What "extispicy," the word, means
About Extispicy, the blog
About M Bat, the author
What does extispicy
mean?
The encyclopedia Mystica's entry on extispicy begins with this:
The term is derived from extra and spiere, meaning to view or consider.
Yeah, yeah, you can just stop giggling now at discovering I’ve found a fancy way to call the blog “Views and Considerations.”
That’s not really what the word means. That’s just how it was derived.
What the term actually means (also from the Mystica):
It applied cheifly to the inspection of entrails for the purposes of augury.The officials were known as Extispieces or Auspieces and one of the instruments they used was called by the same name as their craft, the extispicium.
Yup. Reading the entrails. One of my favorite hobbies, metaphorically-speaking.
I’ve got this thing for viscera.
See the rest of the Mystica’s entry for a little bit of historical background to the word and the ancient divinatory ritual practice.
Also, this entry in this blog about the phrase "Beware the Ides of March" goes into some description of the extispicy ritual as well as other various augury methods Caesar's soothsayers had once employed.
About this blog
The reason I started this blog was more or less just on whim -- wanted to try out the software. I began the blog on Blogger and called it “In Between Naps.” No need to go check out the old blog, though, as I imported almost all the entries over onto this blog (left out just a couple of really nothing entries) when I switched over to using the Movable Type blog software (November 2002).
Primarily, I consider the blog supplemental to the writing and projects I do on both Sepulchritude (where you can find, amongst many other things, our 'zine, Suffering is Hip) and my own site, Bat Cafe, which is why the blog frequently references both as well as often mentioning my Sepulchritude co-editors: Kallisti, the Marquis, and Melusine.
So, mostly, my prattlings here are random, sporadic, sometimes anecdotal, and sometimes related to my various projects or interests.
I haven't used my blog to post much commentary on current events, politics, or the like, as many bloggers do, nor do I use it as much of a diary either. Sure, I’ve got a few opinions on such matters, and, sure, I rant about a few things to myself sometimes. But I'm not so well-versed or opinionated enough to wish to inflict on everyone else my sometimes skewed perspective on bloody everything.
This doesn't mean, of course, a hint of an opinion on current events won't sneak by on occasion. I am, after all, human.
(And -- in case you were wondering about my apparent obsession with bringing up French tidbits in this blog, it’s just leakage because I’ve been off and on doing quite a bit of research into the French Revolution and Enlightenment philosophes for a couple of different projects .... )
About M Bat
I’ve been writing (primarily fiction and poetry) for almost all of my life and have had many pieces published in a variety of mostly obscure small magazines over the last couple of decades.
I also started my own literary magazine, Sins of Coffee, in the late 80s and continued that until 1996. (There’s an online archive of selections from the old print ‘zine.)
I am currently working on a variety of
different projects, some of which are collaborations with other writers/artists.
Some of these are online,
some not. My main projects online are Sepulchritude, mentioned above,
and my own site, Bat Cafe, which I use for various experiments and personal
projects. Some of my older material can also be found online there.
_____
I was born in San Francisco in 1961. (Yep, I’m well on my way to becoming an old bat...) The “M” in “M Bat,” incidentally, is short for “Mordantia” (don't ask) -- a name I’ve published under and currently use for many of my online projects.