the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

This reminds me of a student platitude that rose to the level of an ironic
proverb when I was in graduate school (mid to late '70s): "A poem can mean
anything you want it to."

This was something that freshmen told us rather frequently, sometimes in
disgust, sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes (it seemed) on the basis of
high-school instruction - misapprehended, I hope.

GB turns up two exx. from books in the early '80s (only); the Web turns up
over a hundred more raw Ghits.

Fred might be interested for the next YBQ. Surely it's been thought by
millions - though perhaps not very often before the cultural watershed of
the hippie movement (fl. ca.1967-ca.1973).

JL

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I cannot judge what may be preferable for others, but once you regard all
> books as nonfiction, your pure spirit is liberated to live gloriously in
> whatever reality you goddamned please.
>
> So it should be happening soon. (I trust you include all electronic
> communications, including political Tweets, in the archaic category of
> "books.")
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 9:43 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > But isn't this situation preferable to what the opposite would be:
> >  Regarding all books as nonfiction?
> >
> > --Charlie
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org