Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker is a hoot. 

I really mean that. After falling in love with her sassy, sarcastic, and biting voice in "The Waltz," I had to know more about her. What I found was nothing short of brilliance. This woman is hilarious. Funny doesn't even begin to encapsulate the wit and wisdom of the quips created by this clever chick. Let me explain to you a few of my favorites.

1. “I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”
• This one's a good one. The simple reversal of sounds in a progression of words leads to the obvious juxtaposition of the desire for a drink as opposed to having one's head cut open. The concepts themselves are so incredibly different, but the sounds used to create them are similar, creating something that sounds pleasing and makes you think.
2. “A hangover is the wrath of grapes.”
• This one is also a reversal of words. This humor is derived from the allusion to John Steinback's Grapes of Wrath, and the simple act of moving around the words. I love this because it requires an apt knowledge of literary works to fully appreciate. 
3. “You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.” 
• Get it? Like old dog? But dog...ma? Because dogma is something that is accepted without question so it can't be retaught? AHHH Jokes.
4. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.
• This makes me incredibly happy because it gives wit the credit it deserves. Wit isn't easy, it's not just throwing around words to get a workout. Wit requires thought, and therefore, in it is truth.
5.  The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity
• This quote is simply brilliant. Curiosity needs no cure because it is a good thing. Curiosity is a catalyst for creation and creativity, which is always needed.

Dorothy Parker is my type of humor. She understands the incredible power locked behind words, and how the proper placement of them can make something beautiful. Something funny, clever, true, harsh, anything. She appreciates what wit is, and how to go about making it from simple rhetorical aspects, such as word or simply sound reversal. This is a basic form of cognitive shift, and it always leaves me smiling.

And this is the end of my post, because, to quote my newest literary idol,

"I hate writing. I love having written."