This is all about having too many books in your
collection….
In high school, Mr. Hayden, our intense,
fascinating, essentially humorless, mean, and sometimes vindictive English
teacher (and D-Day veteran), was really into drilling us with what he called
“Spot Quotes.”
 |
| Mr. Hayden teaching us about the Great Old Ones |
It was a rote memorization technique (probably
frowned on now by progressive pedagogical types—I’ll
save my gripes about the modern education system for some other time…), but the
famous and essential quotes from English-language literature were hammered into
our heads. Yeah, yeah, yeah, lots of dead white guys, but it was the early-1980s. I think Mr. Hayden was right: You want to sound smart? Drop a famous (or infamous) quote from classic
literature—
“…full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing….”
“I am his Highness’s dog at Kew/Pray tell me, Sir,
whose dog are you?”
“To a green thought in a green shade….”
“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…”
“Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!”
“I’ll burn my books!”
Wait—huh? What was that last one? “I’ll burn my
books!”? How can that be a famous quote? Is it from a revised Fahrenheit 451,
where Montag recants, and rejoins the Fire Department? And what does it have to
do with me owning too many books?
