Nuts and Bolts: peripetia.

Peripetia is the bit in a story where everything suddenly goes horribly wrong.

It's the moment when the hero - or villain - having cleverly evaded capture for months and years, is nabbed as he crosses the border to freedom.

It's the moment when the person you've murdered turns out not to be dead, after all.

It's the moment when the jewels turn out to be fake, or your husband turns out to be your brother, or the person you are fighting turns out to have been born by cesarean, or a woman or a shaved orangutan or something, and so you're not protected by that prophesy after all.

Phew!

...sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through all this fiction stuff, you know.


photo by Michaël CATANZARITI

Word To Use Today: peripetia. This word comes from peri-, which means around, plus piptein, to fall.