Another Post, Another Petard
From The Heck Of A Guy Lexicon
Blog (blŏg), noun
An especially efficient process for constructing petards from which to publicly hoist oneself.
Going Postal
The Principle
Some readers may recall my September 20, 2006 Quasi-Quotation Quarantine post ranting about, among other issues, the villainy of distorting quotations by omission, i.e., changing the meaning of a quote by either
1. Dropping a vital word or phrase
E.g., quoting Emerson’s line, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, … ,” as “Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
or
2. Using only a portion of the original lines, pulling the quote out of context
E.g., quoting only the first line of Kipling’s stanza,
“OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”
instead of the complete stanza,
“OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!”
The Practice
This morning, while clearing some of the cyber-detritus from the Heck Of A Guy blog, I noticed this Thoreau quotation I included in my November 19, 2006 post, Non-Quotidian Quotations
“Don’t be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so”
I immediately recognized that, yep, I had omitted contextually significant material. The more complete quotation and more accurate presentation of Thoreau’s thought, originally set forth in a letter written March 7, 1848, follows:
“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.”
Oops.
Apologia
[Note: While saying "I'm sorry" is always difficult, especially when ones goal is to appear genuinely contrite without admitting to doing anything wrong, there has been, happily, a plethora of apologies in the news lately to use as models.] 1
I am sorry if anyone was offended by my Thoreau quotation even though no harm was meant and, in any case, all the words I originally quoted were exactly those Thoreau himself had written.
Nonetheless, mistakes were made.
The material that was omitted was an honest mistake caused by my long-standing addictions to alcohol, pornography, sex, fresh fruit, the poetry of A.E. Housman, illicit drugs, Diet Coke, gumbo, novels by Michael Malone, and the music of Leonard Cohen. Consequently, I will be entering either a 132-Step Program or eleven concurrently running 12-Step Programs to battle these personal demons. I hope my example can help others in similar efforts.
By the way, as a child, I suffered the abuse, all the worse for being subtle, of being born to parents who were not rich, powerful, or famous. Further, I’m certain that, had I been raised as a Catholic, I would have been molested by the local priest.
And the sun was in my eyes.
Anyway, I’m sorry, sorry, sorry. I hope that satisfies everyone.
And now, isn’t there something you’d like to say to me?
Footnotes
- I will, of course, be presenting my formal apology on one of the talk or news feature shows. While my personal preference is Letterman, Hugh Grant’s appearance on Leno was especially successful and the Clintons certainly did themselves a world of good on Sixty Minutes so the final choice is yet to be made. Check your local listings. ~back~
Petard — A mentally challenged, but beloved creature, living with humans.
Comment by Mrs. Linklater — November 26, 2006 @ 1:42 pm