Eccentric
Related: different - unconventional - deviant
Notable eccentrics: George Clinton - Moondog - Lee "Scratch" Perry - Sun Ra
English Eccentrics a Gallery of Weird (1933) - Edith Sitwell
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]"Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd."
Antonym: normal
Definition
Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern. -- American Heritage DictionaryEccentricity
Eccentricity is necessarily a relative definition. An eccentric is someone whose behaviour, beliefs and/or hobbies deviates in significant way from the accepted norms that the rest of the society that defines that person recognizes as proper or as traditional. He or she may be regarded as strange, odd or at least unconventional, irregular and erratic. Other people usually regard the eccentric with apprehension but also with considerable amusement. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_eccentricsEnglish Eccentrics a Gallery of Weird (1933) - Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964) was a British poet and cultural critic. She described The Young and Evil, a 1933 novel by Parker Tyler and Charles Henri Ford about the homosexual world of Greenwich Village in the early thirties, as “foul and unspeakable”.
Eccentric Lives, Peculiar Notions
Eccentric Lives, Peculiar Notions () - John Michell [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
About the Author
John Michell was a Russian interpreter and Chartered Surveyor before publishing his first book, The Flying Saucer Vision, in 1967. This and its successor, The View Over Atlantis (1969), helped to change the attitudes of a whole generation to the culture, wisdom and science of ancient societies. His other books include The Earth Spirit, A Little History of Astro Archaeology, Simulacra, Megalithomania, The New View Over Atlantis, and, with Robert Rickard, Phenomena and Living Wonders. He lives in London.
Laurence Urdang is a professional lexicographer whose interest in words and language is undiminished after almost 40 years' exposure to dictionaries of all kinds. His magnum opus was the unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language.
Product Description:
The passionately misguided individuals profiled in this entertaining book form an unforgettable portrait of human imagination run wild.
Never has so much energy been poured into such oddly misbegotten ideas, inventions, enterprises and movements. The 22 individuals and groups described here with wit and understanding represent the widest range of true eccentricity. Lady Blount believes that the earth is flat; Cyrus Teed, that it is a hollow shell with us on the inside; Baron de Guldenstubbe that statues write him letters. Nesta Webster devotes her life to exposing international conspiracies; John Carden to pestering one young lady. Geoffrey Pyke invents a giant battleship made of ice; and Amanda Feilding and Joey Mellen live in peace and prosperity after drilling holes in their heads. The peculiarities of their beliefs are surpassed only by the boundless enthusiasm with which they defend them, and their stories are all here, told in John Michell's lively prose and accompanied by historic photographs and drawings. --via Amazon.com
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