{"id":3445,"date":"2018-12-07T08:59:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T13:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3445"},"modified":"2018-12-07T08:59:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T13:59:55","slug":"enigmata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3445","title":{"rendered":"enigmata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like me a good <b>enigma<\/b>, and I&#8217;ve used that word in all sorts of connections over the years, but never thought to inquire into its etymology and various senses. Dictionaries seem to agree that the Greek <i>ainos<\/i>, &#8216;fable&#8217;, is the original progenitor, but others cited are Greek <i>ainisessthai<\/i>, &#8216;to speak allusively&#8217;, and Latin <i>aenigma<\/i>, &#8216;riddle&#8217;. The modern senses favor<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>mysterious\n<li>puzzling\n<li>hard to explain\n<li>inexplicable\n<li>hidden meaning or known thing concealed under obscure words or forms\n<li>dark saying\n<li>baffles understanding<\/ul>\n<p>Looking over my own past uses, I seem often to invoke <b>enigma<\/b> in describing something non-obvious that interests me or piques curiosity or captures my attention. An artful <i>story<\/i> is what&#8217;s required to dispel murk (or mirk). See <a href=\"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=418\">Narrativium<\/a> for the how and why.<\/p>\n<p>\nMost dictionary senses seem to favor the textual enigma, but I&#8217;m especially drawn to visual instances, in which there&#8217;s something unresolved<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/11340091396\/\" title=\"Orrs Island mystery\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7321\/11340091396_25c1c67473_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"455\" alt=\"Orrs Island mystery\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\nor ???huh???<br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/11359208806\/\" title=\"children at play\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3778\/11359208806_b8d609d2ed_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"438\" alt=\"children at play\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\nor flat-out puzzling<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/37352474181\/\" title=\"This morning in the Back 40\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4338\/37352474181_ca8b5926d2_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" alt=\"This morning in the Back 40\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\nor ambiguous and suggestive of multiple possible readings<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/45005968014\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"the morning after the night before\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4830\/45005968014_0345064351.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"167\" alt=\"the morning after the night before\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\nor just plain weird<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/31785362788\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"31x18068\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1940\/31785362788_bc2d8e568e.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"402\" alt=\"31x18068\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>\nEdward Gorey on writing:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;the way I write, since I do leave out most of the connections, and very little is pinned down, I feel that I am doing a minimum of damage to other possibilities that might arise in a reader&#8217;s mind. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/12\/10\/edward-goreys-enigmatic-world\">New Yorker<\/a> Dec 12 2018)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nPhotographers who traffic in enigma and abstractions of various kinds, and\/or explore Buddhist and Taoist notions of the contemplative owe a lot to Minor White. Herewith some of my thoughts from more than a year ago: <a href=\"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3247\">Major Minor<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like me a good enigma, and I&#8217;ve used that word in all sorts of connections over the years, but never thought to inquire into its etymology and various senses. Dictionaries seem to agree that the Greek ainos, &#8216;fable&#8217;, is the original progenitor, but others cited are Greek ainisessthai, &#8216;to speak allusively&#8217;, and Latin aenigma, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3446,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions\/3446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}