armadillo
"389. Serendipity. From Serendip, a former name of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. A word coined by Horace Walpole, who had invented it based on a folktale whose heroes were always making discoveries of things they were not in quest of. Ergo: serendipity, the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident."So what is the opposite of Serendip, a southern land of spice and warmth, lush greenery and hummingbirds, seawashed, sunbasted? Think of another world in the far north, barren, icebound, cold, a world of flint and stone. Call it Zembla. Ergo: zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, the faculty of amking unhappy, unlucky, and expected discoveries by design. Serendipity and zemblanity: the twin poles of the axis around which we revolve.
"The Book of Transfiguration"
"'It's pure coincidence -- pure malevolent coincidence -- that Helvoir-Jayne's staying with me, Mr. Hogg." He wanted to tell him about zemblanity, how this was a perfect example of its sinister influence on one's life, but Hogg was still analyzing recent events."
"Terry pressed a code into a keyboard mounted on a stainless-steel plinth, and glass doors slid open. They rode up in a lift smelling of glue and glazier's putty to the fifth floor. Exiting the lift, Lorimer saw a printed sign with an arrow saying SHEER ACHIMOTA and a weary, zemblan premonition took root in his head."
adult video
"FAST FORWARD >>"INTERVIEWER: You don't seem embittered, even bothered, by the attack in the Times by Sir Alexander Cardman.
"ME: It's a matter of complete indifference. Wasn't it Nabokov who said the best response to hostile criticism is to yawn and forget? I yawned. I forgot.
"INTERVIEWER: I seems unduly personal, especially when your book has been so widely acclaimed --
"ME: I think people on the outside never fully realize the role envy plays in literary and cultural debate in this country."
- Many thanks to Oren Shavit for the Armadillo reference.
- "Adult Video" appeared in the 31 May 1999 issue of The New Yorker.
- More information on William Boyd. (Free registration to The New York Times required.)
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