Xeno - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows the smallest measurable unit of human connection, typically exchanged between passing strangers—a warm smile, a sympathetic nod, a shared laugh about some odd coincidence—moments that are fleeting and random but still contain powerful emotional nutrients that can alleviate the symptoms of feeling alone
Xylaria - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows A silent symphony echoing within you, where the notes are penned by a stranger's hand, intertwining two souls meeting seamlessly across the vast expanse of untold whispers
Chapters | The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Explore the thematic chapters of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, each delving into unique facets of human emotion and experience
About the Book - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows About the Book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of new words for emotions Its mission is to shine a light on the fundamental strangeness of being a human being—all the aches, demons, vibes, joys, and urges that are humming in the background of everyday life
Covalent Bond - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows a moment of sudden involvement in a stranger’s personal life— rushing over to break up a fight, helping a teary-eyed parent struggling with a stroller, righting someone’s bike after a bad fall—that shatters the invisible glass box that usually surrounds us in public, the one we prefer to pretend is impenetrable, which somehow renders us
Aimonomia - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows the fear that learning the name of something—a bird, a constellation, an attractive stranger—will somehow ruin it, inadvertently transforming a lucky discovery into a conceptual husk pinned in a glass case, leaving one less mystery fluttering around in the universe
Siso | The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows a solitary experience you wish you could have shared with someone else—having dinner in a romantic setting, reaching the summit after an arduous climb, having a run-in with a crazy stranger that nobody’s going to believe—which makes you look around for confirmation that it even happened at all
Eisce - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows the awareness of the infinitesimal role you play in shaping your own society—knowing that whenever you smile at a stranger, pronounce a word a certain way, laugh at a certain joke, or choose the slightly shinier apple, you are unwittingly helping to construct the world in which you live—a role both vanishingly small but also somehow
The Whipgraft Delusion - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows n the phenomenon in which you catch your reflection in the mirror and get the sense that you’re peering into the eyes of a stranger, as if you’re looking at a police sketch of your own face aged forward twenty years, which would imply that the real you is out there somewhere, wandering the streets of your old neighborhood, still at large