Word of the Day: Hyperobject
A word for things too huge to name.
Etymology: The term “hyperobject” was coined by environmental philosopher Timothy Morton in 2008 with the goal of gifting humans a word to describe things that are within our understanding but beyond our immediate grasp. Because we tend to think of objects as items we can fit within our field of vision, Morton added the prefix “hyper,” which means “over” or “beyond” in Greek, suggesting excess or exaggeration. We can conceptualize hyperobjects, but we cannot see them as a whole.
Meaning: Some things are so vast that we will never witness them fully: global warming, black holes, all the Styrofoam cups in the world, ever. You don’t know their exact number, but you know that number is finite and that they’re everywhere.
| Daphnèe Denis, Word: Hyperobject
This week I finally got to see “The Apprentice,” an absorbing, disturbing movie about the relationship between the red-baiting mob lawyer Roy Cohn and a young Donald Trump. The film, which was received with an extended standing ovation and mostly appreciative reviews when it premiered at Cannes last month, is a classic story of a mentor and his protégé, chronicling how Trump first learned from and later surpassed his brutal, Machiavellian fixer.
Its performances are extraordinary. The “Succession” star Jeremy Strong captures both Cohn’s reptilian menace and, eventually, his pathos, as he’s wasted by AIDS but, closeted to the end, refuses to admit it. Just as impressive is Sebastian Stan, who makes Trump legible as a human being rather than the grotesque hyperobject we all know today.
It’s not a sympathetic portrayal, exactly; this is, after all, a movie that depicts Trump raping his first wife, Ivana. (The scene is based on a claim Ivana Trump made in a divorce deposition but later recanted, saying she felt “violated” but didn’t want her “words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”)
| Michaelle Goldberg, ‘The Apprentice:’ Why You May Never See the New Trump Movie