The word is based on the name Rodomonte — "a character in the Italian romantic epic poems Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto" (Wikipedia).
Gustave Doré illustrates the character:
It's a useful word — "rodomontade" — don't you think? It's also spelled "rhodomontade," which is how I saw it, in the wonderful book I just started reading, "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Soseki:
[Asked “How many rats have you caught so far?”] I answered “Actually, though I’m always thinking of catching one, I’ve never yet caught any.”I had "I Am a Cat" in my Kindle ready to read when I finished "Kafka on the Shore," in which the main character reads and talks about Soseki (and in which there are a lot of talking cats)
Blacky laughed immoderately, quivering the long whiskers, which stuck out stiffly round his muzzle. Blacky, like all true braggarts, is somewhat weak in the head. As long as you purr and listen attentively, pretending to be impressed by his rhodomontade, he is a more or less manageable cat.
According to Wikipedia, Soseki (1867-1916) is "becoming trendy" because he is Murakami's favorite author.
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I learned that word from Bob and Ray many years ago. I think it was in reference to some senator. It's a difficult word to work into conversation.
The word rodomontade is an example of itself.
Donald and Melania use the word in conversation frequently: usually in the same sentence as “Spartacus”.
Synonyms include fanfaronnade and gasconade. Both Cyrano and d'Artagnan are Gascons, BTW.
Somehow this reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel’s “A Simple Desultory Phillipic”.
Those old chivalric romances were enormously influential in their day.
They were, besides the translated bibles, the original popular best sellers.
Quite a feat, one would think, for epic poetry, often untranslated, or translated on the fly by the typical "lectores", who read them aloud to an illiterate audience, but so it was.
The conquistadors carried them. The Cortes expedition carried at least the "Amadis", mentioned by Bernal Diaz. The tone of the descriptions and "coverage" of the conquests can be seen as that very rhodomontade-style taken from the chivalric romances.
Indeed, the entire landscape of the European expansion was seen as a land of fantasy brought to life. That state of mind encouraged the taking of insane risks, an all-or nothing bravado, as was the norm in these works. The details of these literary legends sometimes came to be seen as real, and in these bizarre places where every real thing was fantastic, and every event dramatic, why not?
So the conquistadors mixed reality with fantasy, legend with agony, and turned rumors into actionable intelligence.
Hence Eldorado, or the Seven Cities of Cibola, or the naming of California for a protagonist of "Esplandian".
These things wore out their welcome, eventually. Don Quixote satirized them, but not without a measure of affection. There were fans into the 19th century, one such fanboy, Balagtas/Baltazar, wrote THE epic of Tagalog poetry as a fan-fic of Ariosto.
I'm thrilled you are reading
Soseki! He's one of the greats of Japanese lit, his face was even on the 1000 yen bill for a while. His other big satirical, funny novel is Botchan, which I recommend. But he's actually more famous for his later, more philosophical works. The one taught in Japanese high schools is Kokoro, which is highly recommended.
The character and the entire story of the romances of the Middle Ages are a subplot in Rafael Sabatini's novel "Scaramouche."
The original players did not use a written script but were improvisers and played before audiences that were largely illiterate,
One very underappreciated, and telling, period work is the "Lusiadas" of Camoes.
It is the application of the Ariosto/Montalvo style, down to the rhyming structure, to the actual feats of the Portuguese conquerors. It is only somewhat less fantastic than its inspiration, as the genuine adventures of the real protagonists were proper material for legends.
Try Richard Burton's translation on Google Books.
Or, if you want to mix all this stuff together in a far more modern and easily consumed package, try Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. He loved all this stuff, and wrote some very imaginative scifi/fantasy/horror books with characters and themes pulled from Lusiadas and various contemporary and medieval works. The books get really weird after the first two.
I learned a new word yesterday: "rodomontade."
I'm sorry you didn't know that one, Professor, I would have been happy to dispel your ignorance. You might also like "braggadocio."
