Landscape with Invisible Hand: List 3

by M.T. Anderson
This satirical novel interrogates art, prejudice, and what it means to be human. After Earth is invaded by aliens obsessed with 1950s culture, fifteen-year-old Adam and his family struggle to make ends meet. To earn money, Adam and his girlfriend Chloe package their romance as a reality show for the entertainment of the invaders.

This list covers the following chapters: "My House in December"–"My House, Underwater."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4

Here are links to our lists for other works by M.T. Anderson: Feed, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Volume 1), The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Volume 2)
30 words 2 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. expenditure
    the act of spending money for goods or services
    The vuvv like us to have Christmas—they find its weird traditions charming, and they’re deeply moved by its effect on consumer expenditure—but we don’t have the money to spend on extra electricity for lights, and, plus, I feel very private about our suitcases of ornaments, hidden away since Dad ran off.
  2. delicacy
    something considered choice to eat
    They eat delicacies like Slim Jims in front of us while we spoon down our oatmeal.
  3. expectorate
    discharge from the lungs and out of the mouth
    He is trying to learn vuvv. I hear him in the basement, expectorating back to a vuvv language soundtrack. KcckckKHKHTvrchik.
  4. stark
    severely simple
    The shadows are stark and sharp.
  5. paradoxical
    seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true
    I particularly admire the paradoxical way they capture the ruggedness of your world’s barbarian age with consummate elegance.
  6. consummate
    having or revealing supreme mastery or skill
    Your fortifications. I particularly admire the paradoxical way they capture the ruggedness of your world’s barbarian age with consummate elegance.
  7. dormant
    in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
    No one on another world is going to want a picture of a vuvv discharge facility hanging on the wall of their gorging chamber or their dormancy pit.
  8. vista
    the visual percept of a region
    They want to see beautiful, strange vistas of an exotic world far away, where they might vacation for a period of days to weeks, depending on their work availability and gravitational jump-space time displacement.
  9. blighted
    affected by something that prevents growth or prosperity
    But when I glance at my fantasy paintings, they no longer look like any place I want to be. Or they are what I want, but I am already here in this world, wrapped up in the blighted towns and the peeling paint and the glow of the rendering sails at night and in the looted Stop & Shop at first light.
  10. flinch
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    That is where I really am. That is where my family is stuck. And that’s what I have to deal with. Without flinching.
  11. meek
    humble in spirit or manner
    “Okay,” I say meekly. “Take the castles and the walled towns.”
  12. aerial
    existing, living, growing, or operating in the air
    Mr. Reilly calls out that I should drop the paintings by his doorman job. He can mail them from there; the mail is faster from aerial housing.
  13. ruckus
    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    Once they disappear, I hear the ruckus from some buddy-cop holoshow they’re watching...
  14. hassock
    a thick cushion used as a seat or leg rest
    Nattie keeps clicking a song with her tongue, now bouncing on and off the hassock on her knees.
  15. proactive
    causing something to happen rather than waiting to respond
    “I want to do something!” Nattie insists. “All we ever do is complain and eat ramen! Mom, you said we should be proactive.”
  16. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    “See you, Dave,” says the boy, and he and his girlfriend saunter off to the elevators together.
  17. vocation
    the particular occupation for which you are trained
    “Oh, I do a little painting, but my real vocation is teaching promising young people like Mr. Costello here.”
  18. gristly
    difficult to chew
    “It’s most of a porterhouse steak. She only ate seven or eight bites. She said it was too gristly.”
  19. prompt
    assist by suggesting the next words of something
    The mother prompts gently, “Now, maybe Dave wants to say thank you. Maybe he wants to say thank you for being such a nice girl and giving him supper.”
  20. appalled
    struck with dread, shock, or dismay
    But then, appalled, I see Mr. Reilly pulling the clamshell box toward himself. “Shouldn’t let it, you know, go to waste.”
  21. petulantly
    in an easily irritated or annoyed manner
    I kick the paintings as petulantly as the girl kicked her dinner.
  22. canker
    an ulcerlike sore
    I guess I developed some kind of canker sores in my intestines because of the Merrick’s, and filth leaked out into the rest of my body.
  23. hallucination
    an object perceived during a delusional episode
    I say, “So I’m delirious.”
    “Oh. Yeah,” he agrees, like he’s embarrassed to be a hallucination.
  24. specter
    a ghostly appearing figure
    “That’s why I’ve come here,” says the specter of my father. “That’s why I’m standing in front of you right now. I want to tell you and Nattie how much I miss you. And I love you.”
  25. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    The apparition grips his trophy under an arm and turns out his palms as if to say, “I don’t know,” or maybe “I’m sorry.”
  26. capital
    assets available for use in the production of further assets
    I’m going to start a business. I need a little capital, and I’m going to set something up.
  27. breach
    a failure to perform some promised act or obligation
    It’s suing you. Breach of contract, false representation, the whole thing.
  28. stately
    refined or imposing in manner or appearance
    I am shaking so much, my landscape scene is electric with spastic motion. The houses of Beacon Hill are not stately in their rows.
  29. keel
    one of the main longitudinal beams of the hull of a vessel
    “The economy will get better. It always does. We just have to wait it out. The invisible hand of the market always moves to make things right.” She holds up one hand like a fin or a sail. “To put things back on an even keel.”
  30. shindig
    a large and noisy party of people
    “Invited to have my work shown at the gala reception in orbit. A big shindig with all us visual artists showing our stuff and music by all the teen musician contestants. One lucky artist to get the fabulous award that night.”
Created on Mon Nov 05 10:52:29 EST 2018 (updated Mon Nov 05 11:21:37 EST 2018)

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