December 2, 2024

"While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?"

Wrote Henry David Thoreau, quoted in "Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year Is… Brain Rot" (NYT).

Thoreau published that sentence in 1854 — it's in "Walden" — but somehow, 170 years later, his word/phrase is the official Word of the Year. I'm just going to guess that Thoreau would consider choosing a word of the year to be a rotten-brain activity. 

Is this word-of-the-year-choosing "Oxford" really the same as the Oxford English Dictionary? The NYT says it's "the publisher of the august Oxford English Dictionary," but I look up the word in the OED, and I get:
"Brainbrat"? That reminds me of last summer's word "brat," as in "Kamala Harris is brat." Ugh. That's all memory-holed now, I suppose. What's "brainbrat"? It's like "brainchild," but less well-behaved.

Here's the Thoreau, in context, to un-rot your brain and maybe inspire you to make some new observations about the brain-rot of 2024 American culture:
Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

No one told you there would be no math. 

Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough. "They pretend," as I hear, "that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas"...

Sunrise and an Indian poet from the 15th century. ("Kabir suggested that 'truth' is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, who considers everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world.") Back to Thoreau:

... but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man's writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? I do not suppose that I have attained to obscurity, but I should be proud if no more fatal fault were found with my pages on this score than was found with the Walden ice. Southern customers objected to its blue color, which is the evidence of its purity, as if it were muddy, and preferred the Cambridge ice, which is white, but tastes of weeds.

Potatoes, ice, blueness.... 

The purity men love is like the mists which envelop the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond.

Purity... 

Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or even the Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose? A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?

Big and small (my favorite tag)...

Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Ah! The different drummer. We stumble into a most-famous passage. This is like my experience with the "sunlit uplands" earlier today

brain-rot:different drummer::sunlit uplands:their finest hour

Back to Thoreau: 

Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality. Shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not? There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a staff.

If this blog were perfect, I would have a tag for "perfectionism." 

Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient...

Time! 

... but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life. He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him. Before he had found a stock in all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. Before he had given it the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that race in the sand, and then resumed his work.

Now does that admit of more than one interpretation?  

34 comments:

Jupiter said...

"the official Word of the Year".
No, wait! It's not the official word of the year! "gazebo" is the official Word of the year. Cuz experts.

tcrosse said...

Tag. You're it.

Rocco said...

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

Or maybe it’s because said persons are displaying only one third of their supposed wit.

stlcdr said...

It is irony that this particular 'word of the year' is actually two words.

doctrev said...

You can appreciate Thoreau all you like, but the modern slang usage of "brainrot" usually refers to low-intelligence entertainment which people often indulge in to the point of excess. Cynical condemnation of the hobby the cynic engages in. I can't decide if Thoreau would be scandalized or secretly satisfied.

robother said...

Given all the negative attention to RFK, Jr. this year, I'm surprised the Word of the Year wasn't "brainworm."

Rocco said...

doctrev said...
You can appreciate Thoreau all you like, but the modern slang usage of "brainrot" usually refers to low-intelligence entertainment which people often indulge in to the point of excess.

It’s just a sign of The Times.

rehajm said...

Natalie: Uh. Walden? Are you kidding me? Thoreau was an a**hole.

Josh: Pretend you like it because that's Tag's favorite book.

moment later...

Tag: Yeah Walden?

Natalie: Oh.

Tag: That's my favorite book. I reread it every year.

Natalie: Really? Wow.

Tag: Yeah

Natalie: No way!

Tag: Yeah. Isn't Thoreau the best?

Natalie: Well, some people find him a self-obsessed narcissist, fanatical about self-control, not to mention a total hypocrite, but personally, I find him so inspiring.

from Love Hard 2021...I am not rhhardin

rehajm said...

heh

Ann Althouse said...

"You can appreciate Thoreau all you like, but the modern slang usage of "brainrot" usually refers to low-intelligence entertainment which people often indulge in to the point of excess."

According to Oxford as presented by the NYT, the meaning of "brain rot" is the "deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state." You seem to be saying that is it the material that is causing the brain to rot.

