Rowling, J.K. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. New York: Scholastic, 2008.

This book contains the following word: simulacrum. I learned this word, oh, four years ago, only after poring over Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation for what was assuredly a failed paper on the use of same in Saunders's short fiction. I was twenty-six at the time. That kids who got this book for Christmas (or my sister's thirtysomething boyfriend, somewhat of a kid himself) will be learning such a word at such a young age is kind of cool.
I wonder how, in their silent reading minds, they'll pronounce this word. I read Catcher in the Rye at age 12, a hand-me-down from my H.S.-senior sister (the other sister), and when I got to the word sonuvabitch I pronounced it /sawn-YOO-vuh-bitch/. I went to my sister (the same other one, the older one) and asked her, "What's a sonuvabitch?" And I had to go grab the book and show her the word before she knew what I was asking her and was able to laugh, fully, in my face.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home