Review your cultural references ... and politicians! (2003-2010)
This new edition, revised and enlarged, has been published by Ellipses. Here are some details about a work to which I devoted around 1500 hours ...
Trailhead. This book is a continuation of Portable Dictionary. By collecting the words necessary to knowledge of the future bachelor, I thought I should learn some phrases which the reader, even if he knows the words, not understood so far overall meaning. Here's a sample: eminence grise, opium of the people, hobby, state of grace, Scarf of Iris, prodigal, scapegoat, stab in the back, methodical doubt, fifth column, the wrong century socialism with human free will ... In each case, the student can understand that if they know the cultural field - mythological, religious, literary, historical, political, philosophical - from where comes the expression, to which it refers : it is indeed a cultural reference. These
references are more difficult to detect that they sometimes take the form of allusions that only the initiated can recognize. In May 2010, I read such as this newspaper, about the economic crisis in Greece: Athenian The cicada and the wind market. Unable to understand if one does not remember the famous fable of La Fontaine: "La Cigale who sang / All summer / Found herself wanting / When the wind came, etc. . ".
By this allusion, the author of Greek citizens that careless consumers just punish Cold reality of markets - for less tendentious interpretation, as speculators innocent of international finance by equating their predation to a meteorological phenomenon. And play there any references!
First edition (2003). When editions Ellipses asked me to write a book culture in the wake of falling portable dictionary in 2002, I jumped at the opportunity given to me to make a comprehensive census of these phrases, references (who could not find a place in my "portable").
What complicated the task is that there are various degrees in the formulas, expressions, or phrases that deserve to be selected as references, according to their use or their own value, either:
- simple groups words (see sample phrases listed above)
- proverbs or proverbial sentences ( The best is the enemy of the good, the Release for the shadow )
- allusions to known formulas ( " Whether you are powerful or miserable ..." X is not born, but becomes )
- multiple quotes finally deemed "essential" or "to be known" as "culture" is expected of candidates to contest or "humanist" Occupation: deep thoughts, aphorisms sparkling flowers of poetry, historical words, phrases policies more or less memorable ... How
omit nothing? How to escape from the stupor of having forgotten this or that maxim considered essential to the survival of the Republic of Letters? I humbly
explored the following areas: the Greco-Roman mythology, Latin phrases and proverbs; Judeo-Christian references, the words historical and literary quotations (two chapters of the Middle Ages to the twentieth century), the sentences or formulas philosophical, political and also ... I have prefaced these investigations a large introductory test in a hundred questions involving the phrases references least questionable. And I added end of the book, a great catch-all "infinitely expandable, to give me the impression that asymptotically the unattainable completeness
... With 284 pages packed well, fed questions mischievous minimum and explanations, the book already covered more than a thousand words !
The present edition (2010). Naturally, this type of work - also popular as it is - is by nature incomplete. Once published the book, I stayed on the lookout for anything that was missing, not to mention my shame to have missed some errors sometimes. In order of cultural transmission, it is impossible to check everything is spreading: we must trust the authority of well-qualified predecessors, and assume good faith their own mistakes, especially with regard accurate and precise sources of the words being cited. In this research, I often had to resort to "Internet" at my own risk, given the incredible approximation that prevails in all records of citations (and their sources), but I did not abuse . As long as there is sufficient caution and accept that we retain only what one has "seen with our own eyes, you can sometimes find flaws or contradictions of the Internet clues leading to the truth ... The Internet is nowadays the most valuable sources of errors!
Alongside this uncompromising rigor, which led me to rectify many of the current confusion, this new edition is enriched with over 300 references, all listed in the Index, with reference to pages where they are placed in context, as briefly as possible. In particular, a new chapter "The Republic of soundbites," I identified most of the political formulas of past 30-40 years, which the media often refer to them (including Duck chained ). Hence adding: "... and politicians! , which supplements the original title of the book - which now has over 1500 references and 384 pages.
Bon appetite at all!
BH
