Asemic in the Cambridge Dictionary

Story contributed by @mgiovenale — editor of differx, teacher & translator. Author of experimental prose pieces & poetry. Asemic writer & glitch artist. Also see slowforward.net

Usually the adjective “asemic” (=signless) was linked by some dictionaries to “asemia” as a pathologic failure consisting in an inability to comprehend or express words, gestures or sounds. It is not related to the idea of ‘asemic writing’.

The following screen shot image shows some good news for the Asemic Writing Community.

So, …after twenty years of the asemic writing movement, this ‘Cambridge turn of events’ looks like a great achievement.

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When the first (self-aware) asemic writing mags, sites, books and series started their journey, more than 20 years ago, the actual meaning of “a-semia” ( = a radical “absence of sign”, not an absence of semantic meaning) risked to put aside the very idea which grounded the practice of asemic writing.

On the contrary, now it seems that the use of the word “asemic” is better perceived as referring to an artistic practice, rather than a pathology. (according to Cambridge, at least). So now we are no longer pathological writers or at least not by definition.