John Green’s PaperTowns is about a boy named Quentin and his quest to find the girl of his dreams, Margo Roth Spiegleman. He already knows her; she lives next door. But she has this thing about running away and disappearing.
And Quentin wants to bring her back.
He learns a lot along the way. About himself and the girl.
About midway through the book, one of Margo’s “close” friends confesses:
“She had [the notebook] with her all the time. I never saw her write in it, but I just figured it was like a day planner or whatever. God, I never asked about it.”
“She wouldn’t have answered anyway,” I said. It was dishonest to act like Margo hadn’t participated in her own obfuscation.
Wow, that’s a mouthful. Try to say it.
New Word Nerd Word:
obfuscation \,äb-fəs-‘kā-shən\ noun from Latin –ob in the way + fuscusdark brown; confusion, darkness, obscurity
The word itself sounds elusive, just like Margo. And nerdy, like Quentin, her pursuer. A perfect choice by Mr. Green once again.
Word Nerd Workout
Use obfuscation in a sentence. That’s tricky, I know, so I give you permission to use another form of the word, like obfuscate or obfuscatory. Since I picked it, I’ll use the noun form.
The Republican candidate for Governor spent a significant amount of time generating obfuscation around his relationship with the CEO of Warden Products International.
Have I obfuscated you today? Hope not! Looking forward to your sentences!
Other Word Nerd Words:
Julia
My psychology teacher tends to obfuscate her lessons, due to what I believe is lack of understanding of her subject.
A magician uses obfuscation to fool her viewers into thinking what she’s done is magic, and not just a sleight of hand.
Oh, I like the introduction of magic here- dark, mysterious. Great sentence!
Here we go:
There was terrible obfuscation when the 4th grade science students let the animals out of their cage, one by one, as one of the experiments let off a puff of blue smoke, accompanied by a big bang!
Monique
Totally chaos and obfuscation Monique.
Yes, I am officially obfuscated by this word. Does that work? I’m still not sure I’m pronouncing it correctly…ob-fus-cay-shun?
p.s. I just added the “follow” button on my blog as many readers have asked why I don’t have one. Is the “Subscribe to” the same thing???
Amy, Your “pronounciation” is correct- I think. The “fus” sounds a little like “fis”- when I looked it up on my iPhone, I could hear someone pronounce it!! Appropriate sentence!
I see the “followers” button on your blog now- essentially, that’s a “popularity” button. The “subscribe to” above it allows readers to get your posts via email, like I do. 🙂 An even better button to add would be “Follow by RSS” (aka Real Simple Syndication)- then people can follow your posts through a reader, like Google Reader. Note: if people become your “followers” through Blogger, Blogger will automatically add them to Google Reader for you. Have I generated more obfuscation now?