On the Kindle, I just hilight a word to look it up. On the Kindle for Mac, since I can't cut and paste, I have to retype the word into Google to find out what a "Kekulean knot" looks like. This is very annoying and counter intuitive.
from Infinite Jest (thanks to wallacewiki):
"I stare carefully into the Kekuléan knot of the middle Dean's necktie."
"Kekuléan" is not a type of knot. To Hal, the knot he is focusing on resembles the self-consuming, annular shape of the snake that inspired August Kekulé's discovery of benzene's molecular structure. August Kekule (1829-1896), a renowned German organic chemist, was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure. His most famous work, the discovery of benzene molecule's structure, is said to be inspired by a dream. "Kekulé's Dream" was that of a self-devouring snake, the shape of which he used to describe the benzene ring.
Hal's intense focus on this annular, or ring-like, part of the tie is the first reference to annular shapes.
A few months ago, I bought a kindle. Generally I like it, but I do have a few small points to make.
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