The above are quotes from Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, J. K. Rowling, Kahlil Gibran, Francis Bacon, Archibald MacLeish and Raoul Vaneigem, but not necessarily in that order. I don't know about you (obviously!), but knowing who said them often influences how receptive I am to such 'words of wisdom'. My opinion of the author is an unavoidable bias. However, if you really want to know who said what, you can find the answers at the end of this post. But first, why not see if you can correctly match each quote to the relevant person.
Disregarding the reputations of the authors, I see 2 and 3 as the odd ones out. For me, those two fall into the category of statements which appear to be deep and meaningful, until you realise they are actually just wishy-washy and vague. I find the other four offer something much more meaningful, precisely because they are not wishy-washy or vague.
But I have to own up to a little deception (before someone exposes my dastardly deed). All six quotes had something in common which I've attempted to disguise by a little judicious editing. Leaving aside the questionable ethics of tampering with another's output, uninvited, it was in fact quite easy to make them applicable to everyone, rather than just the male half of the world's population. Yep. That's right. They all made exclusive reference to men when it's plainly obvious that they are equally applicable to women. You can click on them to see the original wording.
It's a touch ironic that the people who couched these insights into what could be called universal truths, did so in terms which are far from universal. Ah yes. But times have changed, haven't they? After all, Francis Bacon lived four hundred years ago. And Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 - 1890) and Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931) lived in different eras too. Even Archibald MacLeish (1892 - 1982) spent his formative years in a bygone age. That leaves Raoul Vaneigem, who was born in 1934, and J. K. Rowling, born in 1965.
To be fair to J.K.*, the quote attributed to her is actually a bit of dialogue she wrote for one of her characters (Albus Dumbledore, no less, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), which rather lets her off the hook. But what of Raoul Vaneigem? A modern man. Should he be pilloried for his sexism!? Well, maybe not. Here's another quote which shows he can get it right, at least in terms of scope.
But I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, right? Everyone knows that when someone says "mankind" or "man", they really mean "humankind" or "humans"! Well, no, not everyone does. We're not born knowing that; we have to be told, or work it out for ourselves. And besides, molehills, although small, are not exactly benign. They are just the visible part of a much larger problem which is going on beneath the surface, undermining the ground on which we stand.
Talking of things that 'everyone knows', how about the fact that women speak 20,000 words a day and men speak only 7,000. Louann Brizendine assured us it was so in The Female Brain. Who cares that it's complete tosh, as I learnt today via Delanceyplace. And then, who would have thought of New Zealand as politically advanced? Not me, until I also discovered today, via Reference.com's On This Day newsletter, that New Zealand was the first country to grant women's suffrage in national elections (in 1893).
So, am I glad I'm not a woman? I can't really say one way or another. There are pros and cons to being a member of either sex, and both 'default models' leave much to be desired. Challenging those default models can be done by both women and men, both on their own behalf and that of each other. It's not always easy or comfortable, change rarely is. But I agree with Mr Ghandi.
There were two things which prompted me to write this post, both of them songs. The first I hadn't heard until recently (a fact that quite astounded me in itself), and the second is one I searched out because the title popped into my mind after meeting a girl who had sight in only one eye.
Here's squeaky clean Neil Sedaka jauntily dissing women, with the aid of the bible (Jeez! What a 'good book' it is) and a chorus of squeaky angels singing background harmonies...eeek!
And here's Earl Hooker with a track which, for me, is one of those songs that you like but wish upon wish the lyrics were different!
Who Wrote What
* I don't know what the "J. K." stands for, I just thought I'd slyly make it look as if we are chums. We are not, of course. I suspect she's never even heard of me.
Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits on Amazon.com
Earl Hooker on Blues Masters, Volume 15: Slide Guitar Classics at Amazon.com
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