The Inquestia's Mission Statement: Offering A Unique Insight Into The World We Live In

The English term inquest comes from the Old French enqueste "inquiry", which in turn finds its origin in the Latin inquaestia (from the verb inquirere). Etymologically, the Latin roots of the work can be deconstructed in two composite words, in "into" + quaerere "seek, question, ask". Quest, query, question and inquisition are but a few of the related terms English has inherited from the Roman cultural sphere, for the most part a living testament of the British Isles' long period of interaction with the mainland French and their language, an offshoot of Latin. What better title then, to have Inquestia as a banner-heading to hang over this blog in order to try to describe it.

As the blog's interests shall assuredly reflect the blogger's (or the author's) own interests and preoccupations, consequently, I have more than a sneaking suspicion that most of the posts featured in the Inquestia Times shall be dedicated to explore the world we live in, the oddities contained in it, why it is the way it is and, more importantly, why we are who we are. Pretty heavy stuff for a blog, but let's throw in some other descriptive terms in the bucket: an exploration of culture, values, an examination of historical perspectives that shape our worldviews... These will be some of the things that will be explored in the Inquestia, for basically it is an "inquest" into our reality, or if anything at all, at the very least it will be an attempt to "question" what we perceive as real.

As a mission statement or raison-d'etre for the blog, the above description is sufficient. Now, all that is left is to start posting. The sincere hope is that the blog articles I make available for you, dear readers, are not merely entertaining, but that they somehow help add to your personal culture and knowledge. Like all other readers, I personally take great satisfaction in expanding my own knowledge, therefore I do not doubt in the least that there must be something in the Inquestia that might also arouse your intellect.

I will send out notifications when each new blog is published, however, I am as of yet unsure if I should do this via Facebook, Twitter, or other methods. I'll see, but in the meantime I take no offense whatsoever if you do not want to read any of my blogs and simply want these notifications to cease. Please just inform me and I shall stop sending you blog notifications.

With these introductory words, welcome to the Inquestia Times and let's see how this experiment (on my part) works out, and to see if I can manage to get a decent posting a week out there.

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Acadian Prehistory: From Medieval Religion, the Angevin Empire... and leaving Poitou behind

Some of the first Europeans who crossed the Atlantic and settled onto North America's distant shores, at the beginning of the 17th century, came from France. Having allied themselves with the five Algonquian-speaking Nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy (composed of the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki and Penobscot), these early French settlers intermarried and adopted local Amerindian customs "du pays" (native customs) and the land they inhabited, corresponding mostly to present-day Nova Scotia, would be known as La Cadie or l'Acadie - Acadia - and its inhabitants the Acadiens (Acadians) and later known as Cadiens (Cajuns) in Louisiana. Most of these early French settlers that formed the "first families" of Acadia came primarily from the Poitou, Aunis and Saintonge regions of western France. In fact, since the vast majority of these new settlers originated from Poitou, the Acadian French language of today still preserves most of the arch...

Aryan Culture and Language: A Possible Candidate for the Linguistic Identity of the Indus Civilization and Script

A brief foreword... The article which follows is largely taken from my M.A. thesis work which is entitled "Indus Epigraphic Perspectives: Exploring Past Decipherment Attempts & Possible New Approaches" (c) 2012 Paul D. LeBlanc, Ottawa (Canada). While it is unpublished, it is still important for you as a reader to be aware that I, as the author of this work, do still retain all the intellectual copyrights over it as my property (except where otherwise indicated). Although, if you are interested in quoting from it for your own scholarly purposes, you may do so, but with the provision that you source your information properly. You simply have to include me in your bibliography as follows: LeBlanc, Paul D. "Aryan Culture and Language: A Possible Candidate for the Linguistic Identity of the Indus Civilization and Script." The Inquestia Times. Online article made available by author, dated Dec. 2012. http://inquestiatimes.blogspot.ca/ With this bein...

William S. Burroughs and Cut-Up Writing

I think William S. Burroughs was on to something. Aside from Jack Kerouac, Burroughs was another one of the influential authors of the Beat Generation that in the 1950s and 60s found popularity - if not notoriety in Burroughs' case - in his experimental writing styles. Burroughs was introduced to the cut-up technique of writing, which basically means he would quite literally "cut-up" a strand of linear text into segmented pieces with one or a couple of words a piece, and then simply reorder them in whatever fashion he saw fit. Source: www.openculture.com Burroughs experimented with the cut-up technique at great length and it suited him fine, for he found that by doing so he could somehow alter reality - or even foretell future events. The Nova Trilogy , published in the early 1960s were a series of three experimental novels published by Burroughs in which he made use of the cut-up. The Soft Machine was the first book in the trilogy - published two years after his ...

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