Vocarb Loading

I have to admit the energy is starting to flag a little. I have set my sights high and am committed to bringing to conclusion that which I've begun, but fatigue is starting to settle in and that let's-be-getting-on-with-it urge is starting to rear its ugly head. I started reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace back in February and I've been diligently pushing all other contenders aside that I might focus intently on the job before me, but at page 405 out of 1079 the end is not yet in sight.

I am thoroughly enjoying the book - it really is masterfully if somewhat densely written, and in places laugh-out-loud hilarious, but one of the things that has intrigued me the most as I've been reading is the guy's unparalleled vocabulary. Every page has at least a word or two I've never heard before, and when I look them up (yes, I've started looking them up), they fit the context perfectly. Rather than standing out and drawing attention to themselves, these little lexicographical rarities seem to burrow organically into the narrative. Somehow Wallace manages to fold them in naturally, making it seem like there really were no other word options that would do. He doesn't come across as a stuffy, pompous know-it-all, but as an artisan who also happens to be wicked smart.

Here's a sampling of some of the ones I've noted over the last 10 or 15 pages:

candent — glowing from or as if from great heat.
strabismic — inability of one eye to attain binocular vision with the other because of imbalance of the muscles of the eyeball.
prehensile — adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around.
ablated — to remove or destroy especially by cutting, abrading, or evaporating.
saurian — any of a suborder (Sauria) of reptiles including the lizards and in older classifications the crocodiles and various extinct forms.
aigrette — a spray of feathers (as of the egret) for the head.
putative — commonly accepted or supposed
tendentious — marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view : biased.
amanuensis — one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript.
falcate — hooked or curved like a sickle.
agnation — line of descent traced through the paternal side of the family.

I'll be thrilled if I remember more than one or two of these a week after I actually finish the book, but it still amuses me to think I might be learning something.