The long and short of it : from aphorism to novel

317 Pages·2012·2.04 MB·English

by  Morson

Stanford University Press Stanford, California
© 2012 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morson, Gary Saul, 1948– author.
The long and short of it : from aphorism to novel / Gary Saul Morson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-8051-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8047-8169-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-
0-8047-8189-3 (e-book) 1. Aphorisms and apothegms—History and criticism. 2. Wit and humor—History
and criticism. 3. Epigram. 4. Literary form. I. Title.
PN6269.A2M67 2012
818'.602—dc23
2011039934
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion
THE
LONG
AND
SHORT
OF
IT
FROM APHORISM TO NOVEL
GARY SAUL MORSON
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS    STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
FOR KATIE
They were arguing about something complex and important, and neither one of
them could convince the other. They did not agree about anything, and that made
their dispute all the more engaging and endless.
—Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
CONTENTS
Cover
Copyright
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Long and Short of It
1 Genre and Brevity
2 Apothegms
Apothegm and Dictum
Paradoxes of Apothegms
3 Witticisms and Witlessisms
The Resourcefulness of Wit
Stupidity Shines
4 Wisdom and Counter-Wisdom
Wise Sayings
Sardonic Maxims
5 Two Kinds of Trial
The Summons
The Thought
6 Prosaic Apothegms
Conclusion: The Great Conversation
Notes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some thirty years ago, my former teacher, the late Martin Price, commenting on
my first book, remarked that my style tended to the aphoristic and suggested that
I might someday examine the form systematically. Around that time, I attended
classes and lectures given by the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of
Folklore and Folklife and learned a great deal from Dan Ben-Amos, Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, and the late Dell Hymes. Along with two other scholars
associated with that department, Phyllis Gorfain and Joanne Mulcahy, they
taught me to appreciate proverbs, jokes, and folktales as much more interesting
and complex than we usually suppose. The work of the late Thomas M. Greene
helped me to understand the complexities of quotations, aphorisms, and their
place in Renaissance literature. Caryl Emerson convinced me, but not well
enough, that, as aphorisms must not be too long, so they must not be too
plentiful.
When I finally began writing this book in the mid-1990s, I discussed its key
ideas with Robert Alter, Jonathan Brent, and Joseph Epstein. They remain the
implicit addressees of many passages below. In my understanding of the great
aphoristic philosophers, I benefited greatly from discussions and correspondence
with Bracht Branham, Walter Jost, Kenneth Seeskin, Meredith Williams, and
Michael Williams. Three times I co-taught a course with the late Stephen
Toulmin, and my understanding of Wittgenstein developed under his guidance.
Stephen’s influence on my thinking will be apparent to anyone who knows our
work. I changed no less, but in different ways, from the profound and unique
conversation of the late Aron Katsenelinboigen and from the wise and warm
words of Kenneth Mischel.
More recently, I had the pleasure of co-teaching a course using some ideas
from this book with Morton Schapiro, who, in his role as president of
Northwestern University, has fostered the spirit and atmosphere in which great
research and teaching thrive. His responses to my ideas inspired some changes
of which he is still unaware.
Perhaps Bud Bynack, Michael Denner, Dilip Gaonkar, Robert Hariman,
Robert Louis Jackson, Richard Kieckhefer, Lawrence Lipking, Daniel
Lowenstein, Kathe Marshall, Susan McReynolds-Oddo, Barbara Newman, Clara
Claiborne Park, Janice Pavel, Helen Tartar, and Herbert Tucker are also not fully
aware of all they contributed.
Even more than my colleagues, my students revive, at painful moments of
doubt, my sense of dedication and purpose. I know I will regret omitting some
names which will come to mind only after this book has gone to press, but,
notwithstanding that risk, let me record my gratitude to Lindsay Sargent Berg,
Wendy Cheng, Nava Cohen, Andrew Gruen, Robert Gurley, Omar Hassan, John
Mafi, Lori Singer Meyer, Matthew Morrison, Karthik Sivashanker, Trish Suchy,
Andrew Thompson, Ryan Vogt, Christina Walker, Cindy Wang, and Annabel
We.
Robert Belknap and the late Wayne Booth not only taught me a good deal
about aphorisms but also, and much more important, offered unselfish help and
served as scholarly role models. When difficulties with this manuscript drove me
to near despair, I knew I could count on Elizabeth Cheresh Allen, Henry
Carrigan, Thomas Marullo, Robin Feuer Miller, William Mills Todd, and
Andrew Wachtel. I cannot express enough gratitude for all they did and wanted
to do.
Northwestern University offered a congenial environment in which to think
and work. As I wrote this book, I was always mindful of the support of Dan
Linzer, the late Lawrence Dumas, and Marilyn McCoy. Nava Cohen, Catherine
Grimstead, and Mark Ratner helped in ways that mattered more than they know.
In his reading for Stanford University Press, and in subsequent
correspondence, Frederick Crews showed me places where changes were
needed. Thomas Pavel, in his reading and subsequent comments, suggested
especially insightful ways to make those changes. The result, at least to my
mind, is a better book. Emily-Jane Cohen’s confidence in this project ensured its
completion and appearance.
Steven Blumenkranz’s commentaries and advice have been a guide for some
six decades. No matter how often I try, I am always at a loss to express all I owe,
in so many ways, to Frances Padorr Brent and Jonathan Brent.
Not a day goes by when I do not think of some conversation with Michael
André Bernstein, who died while this book was in press. When I would forget
important things about myself, he would remember. I know no one wiser. And I
am always guided by his refrain that what really matters is “to keep the
conversation going.” As I worked on this manuscript over the past few years, I
also learned to admire, and admire still more, all that Dalya Sachs-Bernstein
does every day.
It is hard to imagine saying what I have learned from Shirley Morson. Even
ninety-three million years would be insufficient to express my care for
Alexander Morson and Emily Morson.
Could either brevity or length suffice to express what I owe to my wife, Katie
Porter?
ABBREVIATIONS
1001D The 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said, ed. Steven D. Price
(Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2004).
776S Ross and Kathryn Petras, The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said
(New York: Broadway, 1993).
ABPE The Anchor Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, ed. and trans. R. B.
Y. Scott (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981).
AE The Adages of Erasmus, ed. William Barker (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2001). The volume contains one
introduction by the editor (ix–xlvii) and one by Erasmus (3–28),
which first appeared in the 1508 edition.
AIW Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland: Authoritative Texts of
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “Through the Looking
Glass,” and “The Hunting of the Snark,” ed. Donald J. Gray
(New York: Norton, 1971).
AK Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, the Garnett translation revised by
Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova (New York: Modern
Library, 1965).
AWD1/AWD2 Fyodor Dostoevsky, A Writer’s Diary, trans. Kenneth Lantz,
vol. 1 (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1993); vol.
2 (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1994).
BBA Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes, ed. Clifton Fadiman and André
Bernard (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000).
BFQ15 John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages,
Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and
Modern Literature, 15th ed., ed. Emily Morison Beck (Boston:
Little, Brown, 1980).
BK Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Constance
Garnett (New York: Modern Library, 1994).
BOG Gary Saul Morson, The Boundaries of Genre: Dostoevsky’s
“Diary of a Writer” and the Traditions of Literary Utiopia
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981).