Sonder, from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig
Whether he intended it to be or not, John Koenig’s first (?) video in support of his popular site The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a videopoem.
SONDER, noun: “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.”
From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com), a compendium of made-up words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language, to give a name to an emotion we all feel but don’t have a word for.
This was a staff pick at Vimeo, though a few people criticized (unfairly, in my opinion) his use of found footage, which he defends in the comments:
At the end of the video you’ll find a full list of credits for all the footage that appears in it. I believe my usage here falls under Fair Use/Fair Dealing, by virtue of its educational, transformative and fleeting handling of the source footage.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Dave Bonta is a poet, editor, and web publisher from the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania.
