by Mardy Grothe
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Product Description
What do Mae West, John F. Kennedy, Victor Hugo, and H. L. Mencken have in common? They all indulged in chiasmus-a literary device in which word order is reversed to hilarious or poignant effect. When Mae West said, "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men," she was using chiasmus; when John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he was doing the same. Dr. Mardy Grothe has compiled hundreds of examples of chiasmus in this whimsically illustrated collection, bringing this witty and thought-provoking device out of obscurity and into the public imagination.
"There is plenty of delight in this overdue collection." (Houston Chronicle)
Amazon.com Review
When John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he wasn't just stirring the hearts of millions of young Americans, he was also engaging in a little-known form of wordplay called chiasmus. Dr. Mardy Grothe has plumbed the depths of this form for years and catalogued hundreds of examples from ancient times to the present, in Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You (title courtesy of Joey Adams). All it takes is a repeated statement with two elements transposed between them--e.g., fool and kiss--and you get a powerful, often humorous, rhetorical prop. Collected in chapters like "Chiasmus for Lovers" and "Chiastic Compliments and Insults," the wisdom of the ages shines in gems such as Cicero's "It is as difficult for the good to suspect evil as it is for the evil to suspect good." Even better is Grothe's running commentary on the form and its masters and the often-biting humor found in the classics, for instance Dr. Johnson's "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good." Fortunately for us, the good doctor wasn't referring to Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You, which is as fun to read as a reference as it is to refer to a reader. --Rob Lightner
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Do we create our experiences or do our experiences create us?, 2008-04-18
As Dr Grothe explains William Safire introduced the term contrapuntal to describe this reversal of the order of words, using an ABBA form, although there are more elaborate ones. The more common description is chiasmus.
For example Kennedy said: Let us never (A)negotiate out of (B)fear, but let us never (B)fear to (A) negotiate. You can probably remember the more famous Kennedy quote.
Joseph Kennedy also had a quote: 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.'
The Mark Twain quote: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's ...................
From the TaoTe Ching: Wise men don't need to prove their point, Men who need to prove their point aren't wise.
If you're like me, you will really enjoy this, and learn how to construct your own memorable little quotations.
If you were to find this review helpful, please click yes.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 A Super Fun Read, 2007-08-26
Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.
Your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated. Thanks
If you love words and their clever use, you will love this book. Dr. Grothe even has a website for new examples of chiasmus (two or more lines that follow a parallel structure). Here is a fine example of chiasmus.
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge answered one of his critics with the following chiasmus:
"I will concede your general rule that every poet is a fool.
But as your book serves to show it, not every fool is a poet."
I have to repeat the example of one Amazon reviewer, who quoted this line about the Hemingway centennial:
"Only in the case of Hemingway could the century of the writer be more celebrated than the most celebrated writer of this century."
An historical note!
Mormons have claimed to have found chiastic sentence structures in the Book of Mormon (1830), claiming also that chiasmus was unknown in Joseph Smith's day. The truth is that the chiastic structures found in the Bible were well-known to Bible readers--one book containing examples of parallelisms in "Hebrew poetry" was even advertised on the front page of Joseph Smith's hometown of Palmyra New York (Thomas Hartwell Horne, "An Introduction to the Knowledge and Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures").
The other fact is that Joseph Smith probably did not intentionally produce any chiastic sentence structures as he dictated the Book of Mormon to his scribe, who sat behind a curtain unable to see the gold plates.
Chiastic structures are found in the introduction to the Book of Mormon (admittedly written by Joseph Smith, and in his other writings). Joseph Smith was so repetitious that these unintentional structures are occasionally found (Mormons also delete elements that don't fit in their search for things that "Joseph Smith could not have known").
See my review of "Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon." Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Brain candy, 2007-03-08
I am enjoying this book in bits and pieces. If you don't have time for full committment to a novel, this book is easy to read a bit, think about a bit, and go back to later.
And, I have the next two books waiting in the wings for when I finish this one. Plus, I get a new batch via e-mail each week.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 A surfeit of chiasms, 2007-01-10
It is, as advertized, a book of word play. Some are quite humerous and others clever and ingenious. However the chiastic style begins to wear after awhile. Ruth Smith
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Don't miss it!, 2006-07-01
For people who like "quotes" and "interesting lines", this book is as good as it gets. Excellent language skills and interesting quotes on this book.
Had a lot of fun reading it.
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