Landscape with Invisible Hand: List 4

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: "Sloppy Smiley"–"An Undisclosed Location in the Blue Ridge Mountains."

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)
35 words 2 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    Temperature of a hundred and four. In the early morning, delirium again: the line of people crowding through my room, judging my gut.
  2. heist
    the act of stealing
    I talk myself through each step of the plan, like I’m coordinating a heist with glass cutters, guy-wires, and suction cups.
  3. repartee
    adroitness and cleverness in reply
    “This ain’t no welcome wagon!” bellows a hero—ah, the comfortable, stale repartee of the Hollywood paramilitary lock-and-load loner...
  4. blanch
    turn pale, as if in fear
    Then I see them crouching behind some boxes, blanched in the fluorescents: Hunter Marsh and two friends.
  5. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    They watch me warily, to see if I will mock them.
  6. rasp
    a harsh, grating tone or noise
    Their hands rasp against the cold concrete.
  7. lumber
    move heavily or clumsily
    I ride down the driveway, and the garage door lumbers closed behind me.
  8. nauseated
    feeling queasy, as though one is about to vomit
    “Just feeling a little under the weather,” I tell it. “A little nauseous.”
    “You may mean ‘nauseated,’” says the car.
  9. upholstery
    covering on a piece of furniture
    She’s clearly worried about the upholstery.
  10. treacherous
    dangerously unstable and unpredictable
    The paths are treacherous with clamshells of ice, and I’m slipping and stumbling.
  11. scrabble
    grope, scratch, or feel searchingly
    I scrabble with my zipper.
  12. throng
    a large gathering of people
    We pour out into a throng of people from all over the country, and everybody is jabbering about how it’s their first time off the surface.
  13. jabber
    talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
    We pour out into a throng of people from all over the country, and everybody is jabbering about how it’s their first time off the surface.
  14. faux
    not genuine or real
    I see incredibly exciting work by artists my age who are trying new things, new forms: shifting scenes that float in front of the faux canvas; a statue with rows of faceless human shapes sitting while a saucer, vaguely vuvv-shaped, descends upon them; abstract cries for help, with holographic swings and limbs of color that jut out of the surface or plunge into the wall.
  15. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
    I see incredibly exciting work by artists my age who are trying new things, new forms: shifting scenes that float in front of the faux canvas; a statue with rows of faceless human shapes sitting while a saucer, vaguely vuvv-shaped, descends upon them; abstract cries for help, with holographic swings and limbs of color that jut out of the surface or plunge into the wall.
  16. hovel
    small crude shelter used as a dwelling
    Things I don’t even have a name for—video sequences that hover over the floor, looming explorations of hovels where derelict families crowd the floors of old kitchens; a thing that appears burnt until you move, when it is whole.
  17. derelict
    in deplorable condition
    Things I don’t even have a name for—video sequences that hover over the floor, looming explorations of hovels where derelict families crowd the floors of old kitchens; a thing that appears burnt until you move, when it is whole.
  18. canny
    showing self-interest and shrewdness in dealing with others
    Some bastard crooning that “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” but translated, cannily, into vuvv, so it sounds like someone vacuuming shag carpet.
  19. cataclysm
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    It’s a fluttery sort of cataclysm. It sounds like utter collapse.
  20. drivel
    a worthless message
    While the next band plays some drivel about how they wonder, wonder (hoo-hoo wa-woo woo—thump) who wrote the book of love, I see the girl come back up to the balcony to reclaim her seat.
  21. metaphysical
    highly abstract and overly theoretical
    You have got to understand, the difference between American dollars and vuvv ch’ch is so huge, you won’t even believe how cheap the doctor will seem to you, because I’m telling you, please, the gulf between our currencies is deeper than the gulf between worlds, it’s physical, it’s metaphysical...
  22. continuum
    an extent in which no part is distinct from adjacent parts
    ...vuvv currency is so strong on Earth it warps the space-time continuum, it sucks up matter, it’s like economic antimatter, like a black hole, a black hole the size of a dime, the size of a single cent, okay?
  23. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    I watch them clamber off. They disappear quickly in the crowd, since vuvv are low to the ground.
  24. noncommittal
    refusing to bind oneself to a particular course of action
    She says, “Luck.”
    Then she makes a pretty definite move away into the crowd.
    “All right,” I mutter. “That was a little noncommittal, in terms of good or bad luck, but it’ll have to do.”
  25. fecund
    capable of producing offspring or vegetation
    These are difficult questions, people, and I will try to answer them all in order, thank you very much, sir or madam, and may I say you are looking fertile tonight, no, really, fecund enough to bud twelve kids.
  26. crude
    belonging to an early stage of technical development
    And we found the incredible Mr. Gui carving this, with a crude gasoline tool, in preparation for Christmas.
  27. swaddle
    wrap very tightly in cloth, as a baby
    In its place is the 3-D image of a rough-hewn Virgin Mary and Child, except the Virgin Mary is swaddling on her lap (silent night, holy night) an infant with the head of an elephant.
  28. forage
    collect or look around for, as food
    And he went out foraging in the deserted places, and lo, an angel of the Lord came down, and brightness was all around him, and the angel said, “Be not afraid.”
  29. blare
    make a loud noise
    Then there’s Buddy Gui, coming up in front of the whole audience, and all the vuvv judges are going crazy. Blaring praise about how here is the true human artist, the artist who conveys the essence of spiritual human values, and there shall be a Virgin and Child like this in every corporate boardroom from here to stars known to humankind only by number.
  30. convey
    serve as a means for expressing something
    Then there’s Buddy Gui, coming up in front of the whole audience, and all the vuvv judges are going crazy. Blaring praise about how here is the true human artist, the artist who conveys the essence of spiritual human values, and there shall be a Virgin and Child like this in every corporate boardroom from here to stars known to humankind only by number.
  31. foreground
    the part of a scene that is near the viewer
    Perhaps I will paint this town—from a distance, as if it is on a far hill—and in the foreground, an enclosure of gold, a secret garden, a retreat in which I am safe.
  32. convulsion
    a violent uncontrollable contraction of muscles
    I remember, vaguely, being close to convulsions. They must have given me something for the fever.
  33. node
    any computer that is hooked up to a computer network
    She is popping the vuvv hookup nodes off her forehead and shaking out her hair. Apparently she has made a new deal for sponsorship.
  34. prod
    poke or thrust abruptly
    She decides to sneer. “So Buddy won,” she prods. “Your big, interplanetary art contest. You thought you were great, but he beat you.”
  35. semaphore
    an apparatus for visual signaling
    “You know, Luce—you know, at a certain point, when a guy is holding up enough red flags, he’s just speaking to you in semaphore.”
Created on Mon Nov 05 10:52:59 EST 2018 (updated Mon Nov 05 14:10:11 EST 2018)

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