"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.

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.

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.

"His work is the extrapolation of a negative καιρος" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 33.) -- in reference to Beckett With thanks to Yorgos Maragos.

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.

"The portion of it that is θέσει grew to such an extent that all efforts to secret away the process of production in the work could not but fail" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004.

"Thus what was planned as a bridge between theoretical and practical pure reason is vis-à-vis both an άλλο γένος" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004.

A quick note as I had to look it up and might save somebody else some time. First occurring on p. 7 of the Hullot-Kentor translation of Aesthetic Theory , χωρισμός or chorismos, can most accurately be translated as "separation". The context, for search engine purposes is "by abstract negation posits the χωρισμός of art as absolute". (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann.

Pynchon biography sleuth, Albert Rolls, sent me information today of the only known inscribed Pynchon book complete with a presentation letter.

A quick, perhaps egotistic, documentary post to note that the Guardian have published their top 10 posts of 2011 and the piece I wrote with Jennifer M. Jones made the cut. Indeed, 6 months after it was written, "Angry Young Academics" has returned to being the most read item on the site with 366 Facebook "likes" and 77 unique mentions on Twitter.