Anyone who writes enough can be rendered an idiot, or a genius, by the simple expedient of direct quotation.
Nov 172022
Nov 162022
We are pleased when the serious man clowns, dismayed when the clown turns serious.
Nov 152022
To lie, cheat, and steal may be optimally adaptive, provided one maintains a reputation for never lying, cheating, or stealing.
Nov 142022
Ability without ambition is tragedy: ambition without ability is farce.
Nov 112022
A primary source, in translation, is a secondary source.
Nov 102022
Children’s literature posits a compact between author and reader: though the reader may look like a frog to all the uncaring world, the author knows he is a handsome prince, and it can be their little secret. Harry Potter is children’s literature. So is Confederacy of Dunces.
Nov 092022
Facts do not assemble into truths.
Nov 082022
Almost anything can be put into a work of art, which is the artist’s problem, and almost anything can be got out of it, which is the critic’s.
Nov 072022
Experts have replaced adults.
Nov 042022
Footnote Zero, n. The original source of a dubious, often provably false, occasionally absurd claim repeated in numerous scholarly works.