Posted
11:28 AM
by Gene
Struggling all last night and this morning with an exceptionally bad case of indigestion -- I had either a stomach bug or some mild food poisoning -- I read
Terry Teachout's bio of Mencken, not exactly the most soothing of works for an indisposed man (no slight at Mr. Teachout), and found this
mot juste for bloggers, from Gustave Flaubert:
By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of being idiotic himself.I wonder if Menck wasn't the first blogger, screaming bloody murder and having little left of his reputation but a few unread scholarly works. In that he differs almost none from SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGERS except Menck didn't have a computer. (He did have a typewriter, an ancient version thereof.)
There was also this line, at book's end, from
Pride and Prejudice:
I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good.Every blogger should take that advice.