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Would you kindly tell me the meaning of this word "novum" in this paragraph?
Thank you in advance.
Ostensibly, the plot of China Miéville’s The City and the City
centers around a murder investigation led by Inspector Tyador
Borlú but as the title suggests, it is also a story of two cities—
Beszel and Ul Qoma, presumably located somewhere in Central
or Eastern Europe. Hungarian, Balkan and Turkish influences
are clear both in the linguistic sphere and the cities’ material
culture, with Beszel being more European and Ul Qoma—more
Oriental. It is in their coexistence where the novel’s central novum
dwells. Maintained in the precarious balance with a long history
of conflicts and wars, Beszel and Ul Qoma largely occupy the
same physical space. While some of their streets and districts
may be “total”—located only in one of them, many others are
“crosshatched”—they simultaneously exist in both cities, have
different names, different architecture and different character.
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well, 'novum' is from 'new', so I guess it would be 'newness': ie its originality, unique idea as a novel, the new thing it brings to the genre, unique selling point. Not exactly a common word, (at least outside literary jargon) as far as I am aware...
(well, obviously, novum is 'from' new which is originally 'from' novum, not the other way round)
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"novum" is the Latin word for 'new'. As it is a neutre form of an adjective it can also mean 'a/the new thing'. Many writers have a knowledge of Latin and sometimes use Latin words or French words - for reasons whatever. These may be stylistic - a foreign word gives a special flair - it may be the author wants to show off with his Latin - or other reasons. But it's a characteristic of educated writers, often with university degree, to use sometimes a Latin word.
Edit: The stem nov- of novum is in German neu, in Dutch nieuw, in English new /nju:/.
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2003 I. Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. Marxist Theory & SF E. James & F. Mendlesohn Cambridge Companion to SF № 119: Suvin adopts the concept of the novum from the work of Ernst Bloch, for whom the term refers to those concrete innovations in lived history that awaken human collective consciousness out of a static present to awareness that history can be changed. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/novum-2#ixzz1n74sLf6Y
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I had only encountered the word in reference to Science Fiction books so I did a quick hunt.
It still seems to be a word restricted to that genre...but it also refers to a game of cards, it seems.
Is the book Science Fiction? If not, perhaps it has crossed genres - or maybe the reviewer is just a pretentious git?
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Yes, Miéville is a Fantasy/Science Fiction writer and he has an atmosphere of his own in his novels.
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Romany wrote:I had only encountered the word in reference to Science Fiction books so I did a quick hunt.
It still seems to be a word restricted to that genre...but it also refers to a game of cards, it seems.
Is the book Science Fiction? If not, perhaps it has crossed genres - or maybe the reviewer is just a pretentious git? Litcrits like to poach words to make their critiques sound impenetrably deep (not as bad as advertisers or modern French philosophers though), so I would opt for the pretentious git theory.
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon" Suzanne Ertz
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Yes - knowing China Miéville’s work, which does tend to the Fantasy end of Science Fiction, they do have, to paraphrase rogermue: "an atmosphere of their own.
The review quoted by Jurm is pretentious, with the writer using "hifalutin'" words to cover what appears to be a lack of understanding of the novel - even of the title "The City and The City".
Though lovers be lost, love shall not, and Death shall have no dominion. - Dylan Thomas
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Thank you, thar, rogermue, vil, Romany, pedro, and DragOnspeaker.
This review concerns a genre of sci-fi.
As vil suggests, the word novum seems like this:
(n.)
[L. "new"] the primary element in a work of science fiction by which the work is shown to exist in a different world than that of the reader.
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As an afterthought to the novum discussion, by definition the novum in a science fiction story must be something that present-day science could reasonably predict. Science fantasy like Harry Potter has no such restriction. Magic makes anything possible. But, Arthur C. Clarke famously said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of The Future, 1961 (Clarke's third law) Because of the breathtaking pace of scientific and technological advances, innovations that seem like magic come sooner and sooner. The "like magic" effect is most noticeable to those born before the advent of personal computers and the Internet. Gen X, Y and Z will have little time to laugh as they too begin to experience this phenomenon. In the not-distant future, Science Fiction and Science Fantasy will converge. "Novum' as a distinguishing characteristic between the genres will disappear. But, this will be the least of mankind's concerns should my prediction prove true.
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As an after-afterthought, when I ponder this word my image is of a 'new egg' or a 'new germ of an idea' from just adding an 'n' to ovum - egg.
Learning is its own reward, and it's fun too!
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