Sylph (air) *** Salamander (fire), Undine (water) & Gnome (earth)

sylph



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–noun 

1. a slender, graceful woman or girl.

2. (in folklore) one of a race of supernatural beings supposed to inhabit the air. 



Synonyms:

2. Sylph, salamander, undine (nymph), gnome were imaginary beings inhabiting the four elements once believed to make up the physical world. 



All except the gnomes were female. 



Sylphs dwelt in the air and were light, dainty, and airy beings. 



Salamanders dwelt in fire: “a salamander that … lives in the midst of [flames]” (Addison). 



Undines were water spirits: By marrying a [man], an undine could acquire a mortal soul. (They were also called nymphs, though nymphs were ordinarily minor divinities of nature who dwelt in woods, hills, and meadows as well as in waters.)



Gnomes were little old men or dwarfs, dwelling in the earth: [ugly] enough to be king of the gnomes.





　

On the other side we have three equally well-defined women: 



Terri (Catherine Keener), a writer/editor whose prefers to keep words out of the bedroom, much to the chagrin of live-in beau Jerry; 



Mary (Amy Brenneman), a freelance writer whose attempts to find her own sexual [fulfillment] with both husband Barry and paramour Jerry meet with a similar lack of success; 



and Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), an art assistant who meets most of the other characters one by one at a gallery but directs her sylph-like affections in an unexpected direction. 



The lies, double-crosses, and confrontations between these characters resolve into a sinisterly comic indictment of the very idea of romantic fulfillment. 





Sphinx 

Protean 

Gorgon

Moore is a terrifying, lip-gloss [gorgon], [queasily] convincing in her power-mad sanctity and the [swoony] way she executes the born-again

Chimera

And I wanna fuck you ubtill we merge into a chimera, it's a mythical beast eith penis and vagina eternally fused, two pairs of eyes that look only at each other, and lips ever touching. And one voice that whispers to itself.



Jovial 

Mercurial



Adonis 

Aphrodite 

hermaphrodite 



Samaritan 

cherub

cornucopia

orgy



Nemesis  

Harpy 

Siren

Juno 

Hymen

Mary's response is to receive a pool-bottom vision of Christ, and then [sacrifice] her hymen for the lug



motto

a maxim adopted as an expression or purpose of 

often inscribed on a badge, banner

Punk rock's first great embodiment of the motto "live fast and die young," Sid Vicious joined The Sex Pistols when they were already established as the most controversial rock band in British history

Its motto instead could be, "Girls just wanna have fun."

truism

a self-evident, obvious truth.

but it does suggest a few [pop]-song truisms

dictum

an authoritative saying, maxim 

the ultimate expression of Tati's dictum of "democracy" within the frame.

edict

a decree issued by a sovereign or authority

and why would his daughters view this as an [in]surmountable edict? 



sententious

abounding in pithy aphorisms

given to excessive moralizing, self-righteous

however, it threatens to slump into the [sententious], and that is what happens here. 

Innuendo