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KQED's Forum

Complex Emotions Find Names in 'The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever felt "slipfast" (a longing to melt into a crowd and become invisible)? Or "scabulous" (proud of a certain scar on your body)? Those are some of the many words John Keonig has created for emotions  we've felt all our lives but lacked words to describe. We talk to Keonig about why he says there are vast holes in our emotional lexicon and why it's important for humans to develop a richer language to describe our interior lives. Koenig's new book, more than ten years in the making, is "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:15.6

Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.

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From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,

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a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an

0:35.3

unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.

0:43.3

The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.

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Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.

0:56.6

From KQED.

1:16.1

From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, have you ever felt slip-fast,

1:23.4

or a longing to melt into a crowd and become invisible? Or maybe scabulous, proud of a certain scar on your body? John Canig finds the gaps that exist in the language of emotion and

1:29.3

tries to fill them. He's put those words into a book more than 10 years in the making, titled

1:34.9

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. We'll learn a few more from his compendium and why he thinks

1:41.7

vast holes in our emotional lexicon exist.

1:45.9

Join us after this news.

2:01.6

This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Heart spur. It means the unexpected surge of emotion in response to a seemingly innocuous trigger,

2:09.6

and it's one of the many words John Koenig has created for emotions we've felt, but lacked words to describe.

2:16.6

Developing a richer language for our emotional or

2:20.0

interior lives has been a more than decade-long project of Canigs, which began as a blog and

2:26.0

now has become a book, the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. This hour we'll learn more about the

2:31.6

complex emotions he's distilled into a single word,

2:34.8

and we want to hear from you what's an emotion you've always wanted to name.

2:40.0

John Caney, welcome to Forum.

...

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