Most Notable Quotations of 2010

[Shapiro, Fred]

The phenomena that Geoff points out could simply be artifacts of my particular approach to compiling "notable quotations of the year" list rather than being symptomatic of any larger trends.  But in my own mind I do have some explanations for why my lists are turning out the way they are:

-- "They don't make quotations the way they used to" in the sense that eloquent lines from literature, movies, song lyrics, political speeches are scarce nowadays.  Even if this were not true, it usually takes some years before eloquent lines from literature and other art forms become obvious, and such lines would be unlikely to make a "quotations of the year" list.

-- Our political discourse and celebrity culture are nowadays dominated by stupidity and venality, and the lines that are memorable tend to be memorable because of their stupidity or venality.

The origins of this kind of quotation list may go back to the 1960s, when there were booklets published with titles like "Quotations of Chairman LBJ," "Wit and Wisdom of Spiro Agnew," "An Evening with Richard Nixon" (compiled by Gore Vidal).  The purpose of such booklets was to portray the subject as an idiot or as scarily dangerous.  Jacob Weisberg's "Bushisms" compilations are more recent examples.  Currently, negative political campaigning and YouTube serve to spotlight quotations for their embarrassing or foolish aspects.

Fred Shapiro




________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Nunberg [nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 10:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010

You know, Fred (and Ben), what's striking about this list is that only
Stewart's line was deliberately composed to be apothegmatic or
memorable. The others are all "accidentals," and apart from Isom's,
they're remarks that seem to inadvertently betray the arrogance or
ignorance of the speaker (you could add Palin's "refudiate," Obama's
"whose ass to kick," etc.). Is it your sense that this has become the
dominant type when people compile "notable quotations" lists these
days? Can you put a start point on this? -- I mean, obviously these
have antecdents in remarks like Nixon's "I am not a crook" and "you
won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" etc., but the tendency
seems to be more marked in a world where everything is recorded, no?
Or is there some independent contributing cultural factor, as well?
Anyway, looking back over your corpora, what if anything jumps out?

Geoff

>
> From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Date: November 19, 2010 6:14:40 PM PST
> Subject: Most Notable Quotations of 2010
>
>
> I am now working on my list for the Associated Press of the top 10
> most notable quotations of the year.  By "notable" I mean
> "important" or "famous" or "particularly revealing of the spirit of
> our times" rather than necessarily being eloquent or admirable.
>
> Some of the possibiliities (many of them very helpfully suggested by
> Ben Zimmer) include:
>
> Government isn't what our Founding Fathers put into the Constitution.
> Sharron Angle
>
> I'd like my life back.
> Tony Hayward
>
> Dude, you have no Koran!
> Jacob Isom
>
> I'm going to take my talents to South Beach.
> LeBron James
>
> I'm not a witch.  I'm nothing you've heard.  I'm you.
> Christine O'Donnell
>
> We live in hard times, not End Times.
> Jon Stewart
>
> I would welcome suggestions of additional quotes from 2010,
> particularly ones from politics or popular culture or entertainment
> or sports or business or technology.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>

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