Sorthly

Today on boingboing, Cory posted an entry which included a quasi-typo, the word "sorthly." Here it is.

Tonight's numerically significant date/time: 01:02:03 04.05.06

Xavier sez, "Tonight, sorthly [my highlights] after 1 AM, the time and date combination will be really funny: 01:02:03 04.05.06." Link (Thanks, Xavier!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:02:06 AM permalink | blogs' comments

And the word "sorthly" sort of fit, an amalgamative juxtaposition of the ideas...

1. "sort of," and
   
2. "soonly," and
3. "shortly"
   

...thus sorthly.

From an matter-of-fact-cum-existential point of view the notable occasion Cory remarked upon what will happen sorthly after 1 AM.

And then I googled the word "sorth" (no, sweet Google, I didn't mean "north," though thank for suggesting), and at sorth.com, I located the site of Stephen Orth, senior software developer and general bigwig at digital stock giant Getty Images, who had happened to have written and included in his resume a link to the paper he wrote (and is obviously pleased with, and writefully so) while completing an MA in English at the University of New Mexico, wonderfully and irresistibly titled, Huckleberry Finn and Existentialism, 1995, S.Orth, from which comes this delightful paragraph, which I now reproduce for your thoughtful pleasure and distraction,

In contemplating Huck's periods of freedom and non-freedom, I cannot help but think of Albert Camus's interpretation of the Myth of Sisyphusi. Sisyphus's torment is never ending. Each time he reaches the summit of the hill with his stone, it rolls downward again. However, it is during this return, the pause in which the stone rolls backward, in which Camus interprets Sisyphus to be happy. As Camus states, "for Sisyphus, that moment is like a breathing space which returns as surely as his suffering; it is Sisyphus's hour of consciousness."ii Therefore, it can be said that Huck also enjoys a similar "breathing space" in his moments of freedom. The pause, in the periods of true freedom on the river, is Huck's hour of consciousness. Thus, one must assume, Huck, like Sisyphus, finds happiness in his hour of consciousness, and that he is, after all, happy. And thankfully, Huck, unlike Sisyphus, has only to endure the torments of civilization until the moment of his inevitable death.

iCamus, p121. Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology, had been condemned by the Gods to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight.
iiCamus, p121.

Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.

In other words, Huck, from an existentialist point of view, often experiences happiness, regularly through life albeit...

...and here's big evermore pay-off for which all of us have been waiting, with especial nods to boingboing, Cory Doctorow, Stephen M. Orth, Mark Twain, and Albert Camus, and possibly Kevin Bacon or Rod Steiger...

... sorthly.

Happy Giiver Day!

Link.