“Cosmic realism”: The secret ingredient to great books | May19| Philosophy

ThinkPlus E. (India)
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. scalable
    able to be expanded in size or capability to meet a need
    These authors write with “scalability,” reaching for “images of the full meaning of life.”
  2. realism
    the state of being actual
    “Cosmic realism”: The secret ingredient to great books In the tears and laughter of a single life, you find the grief and joy of humanity.
  3. lynch
    kill without legal sanction
    Kozich Denis / Adobe Stock / NASA / Sarah Soryal Key Takeaways In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with the Booker Prize-winning author Paul Lynch about his idea of “cosmic realism.”
  4. eon
    an interminable period of time
    A mother breastfeeding her newborn joins a line of billions stretched back evolutionary eons.
  5. minuscule
    very small
    They have you zoom in on the tiniest of flowers and the smallest of eye movements, and there, in the minuscule, is the entire Universe.
  6. apocalypse
    a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the powers of evil
    With all the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse galloping into town, most people are just busy getting by.
  7. nihilism
    a doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system
    It gives flesh to idealism, nihilism, pessimism, faith, truth, justice, cruelty, and hope.
  8. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    The Booker Prize is not awarded to grand, sweeping statements about philosophically banal points.
  9. cataclysm
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    The book focuses on a mother of three, Eilish, who is so busy getting her kids fed and dressed that she has no time to focus on the cataclysm outside her door.
  10. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    Cosmic realism uses metaphors and small-scale stories to express universal themes, and it’s seen in authors like Dostoevsky and Conrad.
  11. mundane
    belonging to this earth or world
    Lynch’s Prophet Song exemplifies this, showing how the most mundane details reflect epic struggles and timeless human truths.
  12. pessimism
    a general disposition to expect the worst in all things
    It gives flesh to idealism, nihilism, pessimism, faith, truth, justice, cruelty, and hope.
  13. idealism
    belief that the best possible concepts should be pursued
    It gives flesh to idealism, nihilism, pessimism, faith, truth, justice, cruelty, and hope.
Created on Thu May 15 07:20:17 EDT 2025

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