The Elegant Variation: MOTEV UPDATE: MONDVACSINALT

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March 08, 2005

MOTEV UPDATE: MONDVACSINALT

We try to space out the MOTEV appearances - keeps them special and besides, there's only so much of each other we can take at a time. But we received a bunch of insistent inquiries seeking a clearer definition of mondvacsinalt. Who knew that would be the burning literary issue of the day? So we picked up the phone once more and pressed the MOTEV button ...

TEV: So, I'm being pressed by my readers for a more specific definition of mondvacsinalt.

MOTEV: Oh God … (thinks) … (sighs) … Oh boy … (exasperated) Well, that's the beauty of the word, that it's very difficult to translate.

TEV: Take a stab at it

MOTEV: Created with artifice … artificially … give me a little time to come up with that … (sighs) I can't think … You know that we're snowed in here?

TEV: Then you've got time to think about it.

MOTEV: Mondvacsinalt … oh God … what would be a good English word? …. Created by words only … words without substance … maybe that's the closest to it. But don’t put that in yet … give me 10 or 15 minutes … your readers won't die of curiosity.

TEV: Ok call me back …

(15 minutes later the phone rings.)

TEV: Hello?

MOTEV: (getting right into it) Artificial, trumped up, make-believe. That's the closest I can come with it. But the flippancy of the Hungarian word --

TEV: -- Flippancy? --

MOTEV: -- yes, the wit, is missing in all of this. What, did I misuse flippancy?

TEV: No, but I thought you might have said "slippancy". Which I didn't understand.

MOTEV: Flip.

TEV: Got it.

MOTEV: Anyway, I spoke to [Hungarian Book Group Friend] and looked a few things up and that's my best shot. Is it adequate?

TEV: It will do nicely, thanks.

Posted at 01:52 PM in MOTEV | Permalink

Comments

flim flam?

Posted by: tito | March 08, 2005 at 02:28 PM

I wonder if it's in Christopher J. Moore's "In Other Words," a book of words that are considered unstranlatable. There was a good French one that literally means something like "on the stairs" which actually is thinking of the perfectly clever repartee after it's far too late to respond.

Posted by: Carolyn | March 08, 2005 at 05:07 PM

On behalf of al TEV readers, we appreciate you going the extra mile. What a mensch.

Posted by: Jimmy Beck | March 09, 2005 at 08:36 AM

Ever thought of writing a book that was just phone calls with MOTEV?

Posted by: smh | March 09, 2005 at 08:38 AM

Nicholson Baker's "MOTEV?"

Posted by: Ed | March 09, 2005 at 05:47 PM

MOTEV is a star! Piroska "MOGRJ" Jones is very jealous. She doesn't want fame, but she'd like the phone calls.

Posted by: Sam | March 09, 2005 at 08:24 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 08, 2005

MOTEV UPDATE: MONDVACSINALT

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 08, 2005

MOTEV UPDATE: MONDVACSINALT

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism