Continuing Adventures Reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Entry 6 - Dec 9, 2023 Suzann Kale Spoiler Alert

Halfway through. My goal: Look stuff up. Mitchell does not place one syllable in his books unless it’s important. There is some dialog in French, no translation. I go to my Google translation app. Don’t want to miss anything. 

There are some English words I do not know. I Google them. It takes a minute, and slightly interrupts the flow, but for me it’s necessary. 

Even crazy stuff like psychosoterica, which is a term he uses to describe a set of occult practices used by Atemporals. But then I have to look up Atemporals, or I’m still missing important info. Merriam-Webster says Atemporal means “unaffected by time” - so perhaps Atemporals refers to a group of people unaffected by time.

In the same chapter, Mr. Pfenninger (an atemporal) refers to his group as Anchorites of the Dusk Chapel of the Blind Cathar of the Thomasite Monastery of Sidelhorn Pass. But it’s not made up - each word in this mouthful is a real word with a real meaning, so I had to look up a bunch of stuff here — but again, looking everything up adds to the essential things one needs to know in order to enjoy Mitchell’s masterful details.

Yes, I had to look up Anchorites, and then Dusk Chapel, and then Cathar, and then Blind Cathar, and then… etc.