The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Proustian (proosteebn) Reminiscent of the psychology
or style of the writings of the French novelist
Marcel Proust (1871–1922). <strong>The</strong> subjects of
Proust’s novels, which are typically long and highly
detailed, include memory, heartbreak, sickness,
and the passage of time. <strong>The</strong> term Proustian may
allude to any of these, although it is equally likely
to be employed in relation to his technique of
using a simple sensation to evoke detailed memories
of times long past (see madeleine). <strong>The</strong> smell
of her perfume had a Proustian effect, bringing back
memories of his childhood in Africa.
psyche (sikee) <strong>The</strong> human mind or soul. <strong>The</strong>
word alludes to Greek mythology and the beautiful
Psyche, a mortal who was loved by Eros, the god of
love, and visited by him each night on the condition
that she did not ask his name or look at his face.
Eventually Psyche, tricked by her sisters into thinking
her secret lover was a monster, succumbed to
temptation and looked on Eros’s face in the lamplight.
Eros fl ed but Psyche sought him out, and after
lengthy wandering and many adventures they were
re united. Psyche was granted immortality and
became the personifi cation of the soul. Somewhere
deep in his psyche was a niggling desire to make himself
heard, but he suppressed it with a deliberate effort.
Psycho (siko) A situation reminiscent of the
1960 movie Psycho, about a deranged serial killer.
<strong>The</strong> movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(1899–1980) and starred Anthony Perkins (1932–
92) as the psychopathic Norman Bates. In the
most memorable and shocking scene in the movie,
the unsuspecting Janet Leigh is stabbed to death in
the shower. “No one of the post- Psycho generation
likes being surprised in the shower, so I closed the
bathroom door loudly behind me” (Michael Dibdin,
Dirty Tricks, 1991). See also bates motel.
public enemy number one
P. T. Barnum (bahrnbm) A person who presents
spectacular large- scale shows. Phineas Taylor Barnum
(1810–91) staged ambitious public entertainments
from the 1840s onward, his many famed
attractions ranging from tom thumb to the elephant
man. He also opened a Museum of Curiosities
on Broadway in New York City. Most
celebrated of all was his renowned circus, cofounded
with James H. Bailey in 1870, which toured the
United States and Eu rope under the slogan “<strong>The</strong>
Greatest Show on Earth.” He is remembered both
for his resourcefulness and for his lack of principles
when it came to exploiting the fee- paying
public. <strong>The</strong> city had seen nothing like it since the last
visit by Barnum’s circus.
Ptolemaic (tolbmayik) Of or relating to the theories
of the Greco- Egyptian astronomer and mathematician
Claudius Ptolemaeus, who fl ourished in
the second century a.d. His theory that the universe
revolved around the Earth remained
unchallenged until the 16th century, when it was
discredited by Nicolaus Copernicus. Since then
Ptolemaic has been variously applied to theories or
attitudes based on an assumption that the universe
revolves around the Earth and human affairs.
“Geology has initiated us into the secularity of
nature, and taught us to disuse our dame- school
mea sures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic
schemes for her large style” (Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Nature, 1836).
public enemy number one A criminal whose
crimes are especially heinous, or anything that is
seen to pose a serious threat to the general public.
<strong>The</strong> title was fi rst bestowed, in 1925, upon the
bank robber and murderer John Dillinger
(1903–34), who (with his companion Anna Sage,
the Lady in Red ) carved his bloody way through
385