The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#5

Post by abakker » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 10:42 PM UTC

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

Also: who isn't at the center of their social circle?

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#6

Post by codetrotter » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

abakker wrote: post #5

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

Also: who isn't at the center of their social circle?

I'm not. The vast majority of people in my social circle has someone more important to them than I am to them. And I think this is true for most people.

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#7

Post by dylan604 » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 11:28 PM UTC

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

not sure what your definition of epicenter is, but the definition i know says it is the point on the earth's surface directly above the focus of the earthquake. so a human could easily be the epicenter since they are primarly found on the surface.

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#8

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 11:32 PM UTC

abakker wrote: post #5

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

Also: who isn't at the center of their social circle?

George, Elaine, and Kramer.

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#9

Post by busyant » Mon, Sep 06, 2021, 11:37 PM UTC

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

Strangely, this is one of my pet peeves, too. Especially with regard to COVID.

I've read many articles declaring that NYC was an "epicenter" of the COVID outbreak in spring of 2020, when "center" seems simpler and more appropriate.

Honestly, it's not a big deal, but I feel like those two syllables ("epi") are added to "center" without much thought and perhaps with some vague feeling that they give some high-tech oomph to the word "center."

edit: for earthquakes "epicenter" makes sense. For the distribution of an infectious agent, less so.

Re: The mystery of Truman Capote's final novel

#10

Post by contravariant » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 12:07 AM UTC

rrgmitchell wrote: post #4

Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?

The word epicentre has the obvious connotation of being the central point of some kind of quake, the point from which all waves originate.

The word centre does not.