Can't read about a talking cat without happily thinking of the wonderful, now century-old stories of archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis. Mehitabel, the talking cat, and his friend Archy, the talking cockroach were illustrated in Marquis's books by George Herriman, the comic strip creator of another talking cat, Krazy Kat, who was impossibly in love with Ignatz the mouse. A hat tip also to Joann Sfar for the graphic novel "The Rabbi's Cat." Set in Algeria in the 1930s, the Rabbi's cat becomes able to speak, logically enough, after eating the Rabbi's parrot
According to Wikipedia, Soseki (1867-1916) is "becoming trendy" because he is Murakami's favorite author.
I bought a copy years ago because of Murakami. It's on my bookshelf. I just checked and I didn't get past p. 50. One of these days I'll give it another try.
What I'd really like to get a hold of is the original single of "Kafka on the Shore". I'd have to buy a phonograph to play it on. But I think it'd be worth it.
I used it here a few months ago.
Bill Buckley loved that word, and used it a lot.
"A vainglorious brag or boast; an extravagantly boastful, arrogant, or bombastic speech or piece of writing... Extravagant boasting or bragging; bravado; boastful or bombastic language" (OED)."
Using expensive words when simple ones will do is an example of "rodomontade".
The problem with this sort of thing is most people come off as donning a full length mink coat while wearing shorts and flip flops.
"What I'd really like to get a hold of is the original single of "Kafka on the Shore". "
I'd like to see the painting.
When life gives you rodomonts make rodomontade.
Some new word. Inga hasn’t found a use for it yet. She usually plops one into her “posts.”
I have always objected to criticism for the use of rarer words as being snobbish or upity. Good words are the flavor and spice of expression, and make communication more fun.
Flex
The rodomontade to end all rodomontades:
The Brag of the SubGenius
Don Quixote satirized them, but not without a measure of affection.
From what I read Don Quixote pretty much destroyed — through the incisiveness of Cervantes' wit — the whole genre of Spanish chivalry romance.
G. Dore's illustrations for Puss in Boots are worth a rhodomontade or two.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Lechatbotte1.jpg
Was I the only one who saw the illustration and whose thought at first glance was "Helm's Deep"?
Soseki is amazing, but I sortof wonder...
Claiming Soseki is your favorite author for a Japanese author is like saying Shakespeare is your inspiration as an American playwright. (Although in fairness, you can pretty clearly see the influence of Kokoro on the early parts of 1Q84)
People who have a serious interest in the culture of Japan usually _start_ with 5 or so of Soseki's works.
I was getting ready to add rodomontade to my repertoire of strange words, but now that Fernandistein and tcrosse have had their way with it, I'm not so sure.
Kir said...
Soseki is amazing, but I sortof wonder...
People who have a serious interest in the culture of Japan usually _start_ with 5 or so of Soseki's works.
******
When I lived there I read Murasaki's "The Tale of Genji", Natusme Soseki's "Kokoro", Abe's "Woman in the Dunes", a couple of Nobelist Kawabata Yasunari's short novels, and (for a change of pace) Mishima Yukio.
"Genji", written almost exactly a thousand years ago (1021) by a woman in the Imperial court, is considered one of the world's first real novels. It can be a slog at times, but then again it's about the only book depicting court life in the Heian period.
The nobility in those days (long before Tokyo became the capital) spoke a complex, highly-inflected Japanese so unlike that spoken by the common people, that at one point "Genji's" author described the fisherfolk encountered on a trip to the seashore as speaking incomprehensibly, like "twittering birds."
Mishima, a REAL right-winger and rabid anti-Marxist, committed seppuku after a failed attempt to get soldiers to mutiny and help overthrow Japan's pacifist Constitution. Another guy completed Mishima's suicide by lopping his head off with a samurai sword. Then a third conspirator did the same to the second, the xpectation being that the third guy would also kill himself honorably.
But the third guy got to thinkin'......
It's in a notable double dactyl:
Higgledy Piggledy
Archangel Raphael
Speaking of Satan's
Rebellion from God:
Chap was decidedly
Tergiversational
Given to lewdness and
Rodomontade.
I have always objected to criticism for the use of rarer words as being snobbish or upity. Good words are the flavor and spice of expression, and make communication more fun.
Oh I agree. My degree is Medieval Lit. But too much can be as bad as too little.
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