Palimpsest

I discovered a new word this weekend, "palimpsest."  The Merriam-Webster dictionary meaning is "a writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased."  But, according to my Kindle dictionary, it has a special, figurative meaning  "something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form." (I've found that I am so much more likely to look up an unfamiliar word with the ease of the online dictionary.)

I ran across the word while reading the novel, "The Vegetarian" by Han Kang.  Set in Korea it tells the story of a woman who becomes a vegetarian. (Okay, that is not all the book is about, or even close to what it is about, but while I was entranced and couldn't stop reading, I remain puzzled about all of its meaning.)

The sentence where I noticed palimpsest was this: "The kiss was a palimpsest of memories, of all the countless kisses they'd shared in the past."  When I went back later, though, to find the passage again, I realized the word had occurred earlier in the story in this line, "Dreams overlaid with dreams, a palimpsest of horror."

Before finding the double occurrence, I was struck by the beauty of the word.  How useful to have a word describe the notion that an individual thing or act includes multiple layers of meaning drawn from the past. It seems like a useful word to have. I want to find an application in my own life, because I feel there are many things that are often more than they seem--exchanges or gestures that aren't just in the present, but include memories and past feelings.  It feels like a good word for therapy--everything experienced today holds meanings attached to the past

But, the other sentence, while closer to the dictionary definition, a layering of dreams, a layering of writing, seems less beautiful and scarier.  Here are horrors piled one on top of the other until any one single one can't be distinguished from the other.

How curious is it that this word occurs twice in one book?  How curious is it that the book was translated from Korean to English?  What is the Korean equivalent to palimpsest?  Is it a common word or expression?  Did the translator already know this word and find it a good substitute for the Korean or did she have to hunt it down?

Gore Vidal's memoir is titled, "Palimpsest."  There is a book on the history of writing called, "Palimpsest."  And, a few novels.  I feel now that I have to read them all....