A Curious Girl: knurd

Hmm, so many things to write! I was in bed for most of today feeling crap. I feel a bit guilty about this, as I have work to do (as usual) and I kept remembering what I read last time I was ill, Malachy McCourt "A Monk Swimming" (As in "You are blessed, a monk swimming"). He said that growing up is Limerick he has no patience with colds or 'flu, as he grew up with people all around dying of the consumption, in the cold wet with fleas and other such pleasant parasites of Irish wartime slums. I feel depressed when I think of this, especially when I think of Alice with ME. I still feel a bit icky but never mind, I want to write this entry.

Today I read quite a lot of "'Tis", by Frank McCourt, Malachy's brother, and finding that as I suspected, I like Frank much more. I borrowed both books from Abi, and I have had Frank's much longer; I think it is because I have been reading many diaries and can't be bothered with actual books lately.

I've spent, say, the last month feeling 'knurd' which Terry Pratchett coined, and is defined in "The Discworld Companion".

"Knurd is the opposite of drunk. It should not be mistaken for sobriety. Sobriety is merely the median state; knurdness is a sort of super-sobriety. By comparison, sobriety is like having a bath is warm cotton wool.

Knurdness strips away all illusion, all the comforting pink fog in which people normally spend their lives, and lets them see and think clearly for the first time ever. Then, after they've screamed a bit, they make sure they never get knurd again."

This is not a happy state; I have a theory that it is one of the causes of depression, but in some ways, like Carl Jung's shadow thingummy, it can be a good thing.

Better go.

Random word for today:

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