To 'Spasticulate electric ventriloquisms', or 'Ventriculate spastique electrocutions'. That is the question.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Insanitary Conditions or Conditional Sanity

  • sanitarium 1851, lit. "place dedicated to health," as if from Mod.L. *sanitarius, from L. sanitas "health," from sanus "healthy, sane" (cf. sanatarium).
  • sanatorium 1839, from Mod.L., prop. neut. of L.L. sanitorius "health-giving," from L. sanatus, pp. stem of sanare "to heal," from sanus "well, healthy, sane." Latin sanare is the source of It. sanare, Sp. sanar.
  • -ium a suffix found on nouns borrowed from Latin, especially derivatives of verbs ( odium; tedium; colloquium; delirium ), deverbal compounds with the initial element denoting the object of the verb ( nasturtium ), other types of compounds ( equilibrium; millennium ), and derivatives of personal nouns, often denoting the associated status or office ( collegium; consortium; magisterium ); -ium also occurs in scientific coinages on a Latin model, as in names of metallic elements ( barium; titanium ) and as a Latinization of Gk -ion ( pericardium ). Used to form the names of metal elements, after the style of early-named elements, as well as the isotopes of hydrogen. By extension, appended to common words to create scientific-sounding or humorous-sounding fictional substance names. Used to indicate the setting where a given activity is carried out: gymnasium, auditorium, stadium, colloquium, planetarium, podium, sanatorium. Words so formed often take "-a" for the plural.
  • sonnet fourteen-line rhyming poem with set structure: a short poem with 14 lines, usually ten-syllable rhyming lines, divided into two, three, or four sections. There are many rhyming patterns for sonnets, and they are usually written in iambic pentameter. [Mid-16th century. Directly or via French < Italian sonnetto < Old Provençal son "poem" < Latin sonus "sound", see Sanskrit Sama-Veda [sáamə váydə] n. ancient Hindu sacred text: [Late 18th century. < Sanskrit < sāman "chant" + vedaḥ "knowledge"]]
  • sonata 1. classical composition for solo instrument: a piece of classical music for a solo instrument or a small ensemble. It consists of several movements, at least one of which is in sonata form. 2. one-movement baroque keyboard composition: a piece of baroque keyboard music in a single movement [Late 17th century. < Italian < feminine past participle of sonare "sound" < Latin sonare ]
  • um representing hesitation in speech: a word used in writing to represent the kind of grunting sound that people make when they hesitate in speaking [Early 17th century. Representing an inarticulate sound]
    from the dictionary

Insanitarium: The prefix in- can refer to absense or negation ('not') as well as inclusion ('within'), which generally means 'clot-forming', but may (rarely) also indicate the quite opposite 'scattering' ('incoherent' or 'not clot-forming', 'unglued at the hinges'), which we must as well accept as colloqially more accurate with the common phrases, "scatter-brained" and "blown mind" when referring to the insane and "clod-hopper" for the rural variety on the twin analogy of leaping (a symptom of madness) and breaking soil (a known source of unsanity or perversion) rather than wind.

The leakage, fault or deep crack is clearly seen on the part of the diagnosticians (crackpots) and not in their clientelle. This is because of the inherent split still open within all acadaemic circles as to the nature of ill-health as ultimately derived from within or without. Medievil doctors who thought all sickness was due to insanitary conditions, producing infection like a ford factory, pit themselves against the churchmen who insisted on internal construction error (sin as birth defect) or the more Platonic attitude of a "station" one was born into and from which one should never attempt to stray (still the standard definition of 'crime'). The churchmen had to back off a bit when it was pointed out the contagion factor in sin much resembled succombing to temptation. After much bloodletting, there was a resolution of conflict when the external microbe was found hobnobbing with intracellular materials. Artaud, diagnosed with scatterbrain disorder since art is supposed to be constructive and destruction best left in the capable hands of governments, was electrocuted 37 times for suggesting the microbe was a particle of grace (god) dissected to form atoms usefull for evaporative affects when they themselves were split.

Lastly, um, we should not discount the phonological resemblence of the root morphemes /san-/ (> 'health', 'cleanliness') and /son-/ (> 'sound', 'pronouncement') as mere chance linguistic anomoly. There is always, by definition, a culprit or sin hiding behind each pronoun. The only evidence a quack (which is a digital crackpot tuned in to disharmonic soundings) can go on is aural or literary: disorganized speech must, in theory, follow disorganized thinking just as infection is known to derive from living in slovenly habitats or through lack of rigidly sanitary habits. Interesting that a soiled or dirty mind (and they're pretty solid on this matter) is still considered a moral rather than purely psychological condition, but literally, a sanitarium is 'a place of brain-washing with a technical or scientific ring' (hence the final and unhesitant articulation of "hum" even when accompanyied with much beard-rubbing with one hand between puffs on a pipe with the other to stimulate clarity in thought – in smoke-free environments, beard rubbing alone is sufficient when attached to a distinguished or patronizing "um"). Most often, a negative health diagnosis is warranted solely on the basis of others' reportage in the form of accusation or hearsay – one is invariably reminded of heresy. A consonance is always achievable with a consensus of the proper pronouncement of consonants. Don't let those tricky vowels fool you.

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