I have been reliably informed by no less an authority than someone whose identity, unfortunately, I am not at liberty to divulge, that with the last post I achieved that elusive intellectual holy grail, which writers through the centuries despite occasional fragmentary glimpses of this substance have strived and infallibly failed to attain- this being, needless to say, the perfect union of form and content.
I would like to thank noone in particular at this significant moment, as the achievement is mine and mine alone. I should also add that the attainment, or rather recognition of the attainment, barely scratches the surface of my being, as I do not deem the opinion of others to be of any intrinsic worth.
This might appear to be arrogance, but on the contrary it is a form of humility, as the total lack of concern for the intellectual opinion of all others means I cannot get excited by any public recognition of achievements attained. Vanity is strictly for the mediocre. It will also be recognised that this is not a form of contempt, as that would necessitate a category of mental relationship which is altogether absent. Contempt is naturally of a close kinship to the already mentioned vanity.
Any psychological connection between the author and the thoughts expressed above is entirely coincidental.
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4 comments:
I too am proud to take complete and total credit for your accomplishment. Marriage of form and content has always been my dream, yet I have always known that the best I could hope for was recognizing the potential in others and giving little nudges. Will you disagree that my nudges were anything but little? Nough said. Tis a great day. Now I think I will have to read the perfect post. And then maybe make a substantive comment. Peace out, y'all.
I do perhaps disagree that your nudges were anything but little, Brad(ly), though I admit I've kind of lost the trail of your meaning. You must pay more attention to the content of your form.
I guess I misoverestimated myself. First of all, I didn't think you had noticed I was subtly removing twigs and thorns from the path before you, as a top tier curling sweeper polishes the way for the lovely granite stone. Only instead of frantically working my brush, I dropped a line here, then there, every 5 years or so. Elegant, n'est-ce pas? Secondly, I did rather veer quickly into a strange blend of vernacular after hastily taking credit for the perfect post you wrote, but that I had yet to read. Hence the "Nough" and "tis"--I was even economizing on keystrokes because I realized I should probably at least read the post in question before taking credit for it (I'm sorry that despite 10 years abroad I am still in some ways SO American/Yankee/gringo).
But after accelerating to make my point it seems the pace was too much to maintain, and I fell into cliche, using the most abused word, along with "normative," at the Yale Law School, and closing with a phrase I have heard slide from the confident smirk of many an undergraduate mouth in the last year here. Alas, I started with bravado, could not carry it, and ended with the oomph of a whoopy cushion. But I hold that the content remains valid: if you can take uttermost complete credit for your accomplishments, why then so can I. Where is Padraic, anyways? I did quite enjoy the post, by the way, but walked away from it with a sprained brain that rendered an immediate response. What was the form? A blog? A prose poem? A satire? So many layers I got lost.
The form was itself. I should concede permission for others to bask in the reflected glory of the literary success, as, as said, the goings on in other minds is of no concern of mine. Bask away.
Paid is in the Czech Republic, married to a Czech.
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