I took a detour today, en route to visiting the Freud museum to the Islington Museum, in order to see the collection of library books defaced by playwright Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. The collection was not disappointing!

"This defines the untruth of any genius aesthetics that suppresses the element of finite making, the τέχνη in artworks, in favor of their absolute originality" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004.

"that expressionism was more powerful as an idea than in its works perhaps has its origins in the fact that its utopia of the pure τοδε τι is itself a fragment of false consciousness." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 239.) τοδε τι = "a this", “some this”, "a something"; a separate individuated substance. From Aristotle.

"Artworks are eliminated along with the youthful θαυμαζειv" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 109.) θαυμαζειv = wonder, marvel (LSJ) With thanks to Georgios Maragos for confirmation.

"Fireworks are apparation κατ εξοχην: They appear empirically yet are liberated" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 107.) κατ εξοχην = par excellence (eminently) Featured image by Пероша under a CC-BY-NC license. Adorno terminology: κατ εξοχην was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on January 11, 2012.

"The agon of Greek tragedy still gave evidence of this" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004.

"By its εποχη from the empirical world, new art ceases to be fantastic." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 25.) εποχη in contemporary Greek = age/epoch This seems problematic.

With thanks to Roland Clare, a quick snippet of interest (certainly to me, anyway) on the etymology of a certain Étienne Cherdlu, a character featuring, despite omission from Hurley's Pynchon Character Names: A Dictionary (Hurley, Patrick. Pynchon Character Names: A Dictionary. Jefferson N.C.: McFarland & Co. Publishers, 2008.), in "The Secret Integration". (Pynchon, Thomas.

While we wait for news on the Hollywood adaptation, it seems that Jeff Hoyt has taken matters into his own hands and put together an adaptation of the first scene of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice starring Orien Longo and Rachel Kadison. I'm sceptical about Pynchon ever making good movie material, but judge for yourselves.

"In the false world all ηδονη is false" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 15.) ηδονη = (hedonistic) pleasure With thanks to Georgios Maragos for the hedonistic intensifier.

This is a forewarning for subscribers of a series of posts that has already begun. Apologies if this is of no interest to you, but it will be over in a fortnight or so. I am attempting to compile a comprehensive list of the Ancient Greek terms in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory . I am creating one post per entry and giving as much background information on the term as is viable.