Letter 49 - What a big boy
Such a coincidence. I don’t recall why, but the word gargantuan popped into my head and I began to reflect upon it. And then, wouldn’t you know, it turned up in a book I’m currently reading on the very same day. And so - gargantuan. Just why do I think it’s interesting?
Well, because it’s not one of those near infinity of words that derive from the Greek or Old English or some proto-IndoEuropean root. It’s a social media word that sprang into being by being made-up and sounding cool. Of sorts.
The time - 1534. The “social media”? A book by François Rabelais entitled Gargantua. This was a prequel (half a millennium before George Lucas!), as Gargantua was the father of Pantagruel, the subject of the earlier eponymous book Pantagruel, published in 1532.
Think Monty Python of the 1500’s and you have a reasonable idea of what the books were like. And it’s worth reading about the life of Monsieur Rabelais - he was a doctor and had written the works on which his fame rests as a means of getting some additional money. The man led a life of thrills and chills as he was variously pursued by the religious authorities, escaping prosecution via friends in power, skipping about Europe and seeing his writings alternately banned and celebrated.
But to get to the point that started this missive, both Pantagruel and Gargantua were giants of the classic type. Really REALLY large guys. Rabelais used giants as literary approach he used to distance what he was saying from “real folk” but all the “real folk” knew exactly what he was actually referring to. Same sort of thing as when we cartoonists have our dogs or cats or cockroaches make commentary on the world around them - they’re stand-ins for us but give the commentary a bit of objective distance.
So popular were the books that instead of just saying things are “gigantic”, people started to say they were “gargantuan”. And they kept it up for the next five hundred years, long enough that most people just see the word as a synonym for “really large”.
It’s precisely the same as if the word “trumpian” comes into long-term common usage and five hundred years from now nobody realizes that the word they use to indicate “malevolent behavior that tears down social norms” actually came into being because of a guy who had that name and did exactly that.
It’s somewhat noteworthy how rare this kind of word origin appears to be. I suppose there’s Swiftian, but that’s clearly still strongly associated with Jonathan Swift, even down to the capitalization of the word. Not really in the same category as gargantuan. So what do you say? Can you think of other examples?
One thing Gargantua would have loved, if it had been invented, would have been pizza. I’m just sure of it. So is my family. Hence, when my son said “how about a pizza tomorrow?” I realized that the opportunity had arrived to try out my old pizza skills when constrained to an ice cold oven.
As some of you know, I’ve got a nifty propane powered oven that rocks on at 950 degrees and I can knock a Napoletana pizza out in just 70 seconds with that bad boy. However, being hamstrung with a regular oven, which can only reach 550, means a big change in preparation and in cooking time. Happily, it all went well and we enjoyed two quite excellent pies last night. I even photographed it since, without pictures it didn’t happen, right? Which leads me to the REAL point of this anecdote. Here’s the original pic, straight out of the iPhone:
When I saw this pic I thought to myself “That’s nice but the pic needs work”. What I COULD have done was use one of those prepackaged filters. But … nah. They never please me. I knew what I wanted, which was a well chosen vignette. And it occurred to me, maybe YOU’D like to know how to do that as well. And so … here’s the process:
So there you go, how to create your own vignette in one little lesson.
And for those who are dying to know, that’s a spicy marinara and whole milk mozzarella, sautéed garlic, anchovy and basil pizza. Should have had onion as well but … I forgot to add them. :-(
So who’s up for some Nickyitis?!
Nickyitis
It’s a male thing …
And hey, what’s happening with ELF lately
And zat’s zat. See you all again next time!
I regret to say I never read any Rabelais either in English or French, so I’m feeling like there’s a hole in my education. I also never realized that gargantuan came from the character of Gargantua. I’m racking my brain for other characters in literature or politics whose names became commonplace adjectives, but no dice other than the possible modern day example you mention and that I hope will not stick. The pizza looks yummy and inspires me to want to make one myself, but I will stick to my trusty iPhone settings to improve the background. It is a lot easier and pretty effective. Portrait mode allows you to blur the background.
With reference to the last panel of ELF, I myself, prefer Bushells Coffee and Chickory Essence, mixed with cold milk and vanilla ice cream, a summer-time refreshing drink.
See bushellscoffee.com.au/products/