brother snapped with the ferocity of a whip, lashing fruitlessly against the air, Nolofinwë pondered things with the expression of an ancient man. He delighted in the tedium of ruling a kingdom: adding columns of figures, writing lists, compiling polls.
To please him, I tried to offer him a sinecure.
No. It was our first argument, and he stormed from my office with a ruthless determination unlike him. He delved into the library and compiled research that made his elders look blushingly indolent, about the topic of paving materials.
I cannot choose! I will not choose, for I sense that such a choice seals my fate with the weight of earth upon a grave.
Given the ambitions of his brothers, I failed Arafinwë in his early life.
I gifted him with books and appointed tutors to teach him and found him daydreaming with his gaze fixed with lackadaisical ardor upon the distant sea, chin in hands.
Bitter at the ridiculous feud between his brothers, I would retire to my office to pace, the weary floor creaking beneath my feet. Back and forth, back and forth. Then: a knock.
It was Arafinwë, his face wrinkled with concern. “If I sang you a lullaby, Father,” he asked, “would you allow yourself to be at peace?”
And so I abjure—or I settle to love most the one in my sights at the moment.
And
allie_meril had a wrecked day, and so I have written a drabble in her honor. So, Allie, here's your drabble. Wish I could give you more, but here it is, with a dose of {{{{huggles}}}}(Eat a sugar cookie for me ;-P)
The words on the page are as fuzzy as the clouds, where I wish I could dwell instead of here.
My ears feel stuffed with cotton—but yet, I hear a harper in the street, a wren trilling, the summer breeze in the oak outside.
I force my eyes to focus on books until tears burn my eyes, but the smell of roses means more to me than the ancient tales of heroes.
At the end of the day, I am a disappointment.
At the end of the day, my father kisses me goodnight and says, “Arafinwë, I love you.”
no subject
There should be some more fic about Finarfin. Can't let Feanor and Fingolfin steal all the glory!
Now who am I to refuse an order to eat more yummy sugar cookies? *raises crescent-moon-shaped, frosted, orange-and-black-sprinkled sugar cookie* To your health! *munches* Mmmm...
no subject
no subject
You're very welcome :)
There should be some more fic about Finarfin.
Yes, there should! As it happens, Felak is working on a short story about Earwen and Finarfin restoring Noldorin/Telerin relations after the first kinslaying.
Finarfin is fascinating because his strength is completely different from that of his brothers. You are right, he is often overlooked. I feel bad for the poor guy, having to grow up with all those Noldor and now being overshadowed by them in the fan community as well.
(Not that *I* would mind a couple hundred Noldor around, but for a different reason! :-P)
To your health! *munches* Mmmm...
Yay! Sounds much better than breakfast at my desk.... *ponders Lucky Charms*
no subject
Aww *hugs adorable!Arafinwe*
Poor Finwe too, having to choose a favorite (despite vowing not to). With Feany & Nolofinwe actively vying for it, and Arafinwe being passive-aggressive in that I-know-you-like-them-better-than-me sort of way.
Nice job, on both, er, pieces! :)
no subject
Forgot? Never!
Now lazy? Well....
Arafinwe being passive-aggressive in that I-know-you-like-them-better-than-me sort of way.
Lol! I've always seen Arafinwe as Indis' favorite. Pure Felak!verse, of course.
Which leaves poor Nolo as no one's favorite and very much the middle child :(
Nice job, on both, er, pieces! :)
Thanks! :)
no subject
Haha, I totally understand that...
Which leaves poor Nolo as no one's favorite and very much the middle child :(
Do you think he probably thought "The youngest always gets everything!! *pout*"??
...back little fangy, I don't take on Nuzzies until I've been awake at least an hour...
no subject
*has been awake for 3.5 hours now*
*is jealous*
no subject
Well, since you're 2 hours ahead, it's kind of like only having been awake for one more hour than me...kind of.
no subject
*grumble grumble grumble*
As for that fangy guy, HELL no! ;D I've still got the Finarfin/Earwen as diplomats, plus
*head implodes*
no subject
Maybe it's because it used to be just one hour? But no, sadly I did not sleep til 9:30...
As for that fangy guy, HELL no!
...crap. I had to try.
*head implodes*
*offers aspirin*
Ah, see, I was like "NaNoWriMo...2,000words/6 pages a day...uh, I think I'll have to pass."
no subject
Y'know, when I put it like this, the whole events of the First Age and the strife of the Noldor are family affairs...
Moreover, I was musing today that Morgoth definitely rued the day that he killed Finwe, because that brought almost all the Finwians down on him.
Feanor: wiped out almost all his orcs before dying
Fingolfin: challenged him to single combat, and wounded him seven times before dying
Finarfin: er, pass
Maedhros: escaped from Morgoth's fortress, and then foiled his battle plans twice, in the Aglareb and the Bragollach, not to mention the Union of Maedhros.
Maglor: guarded the Gap of Maglor and held it against Morgoth
Caranthir: held Helevorn, and brought the Elves in contact with the dwarves, which meant that they could later fight together against Morgoth
Celegorm: smashed Morgoth's forces around the Havens; later held Aglon.
Curufin: Ditto
Amrod and Amras: Er... held the Arossiach, and kept the lands nice and Orc-free?
Fingon: Defeated a dragon, rescued Maedhros from under Morgoth's nose (that must have been seriously morale-draining)
Turgon: Built a great big hidden city and held it even after the Nirnaeth, and his grandson sailed west and brought the Valar down on Morgoth
Aredhel: ... did her best. Not her fault Maeglin betrayed Gondolin. *glares*
Finrod: helped Beren in the Silmaril-quest, killed a werewolf, stood up to Sauron, befriended men and allied himself with them.
Orodreth: ... he tried, I guess.
Angrod and Aegnor: Kept Morgoth back from Dorthonion. That is, up until the Bragollach.
Galadriel: Didn't do that much in the first age, but was a serious pain-in-the-behind to Sauron later on.
The moral of this story is very possibly: do not meddle in the affairs of the House of Finwe, for they are heavily armed and really, really dangerous when riled. :)
no subject
no subject
Yes, they are. Take the cliche of your choosing: Ye Slippery Slope, Ye Olde Snowball...either way, the fate of many thousands of Noldor was wrecked by Miriel's death, Finwe's remarriage, and Feanor's inability to cope.
Of course, if I recall, the marring of Arda was to blame for the former, so it all comes back to Melkor.
And without it, who knows how long Melkor would have run lose, corrupting Middle-earth and being excessively naughty, before the Valar decided to hoist themselves off their lazy @$$e$ and do something about it!
Finarfin: er, pass
Lol! Perhaps at first, but he packed quite a wallop in the War of Wrath *pets Finarfin*
(that must have been seriously morale-draining)
Lol! I'd imagine so! Someone should write a story about how Morgoth came to find out about it. Not me, though--I'm woozy from all the plotbunnies!
(I'd hate to be the orc to deliver that news!)
The moral of this story is very possibly: do not meddle in the affairs of the House of Finwe, for they are heavily armed and really, really dangerous when riled. :)
Yes! I love this! I see the need for an icon to be made, sometime in the near future ;)
no subject
no subject
At least someone's happy about it! ;-P
Finwe would have done much better to have Finarfin as his favourite son - he wouldn't have been murdered, for one thing.
True. The other two could have duked it out amongst themselves and Finwe could have sat around all day, singing lullabies and making daisy chains....
Sorry, Finarfin *huggles Finarfin*