This week’s Lunchbox focuses on the sometimes blurry line between reality and imitation.
Let’s jump right in with quiddity. Quiddity is the nature of a thing, the purest essence that distinguishes it from all other things.
The skilled writer can isolate the quiddity of a character and render it in words.
Quiddity has also developed a second, almost contrary meaning over the years: a trifling argument or a subtle, petty quibble. One notable example involved a prominent figure in American politics arguing the quiddities of “what the meaning of ‘is’ is”.
A simulacrum is an imitation of something else, often with the connotation of having a substandard, superficial resemblance.
Robots are simulacra of real human beings.
The appearance of truth is verisimilitude. Like quiddity, it has taken on contrary meanings of both the apparent truth and the dubious truth of something.
The Road Runner was a masterful artist whose lifelike paintings of tunnels conveyed a verisimilitude to deceive even the wiliest of coyotes.
