It’s always been so: All societies have been characterized by bizarre people acting bizarrely. But we seem to be especially adept at doing whatever seems to be bizarre. And nowhere is this more evident than on the Web, where almost every human action is recorded and where people often purposefully display the bizarre for both fame and fortune.
The word bizarre seems to have come to English through French and, before that, Italian. Its original meaning “angry” has morphed in modern English to become “strange” or “fantastical” or some combination of both those words, maybe “strangetastical.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “odd, extravagant, or eccentric in style or mode.” But I suppose each of us applies the word to any human feature or action that we would not personally do in public. Underlying everything bizarre is “difference.”
I would not, for example, have my entire or part of my face permanently tattooed black and gold even though I am a Steelers fan, and I would personally call any such permanent face painting “bizarre.” Nor would I have artificial devil’s horns implanted in my forehead. And as far as human behaviors range, I view certain diets as bizarre. Is it just me, or would you relish a dish of Chinese century eggs, fried Cambodian tarantulas, and Sardinian casu marzu? Obviously, there are people who do eat these dishes and who might find my diet to be bizarre by comparison.
With close to eight billion members on the planet, each with a brain complex enough to seek variations in common experiences, humans add the one element from which bizarre actions arise: The search for or confusion about identity. Yes, that’s my take on the issue. But of course, there are professionals nowadays in every human endeavor, even in bizarre thinking. So, here are the words of M. Cermolacce, L. Sass, and J. Parnas, authors of “What is Bizarre in Bizarre Delusions? A Critical Review.”
“It seems clear, in any case, that the notion of bizarreness extends well beyond the field of delusion alone. Bizarreness was, in some sense, considered by all classical authors to be the hallmark of schizophrenia.” *
Yep, bizarreness has a diagnosis, and its been codified in psychological officialdom, that is, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), where it is labeled in a discussion of BD—bizarre delusions. Obviously, the mental issue is different from what I was describing at the outset. BD associated with schizophrenia is different from BB, bizarre behavior derived from some search for or confusion about identity.
Excuse my lay assessment, but I am defining bizarreness as a phenomenon belonging to people who could be normal if they chose to be normal, people that are, in my lay terminology, “non-schizophrenic.” My examples of bizarreness (i.e., implanted horns) aside, all bizarre activity isn’t perceived by everyone as equally bizarre, just as Cambodians would not think fried tarantulas are beyond reason. There are so many subcultures in any society that, for example, implanted devil’s horns might be “normal” for some, just as artificial cranial deformation found from Croatia to Central America to South Pacific islanders appears to have been not only normal but cherished. For those of us still alive, YouTube contains a number of examples of “bizarre body deformations,” demonstrating that in some inner sense, most people recognize those features and actions that lie “outside the ordinary.” Otherwise, the videos would not bear a term like “bizarre” for extreme cases of plastic surgery deformation or for two families recently fighting outside a Disney World ride—Walt would probably call the fighting bizarre in “the happiest place on Earth.” Generally, we recognize levels of bizarreness. There are actions that we might hold to be slightly bizarre, such as a President in a Zoom meeting wearing a mask, for example, as though COVID-19 could be transmitted through cyberspace.
Among the many meanings and interpretations of “bizarre” lie that original concept: That bizarre means “angry” or “irascible.” It is in this original meaning that we find its best expression in our contemporary world. Maybe among the best examples of bizarre in its original meaning occurred not in some cranial deformation or plastic surgery “gone wrong,” but rather during the fight in Disney World. Our world is bizarre because it is angry.
*Cermolacce M, Sass L, Parnas J. What is bizarre in bizarre delusions? A critical review. Schizophr Bull. 2010 Jul;36(4):667-79. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbq001. Epub 2010 Feb 8. PMID: 20142381; PMCID: PMC2894592. Available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894592/ Accessed July 31, 2022.
**https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/329987/misshapen-alien-like-skulls-found-in-croatia among other articles: See artificial cranial deformation in Croatia, Iraq, Vanuatu, and in Mayan, Incan, and Aztec culture. The practice is ancient and surprisingly worldwide, even among cultures that could never have interacted—thus, cranial deformation was not a matter of cultural exchange, especially when one considers the vast distances between the cultures that practiced it. Bizarre, huh?