I have no dog in this fight, not a living dog or a dead lion, but I'll look it up in Urban Dictionary. Top definition: "Brainrot is a word that some might use when referring to constantly thinking about a topic, person, place, or thing. It's a spoof word that's relatively close to the definition of a hyperfixation. Both words stand for the same meaning, however, brainrot isn't meant to be taken as literally. There aren't any brains rotting, here!"

I think that supports your point. It is the material occupying space in your brain, not the brain matter itself. It's like "earworm."

loudogblog said...

"Brain rot" is two words. Also, I can't recall the last time I heard that term used.

doctrev said...

Who does put a dead lion in the fight? Anyways, the younger crowd talking about "brainrot" and "meat-riding" are increasingly over Urban Dictionary, never mind Oxford. I don't heavily follow meme content like The Russian Badger on YouTube, but his use of brainrot is a light indicator of where the crowd is going.

Try to interpret this video. I'll be surprised if you know who Azura is, never mind have the capacity to translate the speech of her followers. But that might be for the best. I can't understand it all, not do I wish to.


https://youtu.be/Jh_SF1h6UeI

gilbar said...

i'm PRETTY SURE, that The Word of The Year is: President Donald Trump

mccullough said...

rot is still a good verb

narciso said...

you would be surprised how often grammarly flags official documents,

rhhardin said...

Bit rot refers to your perfectly correct K&R C program no compiling working because some graduate student has changed the compiler.

Jupiter said...

That's called "Nyquist aliasing".

Jupiter said...

I am not an authority on Urban Dictionary, but my understanding is that anyone who wants to can put anything they want to there. Kind of like the Oxford English Dictionary. So I guess that's appropriate. Experts. What gots expertise!

Dr Weevil said...

Isn't "brain-rot" an accurate description of one of the effects of tertiary syphilis? And isn't one of the symptoms of syphilitic brain-rot the habit of leaving literally thousands of comments on a website that you know will be deleted, and making sure that at least a third are offensive enough to make every other commenter glad when they're deleted?

MadTownGuy said...

It's a tatpurusa, a compound noun like ice cream, or life insurance.

mikee said...

The post's subject phrase is Brain Rot and not one thought in the post or comments have yet turned to our illustrious pardon-granting dementia patient President, Joe Biden? Why not? Too cruel or too neutral?

Dr Weevil said...

Jupiter:
I think so. I was once told by a fellow teacher that there was an entry in the Urban Dictionary for our high school, defining it as "a crappy high school in [specific area]". Didn't bother to check, because I didn't care, but did note that apparently anyone could edit it. No way of telling whether it was put in by one of our students, or by a student from a cross-county rival.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

After watching the video at the previous post, this word very propitious.

Colleen Brown said...

This morning on CNN, Scott Jennings called defenders of the Hunter Biden pardon brain rotted.

Clyde said...

Oh, please! In the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which came out in 2011, brain rot is a disease that damages the player's magicka by 25 points. It can be contracted from hagravens or traps. There is nothing new under the sun.

Clyde said...

It's definitely not a 2024 thing.

Ann Althouse said...

Do not go boldly!!!

Ann Althouse said...

I can't get the boldface to stop. I'm going to have to delete the comment that started it.

traditionalguy said...

On this topic I suggest listening to to Jordan Peterson’s Podcast with Mark Changizi entitled Angry and Red: Color as Emotion.

Jaq said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josephbleau said...

“ Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.”

Don't know about this one, if you are a 1.5 wit, or a 3/2 wit, and classed with a half wit, 1/2 wit, then 3/2 - 1/2 = one wit. Where does the 1/3 part come in?

I think Thoreau is the half wit.

Josephbleau said...

if you are a 3/2 wit and we only appreciate 1/3 of it in total, then (3/2)*(1/3) = 1/2 and the 3/2 wit is equal to a half wit.

But (1/2) * (1/3) = 1/6 and the half wit is now a sixth wit, because we only appreciate 1/3 of his wit too. So this way is not right either.

n.n said...

Rot is a progressive process that can be tempered but not aborted.

Josephbleau said...

The only way that this makes sense is if we only appreciate 1/3 of the wit of a one and a half witted person, but we appreciate all the wit of a half witted person. Then the two are equal in appreciated wit. (3/2)*(1/3) =(1/2)*(1).