Jonathon Keats: Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology

The Boston Globe recently wrote about the book: “Virtual Words,” by Jonathon Keats, who writes the Jargon Watch column in WIRED magazine. We might even be able to argue that his book is from at least a few minutes in the future — these are the jargon words that might become consumer-grade English. “Virtual Words” isn’t really a dictionary, but a collection of essays on new terms, and Keats makes no claim to be a lexicographer (although his author photo includes a very lexicographical bow tie). Instead, he refreshingly divides his book into six categories: Discovery, Innovation, Commentary, Promotion, Slang, and Neologism. Find that Boston Globe article here. From NPR's Talk of the Nation, Science Friday; "How Science and Technology Influence Language:" FLATOW: How do certain words catch on when other words don't? Mr. KEATS: It seems to me that the words that catch on are those that are probably least clever, that call least attention to themselves and that really kind of percolate from general usage, whereas the words that are particularly fun or funny, they may come into existence, and they may go viral, but they tend to die out almost as quickly as they came about. FLATOW: Do you have some favorite new words from this year? Mr. KEATS: Yes, I've been watching, as a result of my work in Wired, and one word that I really like right now is hygroelectricity, which is not hydroelectricity, it's spelled H-Y-G-R-O, and what it refers to is electricity that is taken from the humidity in the air, much as lightning is a lightening is a manifestation of this. And what I like about it is that it makes concrete in a word an idea that is very new and really right now is in the earliest prototyping stage in a laboratory. And it has, I think, great potential as an alternative energy source, and because there is a word, there is something that we can call it, we can start talking about it and promoting it, tweeting it, if you will, and I think that that can really be as important as the technology itself in terms of whether it catches on. Find that NPR webpage here.

Suit against ‘Harry Potter’ author to proceed from Books - The Boston Globe Book Reviews and Best Sellers Lists ... by Associated Press

A British judge refused to dismiss a plagiarism lawsuit against “Harry Potter’’ author J.K. Rowling yesterday, saying claims the best-selling author stole ideas from an obscure fantasy book deserved to be considered at a proper hearing. Rowling and her publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing, had applied to court for the case to be dismissed immediately, saying the copyright infringement claims brought by the estate of late author Adrian Jacobs had no real chance of succeeding. But Justice David Kitchin ruled that the claims, brought by Jacobs’s estate trustee, Paul Allen, had a chance of success — although he described this as being “improbable.’’

It's a rite of passage, for big franchises like this.

No ringing endorsement for Franzen’s ‘Freedom’ from Books - The Boston Globe Book Reviews and Best Sellers Lists ... by Steve Greenlee, Globe Staff

Huge shock in the literary world: Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom’’ — the most anticipated, most discussed, and most praised American novel of the year — is not nominated for a National Book Award. “Obviously, ‘Freedom’ is the big book of the year, but the question is what the National Book Awards are supposed to honor,’’ Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation, told the Associated Press. “We tell the judges just to look at the books and that outside chatter is not important. We go with that every year.’’ Franzen’s previous novel, “The Corrections,’’ won the National Book Award for fiction in 2001.

Thank God. We don't need anymore hype about the Freedom Train. Read the Boston Globe piece here.