Verstiegenheit

[bob]

Came across this interesting word whilst reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. The author's note #36 gives the following -
Verstiegenheit - Low Bavarian for something like "wandering alone in blasted disorienting territory beyond all charted limits and orienting markers."
Definitions elsewhere include extravagance, eccentricity or schizophrenia.
Robert L Perkins, on the other hand, in Sickness unto Death, states "Verstiegenheit ... results from a choice the eccentric exclusivity of which has stranded the individual at an (objectively) arbitrary point within "the structure of the hierarchy ('Rangordnung') of Dasein's ontological possibilities".
Funny how both the quoted authors knew just how I would be feeling in the WOC O'Festival when lost, respectively, off and on the map.

[Becks]

Ah, Infinite Jest. Don't remember those bits (although don't remember a whole lot to be honest!) - are you reading all the footnotes too? Don't think I've tackled anything like that in my life!