I Wish I Knew Dutch

Reference Book of the Day:

Komrij’s kakafonie

Komrij, Gerrit, ed. Komrij’s kakafonie, oftewel Encyclopedie van de stront: omvattende de symbolische waarde, de kont, het kakken, de kleur, de stank, de wind, het sanitair, de liefhebbers, satire & nonsens, stront en het boek, lexicografie, enz. enz. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2006.

I am, alas, Dutchless. But, from what I can piece together, the title means Komrij’s Cacaphony; or, Encyclopedia of Shit: Comprising Its Symbolic Value, the Ass, Shitting, Color, Smell, Farting, Toilets, Enthusiasts, Satire and Nonsense, Shit and the Book, Lexicography, etc., etc. (Don’t miss the pun on caca in kakaphony.)

It is, if you can believe it, the only book to which the Library of Congress has so far seen fit to award the subject headings Defecation — Encyclopedias, Feces — Encyclopedias, and Toilets — Encyclopedias. (I love the fact that the LoC Cataloging in Publication folks, after careful consideration, decided they needed separate headings for defecation and feces.)

Shockingly, the book is not easily available in the good ol’ US of A, which means I probably won’t get my hands on it. And even if I did, well, I don’t read Dutch. I’ll just have to lament what might have been.

Meanwhile, I beg my Batavophone readers to get to work immediately on an English translation of this work. The lack of an English version is one of the greatest injustices facing the modern world.

Never let it be said this investigation of reference books is anything less than a highbrow intellectual endeavor.