#Aftermath synonym how to
#Aftermath synonym series

#Aftermath synonym series

At one point, she praises вЂњriffingвЂќ in music but also in prose, where one begins by вЂњstarting with a single idea and putting it through a series of changes, embellishing it, making it more and more elaborate and even absurd.вЂќ Her essays riff in precisely this way. OgdenвЂ™s essays follow a train of thought for a bit, then drop it only to return to it in a different key.

This zone of the in-between, where we lack both total ignorance and absolute knowledge, has its own virtues, she argues: flexibility, humility, wonder, playfulness. In this collection of short, blazing essays, Ogden is interested in experiences-giving birth to a child, reading a poem, having a one-night stand-that donвЂ™t lead to final and clarifying knowledge.

#Aftermath synonym how to

On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays, by Emily Ogden Here are some books that suggest the exhilarating, if difficult, gifts of not knowing-what it means to remain open to that which is beyond the self, to the experience of beauty and wonder, to the strangeness of others and the world. But what if, Ogden asks in her book On Not Knowing, we refused this desire for certainty? What if instead we cultivated вЂњa capacity to hold the position of not knowing yet-possibly of not knowing ever?вЂќ (Adam and Eve, meet apple.) Perhaps more interesting, though, are those books that envision the joys, even the wisdom, of what the essayist Emily Ogden calls вЂњunknowing.вЂќ We yearn for revelation and epiphany. Many books, including ones by James himself, dramatize the dangers of knowledge. If the desire to know is insurmountable, so too are the consequences. This desire applies to more than people: We start a novel and need to know how it ends we feel a pain in our chest and head over to WebMD to determine its cause. As he wrote, humans possess вЂњan insurmountable desire to know.вЂќ When we love someone-a writer, a friend, a mistress-we want to know everything about them when we hate someone, we want to know everything about them too.

To JamesвЂ™s regret, the new collection left FlaubertвЂ™s вЂњevery weakness exposed, every mystery dispelled, every secret betrayed.вЂќ What treachery, then, to publish his casual missives, ones that he hadnвЂ™t had time to labor over. The French novelist was famous for his stylistic perfectionism. In 1893, Henry James complained about the recent publication of Gustave FlaubertвЂ™s letters.