Vocabulary Always Embarrassing Scholars

A few recent TV shows ("My Emancipation Diary" and "The Very Lawyer Yu Yingzhen") have coincidentally mentioned whales, a creature that cannot be trapped. Humans can only approach it by means of pictures, video data, and more by imagination. And yesterday, I turned to a natural history book, and it happened that the first part talked about whales.

"We call these monsters 'giant fish' or whales. In ancient Greek, the animals who created them were called phallaina. The origin of the word is ambiguous, and if one goes back to its roots, Maybe it means blow or swell, or maybe it comes from phallus or phallos, like cork is a homonym for cock. "

When I see this, I want to laugh. "Words always make scholars feel embarrassed." When they seriously want to trace their roots, there will always be a laughing, scolding, cynical person behind these words who is ready to be cruel. Make fun of them. And they have to fill the pit of self-righteousness that they dug, and to explain it to others, they have to endure this, a truth that is completely out of their control.

Why is the source of such embarrassment related to the unspeakable sex in daily life, like someone made a huge joke, and the one who doesn't want to come here to test it one day is actually you, the unlucky bastard. But think about it from ancient times to the present, coming and going, human beings seem to have this thing, and they are only interested in this thing.

Thinking of a recent news, the famous contemporary sculptor Anthony Gormley was commissioned to create a statue called Alert for the newly built Dangoor Square at Imperial College London. However, the shape design of the statue caused dissatisfaction among the students of the school, who believed that the protruding part of the statue resembled "male genitalia" and had a strong gender exclusion, "which may harm the reputation and image of the college... The name of the statue" Alert" can also be understood as "erect", so it is not appropriate to display in public spaces.

And the artist himself proceeded from his own design concept in this way, proving that this is a "squatting person on tiptoe", and the prominent part is not the male genitals, but the knees and legs together. "By transforming the human body into an architectural construct, I wanted to rethink the relationship between the human body and space. Standing on tiptoe and squatting to observe the world around me, the posture of this statue is alive, alert and awake."

People are keen to discuss and argue, whether it is true or not, and what the consequences will be. But it's actually a very funny thing, just like the whale's name, like someone is laughing behind the back, or triumphantly: I see you, you, how to make up a hype, and when will this funny war end .

Earlier, I saw a piece of Taiwan news: "The Manneken Pis in the century-old Chiayi Park has been restored to its original bronze color after the restoration team slowly removed the coating. Members of the two generations of restoration teams went to visit on the 6th and shared the restoration with each other. process. "

This is the kind of local news that I usually want to watch, and it is specially categorized and placed in the life column, which seems to make people laugh after reading it. However, the text and video reports are all serious about the news. The government workers and antiquities restoration experts involved in the incident are all dealing with a "precious cultural treasure", rather than what we have seen. A little funny "Peeing Boy".

There is an inexplicable joy in seeing people standing under the statue, especially under the eye-catching phallus, and showing you how the water-spraying structure was successfully repaired, and now finally comes back to life.

It seems that it is not an ordinary reaction. If an ordinary citizen passes by, he will probably laugh it off. When he has to face the camera, he will quietly hide his smile, put on a pretence, and suddenly realize: Oh, so it is. Even if it is an innocent child, he will show his true nature when everyone is unprepared, and quickly reach out and touch it.

When faced with such things, human beings are always secretive-you have to be sneaky, and then there will be a real reaction behind your back. But everything that is public and serious seems a little wrong.