Today we'll talk about a word that is rarely used, but at the same time causes some interest among the public. The adjective "notorious" is our object of study.
Meaning
With the meaning of this term, everything is not so clear as we would like. Until the 20th century, this word was good and meant “famous, famous, glorious”, but now it has changed its tone to the polar one and also means fame, but of a dubious sense. Why it happened is a mystery, but nothing is eternal, including the meaning of words. So, just for the convenience of the reader, let's reduce the two values into a numbered list:
- Famous, famous, glorious (now obsolete).
- Widely known, sensational.
In the second meaning, the tone is rather disapproving. Although, as Fellini noted: “Speak badly about me, speak well about me, the main thing is to speak about me.” This is all the more true for a time when almost any fame can be monetized.
Do you have an idea? Start a YouTube channel and you will be offered money for advertising, of course, only if the channel gathers a sufficient number of people. In short, as in Okudzhava's famous song:“We don’t need a salary or a job.” Now, I think, many dream of the adjective "notorious" (this is surprising, but true). As a characteristic, this means that the person is so famous that there is nowhere else to go.
In general, to paraphrase the famous Roman emperor, the glory does not smell.
Synonyms
Substitutes always help us out. This is especially true when the words are either obsolete or those that are rarely used in everyday life. And the notorious is that adjective that you rarely see both in oral speech and in writing. So here is the list:
- famous;
- famous;
- vaunted;
- infamous;
- infamous.
As you can see, a word can be both bad and good. But in the modern language situation, it is used rather in a negative context. Let the reader remember this. In turn, synonyms for "notorious" will help him fully understand the meaning of the word and make it part of his active vocabulary.
Viktor Pelevin is the same notorious writer
Philology students, as a rule, do not like Pelevin, considering him more of a marketer than a writer. And the thing is that he is fantastically successful. The artist, according to future literary critics, should be poor, hungry and notorious only after death, for example, like Kharms or Kafka. But Viktor Olegovich does not want to. In fact, he just can't. Almost any of his books, just appeared on sale, immediately disappears from it. What to do, have his creations in demand in the market.
Therefore, our epochal, cult writer synthesizes in his image two meanings of the "notorious" at once: on the one hand, he is famous, famous, and on the other, infamous.
To attract the interest of the broad masses, you need to saturate your image and works with the spirit of scandal or be one hundred percent in the mainstream, like, for example, Prilepin. Although Pelevin manages to combine all this. He knows the world in which he works very well. He analyzes the mythology of modern society, and quite successfully (see the novel "Generation" P ""). But the quality of prose cannot but be affected by certain contractual, apparently, frameworks on which the writer willy-nilly depends. Therefore, the further, the more uneven the product becomes, which Pelevin issues to the mountain.
Notorious musicians and writers
"Notorious" - this is the adjective that interests us today, and if so, it is impossible not to recall the various artists. Their reputation has programmed the perception of society and the broad masses of the creative intelligentsia in a certain way. For example:
- Rock musicians are all drug addicts and potential suicides.
- Artists are people of a fine spiritual organization, prone to drug addiction and insanity.
- Writers are introverted intellectuals, usually in poor physical shape, but not necessarily.
In this case, we will not say that the above three stamps have nothing to do with reality. The first cliché is confirmed by the fate of too many musicians in the 20th century, such as Kurt Cobain.
Artists, in principle, can also commit suicide on the basis of insanity. Recent cases that are especially memorable are the deaths of Heath Ledger in 2008 and Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2014
The third stamp is the only one for which it is difficult to find an example. At least find it in modern reality. In the twentieth century, the West lived quite quietly, for example, Hermann Hesse. The USSR had its own creative party, but, for example, Bulat Okudzhava always kept a distance between himself and the world, even when he participated in meetings, he was a closed person.
Now the world has changed in many ways. Now it is difficult to make money only with books (in Russia, for sure). In order for books to be bought, the writer must be known, he must be represented in the media space. The only one who manages to be absent from the party process, but at the same time sell well, is Pelevin. Maybe he is not the only one, the reader is always en titled to correct us, we will not mind.
The main thing is that both the stamps and the people we are talking about illustrate the meaning of the word "notorious".
Fame is not always good
The stamps above tell us that fame is a dangerous and insidious thing, especially when it is combined with scandalousness. I remember the case of the notorious Harry Potter, that is, the actor who played him, Daniel Radcliffe. It is known that the young man suffered from alcoholism, and he admitted thisonly in 2010. The fame and success of the Harry Potter films hit him in the head.
We do not think that the reader would want such fame. Therefore, in this sense, you should always be on your guard.