The word bizarre seems to have come to English through French and, before that, Italian. Its original meaning “angry” has morphed in modern English to become “strange” or “fantastical” or some combination of both those words, maybe “strangetastical.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “odd, extravagant, or eccentric in style or mode.” But I suppose each of us applies the word to any human feature or action that we would not personally do in public. Underlying everything bizarre is “difference.”
I would not, for example, have my entire or part of my face permanently tattooed black and gold even though I am a Steelers fan, and I would personally call any such permanent face painting “bizarre.” Nor would I have artificial devil’s horns implanted in my forehead. And as far as human behaviors range, I view certain diets as bizarre. Is it just me, or would you relish a dish of Chinese century eggs, fried Cambodian tarantulas, and Sardinian casu marzu? Obviously, there are people who do eat these dishes and who might find my diet to be bizarre by comparison.
With close to eight billion members on the planet, each with a brain complex enough to seek variations in common experiences, humans add the one element from which bizarre actions arise: The search for or confusion about identity. Yes, that’s my take on the issue. But of course, there are professionals nowadays in every human endeavor, even in bizarre thinking. So, here are the words of M. Cermolacce, L. Sass, and J. Parnas, authors of “What is Bizarre in Bizarre Delusions? A Critical Review.”
“It seems clear, in any case, that the notion of bizarreness extends well beyond the field of delusion alone. Bizarreness was, in some sense, considered by all classical authors to be the hallmark of schizophrenia.” *
Yep, bizarreness has a diagnosis, and its been codified in psychological officialdom, that is, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), where it is labeled in a discussion of BD—bizarre delusions. Obviously, the mental issue is different from what I was describing at the outset. BD associated with schizophrenia is different from BB, bizarre behavior derived from some search for or confusion about identity.
Excuse my lay assessment, but I am defining bizarreness as a phenomenon belonging to people who could be normal if they chose to be normal, people that are, in my lay terminology, “non-schizophrenic.” My examples of bizarreness (i.e., implanted horns) aside, all bizarre activity isn’t perceived by everyone as equally bizarre, just as Cambodians would not think fried tarantulas are beyond reason. There are so many subcultures in any society that, for example, implanted devil’s horns might be “normal” for some, just as artificial cranial deformation found from Croatia to Central America to South Pacific islanders appears to have been not only normal but cherished. For those of us still alive, YouTube contains a number of examples of “bizarre body deformations,” demonstrating that in some inner sense, most people recognize those features and actions that lie “outside the ordinary.” Otherwise, the videos would not bear a term like “bizarre” for extreme cases of plastic surgery deformation or for two families recently fighting outside a Disney World ride—Walt would probably call the fighting bizarre in “the happiest place on Earth.” Generally, we recognize levels of bizarreness. There are actions that we might hold to be slightly bizarre, such as a President in a Zoom meeting wearing a mask, for example, as though COVID-19 could be transmitted through cyberspace.
Among the many meanings and interpretations of “bizarre” lie that original concept: That bizarre means “angry” or “irascible.” It is in this original meaning that we find its best expression in our contemporary world. Maybe among the best examples of bizarre in its original meaning occurred not in some cranial deformation or plastic surgery “gone wrong,” but rather during the fight in Disney World. Our world is bizarre because it is angry.
*Cermolacce M, Sass L, Parnas J. What is bizarre in bizarre delusions? A critical review. Schizophr Bull. 2010 Jul;36(4):667-79. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbq001. Epub 2010 Feb 8. PMID: 20142381; PMCID: PMC2894592. Available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894592/ Accessed July 31, 2022.
**https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/329987/misshapen-alien-like-skulls-found-in-croatia among other articles: See artificial cranial deformation in Croatia, Iraq, Vanuatu, and in Mayan, Incan, and Aztec culture. The practice is ancient and surprisingly worldwide, even among cultures that could never have interacted—thus, cranial deformation was not a matter of cultural exchange, especially when one considers the vast distances between the cultures that practiced it. Bizarre, huh?
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