Landscape with Invisible Hand: List 1

by M.T. Anderson
This satirical novel interrogates art, prejudice, and what it means to be human. After Earth is invaded by aliens obsessed with 1950s culture, fifteen-year-old Adam and his family struggle to make ends meet. To earn money, Adam and his girlfriend Chloe package their romance as a reality show for the entertainment of the invaders.

This list covers the following chapters: "A Small Town Under the Stars"–"Us Running Hand in Hand Through Grasses, Maybe Wheat."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4

Here are links to our lists for other works by M.T. Anderson: Feed, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Volume 1), The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Volume 2)
35 words 21 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. writhing
    moving in a twisting or snake-like or wormlike fashion
    He observes the two hairy snacks writhing in their metal box and wonders what their mashing together could mean.
  2. hologram
    a photograph for reproducing a three-dimensional image
    I used colored pencils and copied the picture off a cheap hologram bookmark.
  3. desolation
    a bleak atmosphere
    I discovered that by painting the house face-on, instead of at an angle, I can create this really cool feeling of desolation and vacancy.
  4. sheepish
    showing a sense of shame
    We looked at each other sheepishly.
  5. bouillon
    a clear seasoned broth
    The line started to disperse, except a couple of people who actually wanted the bouillon and bread special.
  6. entrepreneur
    someone who organizes a business venture
    “Flexibility is really important right now,” said my mother. “I was reading an article about how this is a great time for innovation. This is the moment for entrepreneurs.”
  7. dismally
    in a cheerless manner
    “The important thing,” said my mother, “is to stay positive.”
    “You betcha,” said suit guy dismally.
  8. crest
    reach a high point
    Now that it was over, my adrenaline was cresting.
  9. quaver
    give off unsteady sounds
    “I’m not backing out of the soup job if they give it to me,” said my mother. Her voice quavered.
  10. consomme
    a clear soup usually made with beef, veal, or chicken
    A week later we passed the broth shack, and there was a sixty-year-old woman working there, hard as nails, dishing out consommé.
  11. lobbyist
    someone who is employed to persuade how legislators vote
    The world’s leaders met with the vuvv, after meeting with national Chambers of Commerce and various lobbyists.
  12. quantum
    the smallest discrete quantity of some physical property
    The vuvv happily sold their knowledge to captains of industry in exchange for rights to the Earth’s electromagnetic energy fields and some invisible quantum events.
  13. subsidize
    support, as through grants or other funds
    But the vuvv could grow food cheaper, and their government subsidized it, and that meant they could sell it cheaper, and, frankly, our family had almost no money, so when we went to the supermarket, we didn’t buy American; we almost always bought vuvv-grown veggies, vuvv cereal, beef tissue raised on platforms in orbit (the cow jumped over the moon).
  14. viable
    capable of being done with means at hand
    Farms failed. Economies collapsed. Only big industrial farms that could act as distributors for vuvv foodstuffs stayed viable.
  15. render
    give or supply
    People killed, literally, to get close to the vuvv. They killed to get property rights to vuvv resorts and locations for energy rendering plants.
  16. askew
    turned or twisted to one side
    My Parents’ Bedroom, with the Covers Askew (Charcoal on paper)
    In the charcoal picture of my parents’ room drawn just after my father disappeared, the bed looms large. The sheets are still yanked around from when my father got up.
  17. guffaw
    laugh boisterously
    I don’t know who they would be, except maybe a family back in the 1980s, exchanging lively stories of their day over Hamburger Helper and green beans before going off to watch wholesome sitcoms about other families who eat dinner around dining room tables, but with a laff track guffawing every time the cute toddler finger-guns and moonwalks.
  18. sheen
    the visual property of something that shines
    I painted it gray, with the sheen from the window reflected on its screen.
  19. squelch
    make a sucking sound
    With Chloe sitting there, I didn’t want to chew, because I thought the squelching would be too loud.
  20. agape
    with the mouth wide open as in wonder or awe
    In the stunned silence that followed, Hunter said something miserable and then kept sinking into the shadows. My mother was agape.
  21. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    Just outside the garden walls is regular life, there are normal streets with dogs and puddles, and merchants and money changers go about their business, and farmers are working in the fields, but inside those hidden, holy spaces, these solemn people are outside of time.
  22. burnish
    polish and make shiny
    I painted Chloe sitting on a throne in a dress of burnished gold, surrounded by flowers.
  23. brood
    the young of an animal cared for at one time
    Each parent had to protect their brood alone and provide something for the future.
  24. oscillate
    move or swing from side to side regularly
    Humans find the oscillating presence of hundreds of billions of gallons of a chemical that could smother them relaxing.
  25. detritus
    loose material that is worn away from rocks
    This leads to cuddles in mounds of finely ground particulate detritus.
  26. gritty
    composed of or covered with small particles
    The vuvv speak by grinding a sort of gritty fin against their body, so most of what we said, translated, sounded like sandpaper or, when we were shouting, Velcro.
  27. flay
    strip the skin off
    Why is the sight of torture, a glimpse of some flayed bull-jock dying under the bleachers, erotic?
  28. cache
    RAM memory that is set aside as a specialized buffer storage
    There were vuvv subscribers, some live, some watching stuff cached, and even some of the kids at school tuned in.
  29. cherub
    an angel portrayed as a winged child
    It’s like we were ringed by cherubim, smiling at our antics.
  30. antic
    a playful, attention-getting act done for fun and amusement
    It’s like we were ringed by cherubim, smiling at our antics.
  31. austerity
    excessive sternness
    ...as part of the vuvv’s austerity measures, municipal water is no longer purified...
  32. municipal
    relating to a self-governing district
    ...as part of the vuvv’s austerity measures, municipal water is no longer purified...
  33. avatar
    a new personification of a familiar idea or person
    I built her a castle in VR. It became a date episode, “Fun in a Love Fortress!” I gave her an avatar and I led her into the great hall, and showed her all the spaces I made for her.
  34. dank
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    Deep within the castle, there was a dungeon I called the Pit of Id, which was a murky place with thin staircases leading through dank air.
  35. grotto
    a small cave, usually with attractive features
    They went to little grottoes where there were games I’d set up for her, fun little things I’d found all over the net and stowed away for her to while away the hours—battle games, dumb apps where you would try to grab all the clams and oysters on the ocean floor before you were eaten by a shark, links to cute little monster sims.
Created on Mon Nov 05 10:51:02 EST 2018 (updated Mon Nov 05 11:21:20 EST 2018)

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