Repudiate

The word repudiate means to deny, refuse to recognize.

On the news, repudiating often comes in the context of politics and goes like this.

A politician is on the defensive when asked about some controversial matter. “I repudiate that!” the politician says. No, it’s more like, “No comment” or “I deny that.”

The media seems to love politicians using repudiate in terms of “I deny that” or “I refute that”. But no politician actually says “I repudiate that!”. It is too much of a mouth full.

Why is repudiate even in the English language if most people refuse to use it? I think repudiate is mainly used by lawyers in their defense of a client. “He repudiates that!”

But there was a guy I saw on television who used it when being asked by a reporter, “Do you accept the charges against you?”

He said quietly, “I repudiate the charges.”

His comment went viral. Repudiate became a sensation for fifteen minutes. Its fifteen minutes of fame. That’s because hardly no one used the word, but he did.

I guess people still love that underused word very much. Repudiate has that exotic appeal in the right context.

 

 

 

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Interesting exercise

I couldn’t have imagined how many words in Dante’s Inferno could be misunderstood, those mildly or moderately complex and very complicated words that requires a dictionary. I came up with about 300 difficult words which I randomly scribbled on a card to look up later. It became a very interesting exercise.

It’s Caribbean!

A good thing about writing Pirates of the Caribbean reviews is learning how to spell Carribean, no I mean Caribbean (It gets easier).

Half-finished

At the end of this week I read less of Dante’s Inferno and am listening to music. Inferno is still on my radar to finish because I just want to. I don’t like to say that I finished the book half-way through. That’s not even finishing it. If I stopped reading it, I would become a statistic, the half finishes statistic. Following through on reading the book is a must, but at my leisure.

The serious side

Further down the page of Canto 26, in Dante’s Inferno, is a serous side to the epic poem. The key word is ‘grieved’ on Dante seeing the lost souls:

It grieved me then, it grieves me now once more,

to fix my thoughts on what I witnessed there.

 

The first three lines count

As writing mentors say, the first lines count. On my way to reading Canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno, the first three lines stood out as hilarious:

Rejoice, Florentia! You’ve grown so grand

that over land and sea you spread your beating wings,

and through the whole of Hell your name resounds.

On!

Inspiration:

‘Whoever, fameless, wastes his life away,

Leaves of himself no greater mark on earth

Than smoke in air or froth upon the wave.

So, upwards! On! And vanquish labored breath!

In any battle mind power will prevail,

Unless the weight of body loads it down.

There’s yet a longer ladder you must scale.

You can’t just turn and leave all these behind.

You understand? Well, make my words avail.’

[Inferno, Dante Alighieri, Canto 24:49-57, translated by Robin Kirkpatrick, Penguin Classics]

Week in

This week: The beginning of the week started with a rejection slip. Enough said, but it started the week with a bang. Then, it got quiet because I’m in a phase of writing that is quietly pondering. So while I blog a film review, a poem here or there, other things are on my radar that I’m silently working on slowly but surely. The quiet voice of the “muse” as they call inspiration stirs in the sounds of silence.

The last word on it

Yesterday I wanted to try something different. I mean, in terms of submitting to a publisher who has accepted two but also rejected quite a few other submissions of mine. Trying something different was my Plan B.

This Plan B, which I will not explain in detail, may work—if I don’t base my submissions on harder passages to understand in the Bible. But I recalled today that the publisher wanted submissions based on the harder passages. Only those passages. So Plan B goes out the window.

Don’t mind, because there is more to life, but last rejection would be the last from them. This means I write nothing more for this publisher.

Quite simply, the negative outcome seems likely if submitting more, going by past record. Why go on the merry go round of rejection slips with the same publisher? There is a time to stop what one is doing once it is pointless.

This is the end of submitting to this publisher. Sad, but inevitable. I hate break-ups, but they did give thirty-odd reasons to (read: rejection slips).

The testimonial project that almost made it

Despite the rejections (aw shucks) of the fiction and poetry, I must love blogging and have a hunger for projects of writing.

A project I have gone headlong into means I am approaching the appropriate personnel–to see if they know of any stories about their people.

These stories are what’s called “testimonies”. In other words, what’s happening with you, and why.

One wanted the minutest detail about me first, probably to see who I really am, and if I am who I say I am.

Unfortunately, none of my “personnel” got back to me with offers of people willing to tell me their story–which I would have submitted to editors who are actually interested in seeing my work.

Considering, there are editors who turn the page of my work with a disdainful eye (I jest; it’s not disdainful, it’s probably indifferent or courteously sorry they couldn’t publish it), the  editors who are interested, don’t get to see it. The irony is painful, but bearable.