I tend to have trouble remembering many of the stories involving "invariably" (必). Recently I've considered the possibility of simply considering it a "crossed-over heart" when used as a primitive, thus making it more concrete, but I'm always a bit reluctant when it comes to altering Heisig's primitive meanings. I have about half the book (RtK 1, obviously) left to go, so I fear that it may cause conflicts with other primitives.

Any thoughts on this? I'm mainly looking for advice from those who have finished the first book, but other input is also appreciated.

yeah, i have to be honest, invariably is one of those few primitives that invariably made its way into my stories through clever phrasing of the story rather than an outright visual reference.

however, it doesn't appear in many kanji, and so it stuck fairly well for me with the trick of phrasing. especially since it usually made sense in the context of the meaning and other primitives. i visualised the other primitives of course, but for the invariable primitive, i let the phrase lock it in. for example:

--for SECRECY, hideouts are invariably housed at the top of mountains--

--HONEY is invariably found in a bee hive (insect house)--

anyway, i don't see any danger ahead in visualizing the primitive as a broken heart, or even a "cross my heart and hope to die" type thing.

EDIT: you might even get some mileage out of the catholic "crossing oneself" gesture, as it is done across the general heart area.

Caveat: I haven't finished RTK 1 yet, but I'm progressing pretty well.

I think a lot of people have been using Professor X from X-Men. If you look at ?, it looks a *bit* like an X, I guess. I never watched X-Men all that much, but it has helped me. (Secrecy - Professor X having a secret meeting/hideout at the top of a mountain; Honey - Professor X living in a house that is on top of a huge bee that provides him with protection and honey to keep his power level up).

If it doesn't appear too much, I don't think it'll ruin your comprehension at all to switch it up a little. At any rate, it seems a better alternative than having a keyword that is just too vague to stick for you.

I can help with the latter: try this video [NSFW]:

Professor X is the dude in blue who gets attacked and is trying to use his mind power.

I always imagine that primitive as a person with their heart exposed, sliced right through the middle. Blood spurting, oozing out. A really nasty scene. If it's possible I often have another primitive come out of the disgusting opening in the heart, like in #904, secret.

"I have a secret"

"Oh yeah? What is it?"

*Lifts up his shirt to reveal a disgustingly exposed, split, bleeding heart. Reaches into it and pulls out a bowl of cereal*

"Duddddddddde, that's grossssss... yet delicious." *nom nom nom*

[ファブリス]

hknamida Wrote:Recently I've considered the possibility of simply considering it a "crossed-over heart" when used as a primitive, thus making it more concrete, but I'm always a bit reluctant when it comes to altering Heisig's primitive meanings.

In that case it's hard to tell what exactly the original meaning was. zhongwen.com says "stake 弋 splitting a 八 (ideograph representing division)" ... go figure! In that case I'd say go for it and use whatever image helps best. There's no problem using a different image than Heisig's when necessary, if you remain consistent then with that image. That's why I guess it's best to consider before switching the image, as it will limit your use of Heisig's stories for the first 540 characters or so.

Using your idea, how about a beating heart on a stake (the crossing line) as some kind of voodoo trinket which has the power to make anything invariably happen. It's my favorite way of making a visual image which stills hints at the components.