>
>
> Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > How do we perceive an orator who describes his own humbleness as
> > > "great"? Particularly right after using the word "profound" to
> > > describe his gratitude?
> >
> > um, "great" as in "large"? like a "great lake"? not as in "catherine the
> > great"?
> >
> > anyway, since when has the rhetorical topos of humility not been, well, a
> > topos. of course he does that. so did people like cicero and paul. i
> think
> > if we simply complain about it being fake we are missing a lot of what's
> > going on.
>
> I haven't followed this closely enough to know whose speeches are being
> discussed (and of course I haven't listened to or read _any_ of the
> election speeches), but I would like to say a word in defense of
> _anyone's_ opening, however silly it may sound in isolation. Beginnings
> are damnably difficult, witness the asinine beginning to a great poem:
>
> Let Observation with extensive View,
> Survey Mankind, from China to Peru;
> (Vanity of Human Wishes)
>
> Let observation with extensive observation observe mankind extensively!
> But it IS a wonderful poem -- and only a fool would condemn it on the
> basis of the absurd opening.
>
>
also a good point. i'm remembering a (justly) famous matthew arnold poem
with a spectacularly bad opening, arguably worst opening line ever (imo).
but my arnold is still in a box somewhere and i cannot recall either the
line or the poem title. another time off-list if it comes to me.
great openings are hard to do. this is reminding me of how i was going to read a spiffy passage from the epic of gilgamesh at a friend's wedding, but when i got up there at the rehearsal, we realized that there was no way to get it started that didn't sound ridiculous. so we canned the whole thing. his idea, not mine, btw.