Poop Cape 🧙

[Russo]

Community,

I will never look at magicians (nor the Wizarding World) the same way again. Tell me, does it get any better than this?

Edit:
Some of you have misinterpreted my delight for disgust. That’s my bad. Best, most hilarious mnemonic so far.

[araigoshi]

@Russo

nor the Wizarding World

Wait until you hear about the author’s ideas of how it used to work there

[trunklayer]

Purrsonally, I use a bit different mnemeownics: “Poop cape is just an illusion”
And to calrify, for this particular mnemonics, I think not of a cape that is a cloak, but of a cape that is a mass of land, I mean, poop.

I guess, that might be because of One Piece where there are islands made of poop of a giant fish, iirc…

[WeebPotato]

@Russo

Tell me, does it get any better than this?

Fortunately, it does. Unfortunately, renaming the thread radical to “poop” is a pretty crappy and unnecessary take. Why? Because 糸 has nothing to do with poop and everything to do with threads and so do other kanji using this one as a component.

[trunklayer]

The thread radical is 糸。
幺 is poop.

And yes, I know that Japanese consider those to be the same radical, just like they consider “person” and “leader” to be the same radical. But they look differently, so it’s good to make them different radicals…

I quite agree though that they could have used some name that is more related to threads for 幺

[WeebPotato]

@trunklayer

But they look differently, so it’s good to make them different radicals…

I think it makes sense to make them different radicals if it makes sense in the great scheme of things. But in this case it really doesn’t, because the bigger radical contains the smaller radical and if you think about it, you can imagine 糸 being 幺 on a loom or a knitting/crocheting rod. Adding poop to the equation and using that meaning in a ton of kanji is complicating the matter.

@trunklayer

I quite agree though that they could have used some name that is more related to threads for 幺

It could’ve been 幺 - small thread and 糸 - thread. Or something similar.

[pm215]

@WeebPotato

I think it makes sense to make them different radicals if it makes sense in the great scheme of things. But in this case it really doesn’t, because the bigger radical contains the smaller radical and if you think about it, you can imagine 糸 being 幺 on a loom or a knitting/crocheting rod.

Depends a bit what you’re aiming for. For just kanji recognition and reading I don’t think it matters because I don’t think there are any kanji which differ only in 糸 versus 幺. But if you ever care about writing you want different keywords for mnemonics because you want to write the correct component, not the other one. Heisig calls 幺 “cocoon” (“like the character for thread, except that the silkworm’s product has not yet emerged clearly at the bottom”).

[WeebPotato]

@pm215

For just kanji recognition and reading I don’t think it matters because I don’t think there are any kanji which differ only in 糸 versus 幺.

True, they usually use one or the other.

@pm215

But if you ever care about writing you want different keywords for mnemonics because you want to write the correct component, not the other one.

That’s a good point. I think for reading, though, as long as the mnemonic paves an easy way to grasping the kanji, they could both be named “thread”, because they’re anyhow related. The reason I got annoyed by “poop” is because it takes an extra step sideways with an unrelated gloss to differentiate and then one more step to inject that unrelated gloss into a kanji meaning, making it harder to both follow/relate and to justify how the radicals come together to make the kanji.

From a meta perspective I am in general of the opinion that if a kanji can be easily explained using already established names of radicals, there shouldn’t be a reason to override these names. I know that for some a historical perspective is necessary, but I’d personally find that more interesting/enriching than having to navigate through a completely abstract mnemonic story which I am likely to forget soon after reading it.

@pm215

Heisig calls 幺 “cocoon” (“like the character for thread, except that the silkworm’s product has not yet emerged clearly at the bottom”).

Hmm interesting. I guess I would need to dig into the historical aspect of it, but my impression in general was that the 幺 and 糸 kanji can refer also to unprocessed threads.

[pm215]

@WeebPotato

@pm215

Heisig calls 幺 “cocoon” (“like the character for thread, except that the silkworm’s product has not yet emerged clearly at the bottom”).

Hmm interesting. I guess I would need to dig into the historical aspect of it, but my impression in general was that the 幺 and 糸 kanji can refer also to unprocessed threads.

Very likely. Heisig is happy to use non-standard meanings for components where he thinks they’re more memorable or better distinguished from other components that way. “cocoon” vs “poop” comes down ultimately to whether you do or don’t like scatological references in mnemonics…

Incidentally, I checked Henshall on 幻, and apparently the LHS is some other component which ended up written this way due to confusion/convergence with the “small thread” component. It was originally an upside down version of a “weaving shuttle” pictograph; the right way up weaving shuttle eventually became 予. Plus none of 幻’s current meanings are at all thread related (“its present meanings result from borrowing, to an extent involving confusion with 玄”). So this to me is a good example of why historical kanji origins are not always very useful.

[anon9242278]

@pm215

scatalogical references in mnemonics

are the best references.

[Kazzeon]

Wouldn’t they be able to make it disappear before having to shit on the floor…

[araigoshi]

You’ll have to take it up with then author, but maybe fame makes people too weird to deal with details like that