Made-Up Words and Art: Bosch, Monet, Tondalus, Tond, and Bluffing in Scrabble
Continuing along the lines of books and the words found in them, here we encounter a Facebook discussion of Scrabble and made-up words, and two books about art. The latter includes one artist who has influenced my own writing of books (including my use of made-up words). Bosch and Breughel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life by Jospeh Leo Koerner When I first encountered the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch as a kid, my reaction seemed appropriate enough: shock and fear. Later I learned that many of the seemingly bizarre details were drawn from popular idioms and expressions of the day, and so the paintings were rather like Gary Larson cartoons — and the appropriate reaction (at least of viewers during Bosch’s time) was laughter. (A couple of them are still funny today if you know the joke: “The Conjuror” and “The Hay-Wain”.) This book, however, brings into focus at least two other, deeper (and much darker) layers of meaning: one, that Bosch was aware that his paintings them