Talk:Ego death

"Bagatelized", I say! "Bagatelized"!

Dan Merkur notes that the use of LSD in combination with Leary's manual often did not lead to liberating insights, but to horryfying bad trips. It also lead to fatal accidents, which were bagatelized by Alpert.

Almost nobody knows what this word means. This is the ONLY Wikipedia article to use it. There is no online-dictionary definition for it. A Google search produces a very few other pages using the word, but again, no definition. (All false modesty aside, if I don't know an English word, it isn't in common use.) We shouldn't be using language that isn't in Wiktionary, and we definitely shouldn't be using words most people have never encountered in their lives!

Furthermore, the sentence is poorly structured. Even with a more-familiar term in its place, there would still be a simpler and stronger way to say it. The passive voice is often a pretension, and rarely clear. "... which Alpert bagatelized" would be the way to go, if "bagatelized" was a word worth using (which it isn't). "The gun was carried by Frank" is never as good as "Frank carried the gun."

Do feel free to let me know, if you know, what "bagatelized" means. I am certain there's an equally accurate way to say what needs to be said, without resorting to esoteric terms or neologisms.

--Ben Culture (talk) 06:09, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Hey Ben. It's an mistranslation by me, I'm afraid, of the Dutch "bagatelliseren". Which means "to trivialize", "to belittle". Thanks! Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 07:08, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

I appreciate it, but really, thank YOU! I now know English is a secondary language for you. I wouldn't have known that if your User Page hadn't said so. I didn't know who put "bagatelized" in the article originally, anyway. I hope you didn't feel insulted by my above comment. I was just frustrated, because I like to think I have a good English vocabulary (if no other languages.) Thank you for clearing this up, and I think you picked a perfectly good substitute, "trivialized", which any English-speaker, native or otherwise, will surely know.

You have really contributed a lot to this article! It's an interesting topic, but I don't think I've ever done so many edits to a single article, in such a short span of time. It is better to do a lot of small edits, as you have done, instead of a few big ones. I'm impressed and appreciate your work! Have a great day!

→Ben Culture (talk) 21:18, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! See also Bagatelle (music). Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 21:53, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Theosophical revieww

[1] 1899?!? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:58, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Ah, no; different topic... Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 04:58, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 November 2014

There is a small typo under the section "Comparative Mythology". Instead of "teh Hero's Death", it should read "the Hero's Death". 2602:306:3085:E950:34DE:4233:75FF:A20D (talk) 17:21, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

 Done - Thanks for pointing that out - Arjayay (talk) 17:46, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 November 2014

this really needs to be spell checked

104.156.240.140 (talk) 02:01, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

You're right: lots of spelling mistakes. Any that I missed? Stickee (talk) 05:18, 21 November 2014 (UTC)