Entirely illegible for all the wrong reasons.

Its all kicking off now in the world of Jamie Duffield. University is around the corner and matters like finance and enrolment are stacking up like some sort of playground pile-on game. On top of that, (pun intended) I recently received my reading list and required study books list from my course tutor.

I'm not sure whether this is better or worse that when I was at Bath University, because with Bath, I only needed one book. It weighed about 15 tonnes and cost £50. Carrying it around was impossible, and one could forseeably render a burglar unconscious with a blow to the head from the book itself (assuming you could lift it).

However, this time around, my book list consists of a total of at least 8 publications... Luckily, I was smart about this and proceeded to order them all second hand from amazon for a total of £68. Combined, they probably weigh about the same as my old chemistry book, but I digress.

Some of you may be wondering about the seemingly ambiguous title once again.

Some of you may be under the notion that you have already figured out how the title relates to the post.

Perhaps the reason the title contains connotations that suggest the books I have purchased are illegible, points towards the fact the books are second hand?

Well you are wrong. The books are in near perfect condition. And yet the one I have started to read through is, as a matter of fact, almost illegible. Allow me to explain in further detail, for I am sure you are all "enthralled".

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Those of you who know me may be aware of the fact that I take pride in what I deem "a fairly extensive vocabulary and comparative knowledge of spellings and meanings". In short, I like to thing I know a lot of words and how they are spelled. This means I rarely have trouble reading books that include long words and replicating them in my own essays/ writing etc.

However this book just takes the piss! It stands as the only book I have EVER needed to read coupled with a dictionary that I have to keep persistently referring to!

The book is an anthology/ introduction to modern art and modernism, which bangs on about artists that were at the forefront and whines about how most art critics are wrong for trying to define anything. I can tell you that although it isn't boring, it is nigh impossible to understand... Such words have come up like:

• Verisimilitude- when something bears little believability or likeness
• Bourgeois- middle class or standard in origin
• Acquiescence- acceptance without protest
• Daguerreotype- an early photograph taken with and Iodine-sensitised silver plate and mercury vapor
• Avantgardism- in artistic terms, when someone is at the forefront of awesomeness and everyone is following them in the style they work in
• Obfuscation- to cloud, mix up or bewilder a system of ideas
• Esoteric- to be intended for, or only really going to be understood by people who know what they are talking about

Believe it or not, this selection of words comes not from the whole book, or even the 20 odd pages I have read so far... Alas, it comes from a paragraph consisting of about 10 lines. 

....

I guess I need to up my game! 

What I find interesting, is that if you look at the last definition I listed, you will see that I have been trying to explain that this book is COMPLETELY ESOTERIC.