The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

by John Koenig

ecsis

"Old Customs"

irrition

beloiter

"Epilogue to a Lost Epic"

YRÁTH

"The Troubling History of Lord Bodding of the Inlet", "The Old Ones, Great and Small"

Origin unknown.

evertheless

"Epilogue to a Lost Epic"

Occasionally nuclear engineers try to work out how to warn future generations to stay away from radioactive waste sites, where it won’t be safe to dig for ten thousand years.

It makes you wonder: If it seems impossible to pass a message beyond our own little neighborhood in time, impossible even to warn our descendants not to dig into poisoned ground, what relationship do we have to them?

TIRIS

Yes, my words are made up—but then, all words are made up. Every single one. That’s part of their magic.

Language is not reality. The map is not the territory. As Alan Watts liked to say, “The menu is not the meal.”