WORDS MATTER: WHY I MADE ONE UP FOR THE TITLE OF MY BOOK
by Jason Makansi
Family, friends, and beta readers ask, why the word “wrequiem?” Specialists in marketing among them vociferously urged against using a word that isn’t in the dictionary and that would confuse search engines.
Here’s why:
· Joseph Heller got away with it in Catch-22. Not a straight up comparison but who hell knew what a catch-22 was until Heller invented it?
· Stephen King got away with it in Pet Sematary. He’s one of the most successful authors ever (so I guess I will be too).
· When I type wrequiem into a search engine, the first entry returned is my title!
· It is unique and therefore immediately creates a competitive distinction against virtually all other titles
Most importantly, though, one of the hallmarks of absurdist writing is that standard language is no longer capable of fully expressing what the author sees happening around him. For example, “semantic satiation” is what happens when you repeat a word over and over in your mind and the meaning dissociates from the word (Ionesco uses this in his play, The Bald Soprano).
George Orwell uses “doublespeak” like “war is peace,” and “freedom is slavery" in 1984. Leaders make up and propagate phrases like “Axis of Evil” so they can then position a country for invasion, bombing, sanctions, etc. The Trump administration calls murdering innocent bystanders filming ICE atrocities “protecting the people.”
I coined “wrequiem” (combining “wreck” and “requiem”) because of what I have seen around me for three decades, an American exceptionalism characterized by “do as I say, not as I do” and “where there’s my will, there’s your way.” And now, the wreckage we have wrought on other nations (through invasions, bombing, sanctions, dollar hegemony) who don’t follow our lead is being visciously imposed on more of our own people. And I stress “more,” because segments of our nation have always been under attack from within.
We are in the midst of the death of the global and domestic order. Like the final scene in Wrequiem, everyone is flailing about defending some shred of their own selfish narrative, while the greater aspiration of what it is supposed to mean to be an American is rapidly being stripped away. As if it ever existed in the first place.
Wrequiem is a brutal, satiric, reflective metaphor honoring an America that never was.
Cover and brief description of WREQUIEM AT THE RED ROCKS by Jason Makansi. Coming May 19, 2026.
Also, please sign up for our newsletter for more information on WREQUIEM AT THE RED ROCKS. And another non-fiction book coming soon from Jason as well. In the vein of his award-winning PAINTING BY NUMBERS, he’s working on a book on knowledge—what we know, what we think we know, how we know it, and why it all matters.
As always, stay tuned for more!