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

Monachopsis

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

Amuse-Douche

Cover image for the Amuse-Douche word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Star-Stuck

a man walking towards a door with a large question mark

Lockheartedness

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

Poggled

a person studying a book with a magnifying glass

Innity

a neatly made bed with diffused light glowing

The Unsharp Mask

a mirror with a reflection of a person

Kenaway

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

Pax Latrina

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

Kinchy

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

Tillid

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

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Tillid

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

Lilo

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

Kairosclerosis

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

Exulansis

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

The Giltwrights

Cover image for the The Giltwrights word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Catoptric Tristesse

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

Wenbane

a person standing on a ledge looking at a city skyline