The most literate witticism I have ever read

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have just read the most literate* witticism I have ever seen. I’m not exaggerating; I try to avoid that kind of thing.

It is from Terry Pratchett’s Thief of Time.
Wen stepped out of the cave where he had recieved enlightenment and into the dawning light of the first day of the rest of his life. He stared at the rising sun for some time, because he had never seen it before.

Get it? No? Read it again. Still not getting it? Look at it again, think about it. Still clueless?

Plato. If you still don’t get it read a philosophy book. I told you this is literate.

*I might not be using literate quite correctly. I mean that you have to be literate to get it.

2

This should be in Cafe Society shouldn’t it? Whoops. Sorry. Better move it.

3

Plato, right?

4

I see the reference, but I’m not sure I see the ‘witticism’ aspect.

5

Bah. Should’ve looked at the spoiler.

Well, I haven’t really spoiled anything. But yeah. Probably would’ve passed it right over had I been reading the book myself.

6

It’s witty becaue Wen is literally coming out of Plato’s cave, when Plato was only speaking metaphorically.

7

Yeah, well, Plato tectonics is a little over my head. I know, it’s my own fault.

8

Funny, they’re usually underfoot.

9

If it were over your head, wouldn’t that mean you understood it?

10

No, it means you were standing under it.

11

It should be funny right?

12

Who’s whooshing who?

13

You need to get out more.

14

That’s not a witticism, it’s a literary allusion. A witticism would be something along the lines of “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something
sensational to read in the train.”

15

:: Reads “witticism.” ::
:: Scratches head ::
:: Reads spoiler ::
…
…
:smack:

16

Actually, i think the adjective you’re looking for is “literary,” oh literate one.

There are plenty of literate people who have never read Plato.

Although i guess it is true that you would have to be literate to get it—or at least to read it.

17

Witticism sometimes gets mistaken for wittitis. If a painful redness makes you laugh, where’s the harm?

18

What gobear said. It’s not really a “witticism” in the usual sense .

19

witticism = oral

literary = written.

Anyway do you know Martin Amis* won a prize for the title most certain to doom a book to failure?

The title: My Struggle.

Joyce also has a man condemn his Irish protestant neighbour as the man who uses a mechanical device to impede the course of nature.

  • or some English Gent
20

:smack:

“He employs a mechanical device to frustrate the sacred ends of nature”

Ulysses