{"id":12346,"date":"2008-11-23T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2008-11-23T08:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wordswarm.net\/dictionary\/gallimaufry.html"},"modified":"2008-11-23T08:30:58","modified_gmt":"2008-11-23T08:30:58","slug":"gallimaufry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/2008\/11\/23\/gallimaufry.html","title":{"rendered":"Gallimaufry"},"content":{"rendered":"

A motley assortment of things.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I sometimes enjoy listing the objects around me. Lists have always enchanted me, and I know that the list genre is among the more compelling literary forms — and I do think it can be called literary. <\/p>\n

A list of the items on my desk could create arbitrary combinations which take on meaning distinct from their parts. <\/p>\n

I remember as a child being impressed by a list of the most hated people in the world. I don’t know who was first or second but the list was inhabited by Richard Nixon and Adolph Hitler, two people joined in legacy by the hatred of others. <\/p>\n

The list has a unique authority about it. A list is read with the presumption that its items have been weighted and prioritized. The list’s authority is like that of a uniformed individual in a room full of non-uniformed people. A member of the armed forces might expect to command some authority if she walks into a diner with her full military uniform. In a strange way the elevator attendant assumes a similar (albeit ludicrous) air of authority for wearing his elevator attendant uniform outside of the elevator in which he works.<\/p>\n

Lists, I think, command this type of authority, regardless of their substance and regardless of their context.<\/p>\n

The syllogism, I think, has potential for greatness as a genre for its capacity to assemble unrelated ideas to arrive at an unexpected conclusion. I have tried writing syllogisms to illustrate this postulate but have failed as of yet to summon an example that illustrates my belief in the genre. A=B, B=C, thus A=C. Such a simple formula for reductive disdain.<\/p>\n

So what is the gallimaufry on my desk at this moment? <\/p>\n

A Bravo supermarket store receipt. <\/p>\n

A stack of cassette tapes (including Sacred Harp, Liszt Transcendental Etudes, and Andrew Violette piano music, among other items).<\/p>\n

Two Ben Katchor Books: "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer," and "The Jew of New York."<\/p>\n

A stapler.<\/p>\n

Sunglasses.<\/p>\n

Two $20 bills.<\/p>\n

A 27-page booklet titled "Alphabetical Seating." I found this on the street and found it interesting to see a seating arrangement for an unidentified banquet or gathering.<\/p>\n

A map of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, highlighting burial locations of the rich and famous.<\/p>\n

A flyer from "Petey’s Burger," a new establishment in my area which I mistakenly thought was a new entry into the healthy burger business.<\/p>\n

An "Anything Book" in which I first wrote poetry in probably the 8th grade, and which I recently wrote in again after finding the half-empty book on a shelf.<\/p>\n

Is this a motley assortment of things? Who can say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A motley assortment of things.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-the-word","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paumAn-3d8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}