Acutezza

__//Acutezza//__


 * D** **efinition::** Acutezza is an Italian word meaning acuteness, poignancy, or keenness. In terms of rhetoric, it refers to wit or wordplay.


 * Origin::** Italian


 * See also::** Acuto

Definition taken from (translation.babylon.com).


 * Examples** from text:

1) Gregory Weir designed a video game entitled //Silent Conversations// in which the reader reads the story while simultaneously "touching" the words with the cursor. The game requires speed, accuracy, and keenness so the reader can touch all of the words. There are also "powerful" words that the reader must be certain not to touch. The words also are all over the page, so sometimes it is necessary to jump to touch them.


 * The word acutezza applies to //Silent Conversations// in two different ways. First, it requires poignancy and keenness on the part of the reader to touch all of the words necessary to win the game. The player must be sharp and quick. Secondly, the words are played with in accordance to what the story is. For example, in //The Nameless City// by H.P. Lovecraft, there is a sentence that reads "I was traveling in a parched and terrible valley" (Lovecraft 1). When it gets to the point where it says valley, the words are as far down on the page as they can get, showing physical wordplay. Another example is in the same story when it says "the great-grandfather of the eldest pyramid" (Lovecraft 1). Sure enough, the words are stacked on top of each other like a pyramid.

2) //The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales// by Jon Scieszka is postmodern children's book that plays with word order and general conventionality of how a book, let alone a children's book, should read. Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk, is the book's narrator and pops up throughout the story as other takes on different fairy tales are told. The copyright is printed upside down, and throughout the story. Additionally, Jack is seen tumbling on his head in the table of contents, a part of the book that is generally not included in the story. Throughout the book, Little Red Hen pops up asking when her story is going to be told. Also, each "fairy tale" told in the book has a slightly different twist that goes along with it, compared to how it is traditionally told.


 * There are many different examples of acutezza found in this book, both visual and textual. Visually, one should look no further than the table of contents and the copyright and dedication page. Words are printed upside and the table of contents becomes part of the story. Additionally, in "The Princess and the Bowling Ball", the prince is getting so frustrated when his potential princesses can't feel the pea in their bed that he puts a giant bowling ball underneath so the princess is bound to feel it. In "The Really Ugly Duckling", the duckling actually quite literally turns out to be a really ugly duckling, not a beautiful swan like the story traditionally is told. [[image:600full-the-stinky-cheese-man-and-other-fairly-stupid-tales-artwork.jpg width="300" height="195" align="right"]]

(EM)