Ontoleptic

There, I've said it. First time on the web. At least, when I googled it a couple of minutes ago there were no hits.—No hits?!—This has been my favourite word of all times for some time now. My favourite word isn't on the web? Crazy.

So what does ontoleptic mean, I hear you say. Let's look it up. (It's probably findable in The Dictionary of Fictionary Words… Let's see… Ah! Here it is!)

ontoleptic [adj]
of, or relating to, or characteristic of, a confusion in levels of reality or existance

Why do I like this word? Well…it's unusal. I like unusual words, unusual language. (Maybe that's why my other web page is on Klingon?) But also, ontoleptic is a useful word, descriptive—not least— of some of my common morning thoughts: Am I still in bed sleeping, dreaming of going to work?—Or am I actually on my way to work, dreaming about sleeping?

The most common ontoleptic story involves some confusion as to in which reality it takes place at a given moment (eXistenZ), or it is discovered that the actual reality turns out to be a different sort of place than was previusly believed (The Thirteenth Floor). My favourite on this theme is probably eXistenZ—no matter how meticulously one follows how the plot jumps back and forth between the levels of realities there just is no way to anticipate that! (Or maybe I was just naïve when I watched it for the first time?) This one is also very clear-cut when it comes to ontoleptic movies. If there ever is a such a category of movies, then eXistenZ belongs to it, no doubt about that.

There is also another kind of ontoleptic movies, one of a more personal kind, in which a person has doubts about his or her reality or existance but in which the reality itself seem constant for most of the people. Stranger Than Fiction and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind belongs to this category. And maybe even Groundhog Day?

Let me give you a little list of movies (and other stories) to help further clarify the idea of ontolepsia:

A Little List

Adaptation (2002)
Avalon (2001) (the Japanese-Polish movie, not the Arthur-saga-thingy)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Buffy Episode: Normal Again (2002)
Dark City (1998) (stylish settings, but no favourite of mine)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
eXistenZ (1999)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Impostor (2001) (hey, is it ontoleptic to doubt the existance of oneself?)
Matrix (1999) (the first one was a bit ontoleptic to start off with, then not so much)
Naked Lunch (1991)
The New York Trilogy (1987) (by Paul Auster)
Primer (2004) (counting time lines as realities)
Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1968) (both a play and a movie)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Total Recall (1990)

…And there are probably a thousand more. If you have any you wish to have included here, you can send an email to me.

Etymology

I didn't come up with the word myself, but I'm no longer sure who gave it to me. The etymology of it, however, isn't that difficult to see:

By Zrajm C Akfohg in Uppsala [2009-11-11] (Validate: XHTML, CSS, links License: CC BY–SA)