apropos
Does anyone else find this a bizarre word?
Its use as a preposition seems to come straight out of a Dave Barry column. ("Apropos, can you lend me some money for the weekend?") Also, part of me always associate it with Lucius Malfoy, for reasons that are beyond me.
Are there any words that you can't see without thinking of the earliest context in which you learned their meaning? Or without thinking of some particularly striking use of them or another?
Boyd, you will be pleased to know that I have Googled the life out of "Dexter," and am now both horrified by the title character's nocturnal habits and strangely enamored of his arch-nemesis's human alter ego. I can appreciate Dexter's painful self-awareness, but I can't appreciate his bloodlust. (Neither can most viewers, hopefully, but it bothers me that the show gives his habits such a sterile nature - everything graphic takes place off-screen, making it easier for people to just forget that part of Dexter when daylight resumes.) To that end, I kind of feel that the Wall Street Journal review blurb featured in red at the bottom of the metacritic page has a point: what effect will all this critical rhapsodizing over a show about a serial killer have on people who hear the rave reviews? I know this seems like it comes from the "violent videogames are 3VIL" school of thought, but there are serial killers who have been influenced by gory movies. So, a singularly gory television show embraced by the public? A title character and his habits described with words like "seductive," "thrilling," "charming," and "engrossing"? If one is old enough to watch and understand "Dexter," one has probably already experienced the kind of influences or shown the kind of personal development that could potentially make them amenable to killing people later in life, but what if the show were just one more clincher?
I want to be intrigued by Dexter's inner struggle, too, but I don't want real life Dexters to exist, because, divine retribution or not, people are still getting hacked apart with bone saws at night while very much conscious.
Its use as a preposition seems to come straight out of a Dave Barry column. ("Apropos, can you lend me some money for the weekend?") Also, part of me always associate it with Lucius Malfoy, for reasons that are beyond me.
Are there any words that you can't see without thinking of the earliest context in which you learned their meaning? Or without thinking of some particularly striking use of them or another?
Boyd, you will be pleased to know that I have Googled the life out of "Dexter," and am now both horrified by the title character's nocturnal habits and strangely enamored of his arch-nemesis's human alter ego. I can appreciate Dexter's painful self-awareness, but I can't appreciate his bloodlust. (Neither can most viewers, hopefully, but it bothers me that the show gives his habits such a sterile nature - everything graphic takes place off-screen, making it easier for people to just forget that part of Dexter when daylight resumes.) To that end, I kind of feel that the Wall Street Journal review blurb featured in red at the bottom of the metacritic page has a point: what effect will all this critical rhapsodizing over a show about a serial killer have on people who hear the rave reviews? I know this seems like it comes from the "violent videogames are 3VIL" school of thought, but there are serial killers who have been influenced by gory movies. So, a singularly gory television show embraced by the public? A title character and his habits described with words like "seductive," "thrilling," "charming," and "engrossing"? If one is old enough to watch and understand "Dexter," one has probably already experienced the kind of influences or shown the kind of personal development that could potentially make them amenable to killing people later in life, but what if the show were just one more clincher?
I want to be intrigued by Dexter's inner struggle, too, but I don't want real life Dexters to exist, because, divine retribution or not, people are still getting hacked apart with bone saws at night while very much conscious.