Here’s an unimportant question for you: What is a single word for the intersection of three roads? The answer: trivium. Now, pluralize the word in the Latin way, and you’ll have another bit of non-useful information: trivia. Although trivia began as a geographical term, it came to denote the inconsequential information people exchange when bumping into each other at a trivium—bits of gossip or news that keep conversation short, cordial and interesting. In other situations, these trivialities became evidence of mental virtuosity, scraps extracted on demand from the vast store of data people carry around with them. Because some people seem to possess more facts than others—and readier access to them—a mental sport was born in This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-six Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 37 Wasted Journey What could you teach a caveman? Arts & Culture Issue 27 Akram Khan On the uneasy dance between knowledge and information. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Jenny Odell The acclaimed author in search of lost time. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Amalie Smith The Danish arts writer finding clarity between the lines. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Ryan Heffington Meet the man bringing choreography, community and queer joy to the desert.
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