tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667521601821857519.post9148125436137268119..comments2023-10-19T04:22:15.942-07:00Comments on Mindbook: Dead Writer, "Extinct" Form, The Power of the SmallT.R. Hummerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12113264848463596680noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667521601821857519.post-62188884426623125752009-02-19T15:59:00.000-08:002009-02-19T15:59:00.000-08:00Mary: that's quite good; Mencken's remarks are in ...Mary: that's quite good; Mencken's remarks are in fact that rare thing, both aphoristic and distinctly American. Excellent!T.R. Hummerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12113264848463596680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667521601821857519.post-61926019037259862782009-02-19T15:07:00.000-08:002009-02-19T15:07:00.000-08:00THis made me think of Mencken, who could also prob...THis made me think of Mencken, who could also probably be considered an epic aphorist (though quite different from Kafka.) In part because I came across this description by Mencken of Harding's speeches (which could be easily applied to the recent occupant of 1600), which made me wish for someone like him to be around now (though Hal Crowther can often pull that wagon). But Mencken was an authority, and happily so (and also many other things, alas). Here he is:<BR/>"It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of a dark abysm... of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12890940933342547677noreply@blogger.com