Gold foil illustration of stars

Faces in a Crowd

Catching Glimpses of Humanity from a Distance
a crowd of people looking to the left

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog’s yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum’s scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother’s retreat. That only we love the only- we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together.... That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what’s brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd.

David Foster Wallace – Girl with Curious Hair

Pax Latrina

Cover image for the Pax Latrina word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Catoptric Tristesse

Cover image for the Catoptric Tristesse word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Hobsmacked

Cover image for the Hobsmacked word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Routwash

Cover image for the Routwash word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Anthrodynia

Cover image for the Anthrodynia word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Aftergloom

Cover image for the Aftergloom word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Eisce

Cover image for the Eisce word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Heartmoor

a campfire with a kettle many small logs

Anti-Aliasing

Cover image for the Anti-Aliasing word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Eigenschauung

Eigen-schauung

Cover image for the Eigenschauung word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Allope

Cover image for the Allope word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Star-Stuck

a man walking towards a door with a large question mark

Nullness

Cover image for the Nullness word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Anechosis

Cover image for the Anechosis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Gaudia Civis

a close-up of a gear

The Unsharp Mask

a mirror with a reflection of a person

Tillid

Cover image for the Tillid word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Nemotia

a city with clouds of smoke

Ameneurosis

Cover image for the Ameneurosis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Immerensis

Cover image for the Immerensis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Lackout

Cover image for the Lackout word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Idlewild

Cover image for the Idlewild word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Semaphorism

Cover image for the Semaphorism word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Nullness

Cover image for the Nullness word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows