Comments | angevin2: it might have given Aristotle creeps

angevin2

it might have given Aristotle creeps

Apr 27, 2006 01:44

So I was perusing the online OED in preparation for doing the alphabet meme that's been floating around my flist, and happened upon the fact that, in fact, the OED's first definition of catharsis is this:

Purgation of the excrements of the body; esp. evacuation of the bowels.I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at literature the same way again. ( Read more... )

dirtybadwrong

Comments 14

dramaturgca April 27 2006, 00:32:34 UTC

So, what you're saying is that it's actually more cathartic if the play sucks, because it's been shat out? Not sure I love that...

angevin2 April 27 2006, 12:36:34 UTC

Me neither! Though we can rest assured that that's probably not what Aristotle meant... ;)

st_egfroth April 27 2006, 02:20:18 UTC

Ha ha. Love the icon!

angevin2 April 27 2006, 10:05:56 UTC

Heh, thanks. I felt it needed to be an icon. There are SO MANY INSTANCES in which I might use it.

st_egfroth April 27 2006, 10:14:25 UTC

GOODNESS, you mean you don't feel sufficiently chastised to mend your sordid medieval-king-defiling ways?

(The comment has been removed)

Thread 6

(The comment has been removed)

angevin2 April 27 2006, 10:06:30 UTC

I KNOW! And I'm going to go TA for a class on King Lear now! *cries*

detroitfather April 27 2006, 03:54:54 UTC

So, you're saying that I've been experiencing catharsis basically every day and just didn't know it? Cool.

angevin2 April 27 2006, 10:08:16 UTC

Pretty much, yes!

There is probably a quip to be framed about Martin Luther's fabled moment of inspiration while on the toilet, too, but I think I'll let it pass. So to speak.

hermionesviolin April 27 2006, 06:49:01 UTC

Is it bad that I totally knew catharsis came from a word meaning bodily purgation? I mean, okay, mentioning the bowels is kinda ew, but still.

angevin2 April 27 2006, 10:09:15 UTC

I kinda feel like it's the sort of thing I should have known, too, given that I'm perfectly aware of the literary definition, but I hadn't thought to connect the experience of tragedy with, I don't know, taking a really good crap...

hermionesviolin April 27 2006, 10:18:04 UTC

I hadn't thought to connect the experience of tragedy with, I don't know, taking a really good crap...

Yeah, not quite the connection I would have made either. I tend to think of it more in connection to purging the body of toxins both physical and emotional -- which, okay, is technically what bowel movements are, but I think of "catharsis" as a more intense thing, like sweating out poisons or something.