English edit

Etymology edit

Ultimately from Ancient Greek λήθω (lḗthō, to forget).

Adjective edit

lethetic (comparative more lethetic, superlative most lethetic)

  1. Failing to mirror reality, purely escapist or nonsensical.
    • 1984, Fantasy Review - Issues 64-74:
      These lethetic fictions cut their ties to the real world, refusing to be mirrors of life.
    • 1985, the New Orleans Review - Volume 12:
      If the structure of language is accepted as mirroring the world, the trope ceases to be a lethetic figure
    • 1989, Clayton Koelb, Kafka's rhetoric: the passion of reading:
      Lethetic reading, on the other hand, could be liberating and indeed is liberating for some of Kafka's characters and for Kafka himself some of the time

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