The Marx Brothers

 

With Easter approaching, as a generalist my thoughts turn to things universal. To God, politics as played out in Spain and words. Bear with me.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And the Word was (…), inging in from the outer reaches of the Universe, on its own, cold as stone. And then the lawyers, the politicians, the journalists (generalists) took it over and made it their own for reasons of self-interested obscurantism. In short, there are many ways to lie, but all with the objective of depriving people of knowledge. 

 There is certain etiquette to lying, but the primary rule is that it must be an exercise purely in style with total disregard to content. Aesthetic considerations dictate that there be a least an element of plausibility to the lie. The intimacy that binds together a liar and the person to whom he or she is lying otherwise dies a death. There is no greater moral affront than to be lied to by a stubborn, bare-faced liar whose audience knows he or she is lying and knows that the audience knows. And there are also entertaining lies and lies that hurt. Without the capacity to lie, life would be probably be unbearable.

 There are also different types of liars. There are those who try to engage you with Prufrock’s tedious arguments of insidious intent. There are those whose love of prolixity in their desperation to be proven right drive their audience to despair. I have half-read Ulysses at least half a dozen times, and Karl Marx, the man from Prussia with the big bushy beard, spent an eternity trying to explain what man has known for an eternity that: “Greed will be the death of us.”

 And there are also those so overwhelmed by the dangers of clarity that they sink sputtering into a miasma of linguistic discontent. A fine example of verbal catatonia was the Popular Party chief in Andalusia Javier Arenas’ take a few years back on the debate on the new Statute of that large, mountainous, semi-desert region to the south.

 “ My objective is to recover the agreement, that as regards the denomination of Andalusia, that myself and Chaves (Manuel Chaves, former premier of Andalusia) had, in the sense that Andalusia is a nationality within ‘the indissolvable unity of Spain, our common indivisible homeland.’ The rest is a trick, because when someone tells me that they want to promote the Andalusian national reality within the unity of the Spanish nation, the only national reality that exists is called Spain.”

 All of which goes to prove that despite what the little boy may have seen, the Emperor is indeed wearing exquisite rags. Bravo Mr. Arenas. I wish to nominate you as an honorary member of the Marx Brothers family. Have a night out at the opera on me.

 Driftwood:  Now pay particular attention to this first section because it's most important. It says, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part." How do you like that? That's pretty neat, eh?

Fiorello: No. It's no good.

Driftwood: What's the matter with it?

Fiorello: I don't know, let's hear it again.

Driftwood: Says, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part."

Fiorello: Sounds a little better this time.

Driftwood: Well, it grows on you...Would you like to hear it once more?

Fiorello: Ah...Just the first part.

Driftwood: What do you mean, the party of the first part?

Fiorello: No. The first part of the party of the first part.

Driftwood: Alright it says the umm..."The first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the first part of the party of the first part, shall be known in this contract...LOOK...why should we quarrel about a thing like this. We'll take it right out eh? (Tears off sections of contract.)

Fiorello: Ha, ha it's too long anyhow! (rip rip) Now what do we got left?

Celestial stuff. But the Marx brother with the wig of curly blonde hair, the one who played the harp, and the one who was closest to God was Harpo, because like the Big Man Upstairs, he never said (…).

 

Comments

[Publicado por: cookie clicker]

The article you have provided here is fantastic. I really enjoyed and valued your writing. I carefully read your essay, and I found the arguments you made to be helpful.

[Publicado por: maria zou]

Can´t understand what this is all about. Mr. Sims should improve his writing skills, I am afraid he can not get his ideas across in an understandable way.

[Publicado por: Nómada Jaime]

" large, mountainous, semi-desert region to the south"?

[Publicado por: Skippy]

And what exactly is your point?
This is drivel. Watch the calimocho, it harms grey cells.