Hilarious.

flaubert ne yazmissa okunur demistim birkac yil evvel. hakliyim. iste bu da kaniti! yerlesik dusunceler sozlugu, bir kara mizah sozlugu bir bakima… ve flaubert’in nüktedanlığının apaçık ortaya sunulması diyebilirim. pek sevdigim.

《MARE: Nu-i dai niciodată de fund. Imagine a infinitului, îți trezeşte în minte cele mai nobile gânduri. Dacă te afli pe malul mării, trebuie neapărat să ai cu tine un ochean. Când o contempli, se cuvine să spui: "Numai apă cât vezi cu ochii!"》

Highly amusing. The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (also published as "Received Ideas") reads as an encyclopedic compendium of clichés, misconceptions, platitudes and absurdities. It could also be considered a sort of dummy's guide to late 19th century French narrow-minded attitiudes and manneristic style. A lot of items haven't aged well, being tied in to the fashions and politics of the times, while a disturbingly large fraction of these idiocies read as contemporary as anything form online flamewars today; but even with mysterious entries, the ironic ambiguity and merciless satire come through.
Regarded as a possible paratext to the famous last, posthumous novel Bouvard et Pécuchet, it seems to me a perfect introduction to Flaubert's satirical side.

Lori Ellison: The New Dictionary of Received Ideas

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This is a stub, feel free to add. I've caught myself at some of these so it is for all of us. I am working on this in the spirit of Flaubert's from his particular take on his milieu in the 19th c in France from ours in the turn of the millenium here in New York.


Asperger's Syndrome: Nearly everyone mathematically or scientifically brilliant had it. Undiagnosed for so long. Talk about someone brilliant but unable to read people's faces in your family history who must have had it.

Berlin: Explain how you would like to live there like David Bowie. Say where you were when the Berlin Wall fell. Pronounce "Ich bin ein Berliner." Try your JFK accent.

Bios: Talk the latest prize, grant, publication, residency or anything that you have won to each other. Walk away if there isn't any bio talk forthcoming from the suitably impressed other party.

Borges: Was blind. The map the exact size of the territory. The writer who retypes Don Quixote. Use "Borgesian" in conversation.

BP Oil Spill: first topic of conversation until there is another one to transplant it.

Coffee: Newly opened cafes serving coffee rather than ale helped create the Enlightenment. Those simple European espresso makers that go on a burner are made of aluminum, which can contribute to Alzheimer's. Caffeine can cause cysts in the breasts.

Derrida: Deconstruction and differance. Pronounce the latter with a French accent. Wonder aloud why no one talks about postmodernism anymore, or deconstructing anything.

Dyslexic: Use to mean stupid about someone not there. Claim yourself as an undiagnosed dyslexic when you were in school if you are of a certain age, and have been brilliantly successful in a non-academic, creative field, like derivatives trading, Hollywood, or abstract painting.

Enlightenment: Talk about combining the Eastern notion of enlightenment with the 18th Century period also known as the Enlightenment.

Freud: Eat the father. Call certain situations Oedipal. The Pleasure Principle. The Death Instinct. Call something someone said a Freudian slip. Find phallic symbols in absolutely everything that is longer than it is wide ad infinitum. Dub someone anal.

Foucault: Was into S&M. Gay S&M. The Ancien Regime and the Panopticon. Discipline and Punish. Use this phrase to bring it back to discussing S&M.

The French: Why listen to a country who thought Jerry Lewis was a genius. Remark on how none of the French were ever the slightest bit rude or condescending to you personally, contrary to the stories you had heard so much before going from practically everybody.

Global Warming: Remark how nobody talks about global warming in the dead of winter.

Green Party: Is strong in Germany. Wonder aloud if it can get a major political footing anywhere. Mention Global warming.

Hegel: Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Use this formula for whatever equation and then mention, as in Hegel. Use "Hegelian."

Heidegger: Was a Nazi sympathizer. Wrote about Being and Existenz. Sartre ripped him off.

Hot Dogs: Don't eat them. Nitrates.

Hot Weather: Mention global warming.

Isaiah (Berlin): Tell the hedgehog and the fox story and apply it to anyone having been discussed.

JFK: speculate on Marilyn Monroe. Then talk about pet conspiracy theories.

Madeleine: Proust's.

Jung: (con) Was a Nazi sympathizer. If you get this in first shuts down having to hear:
(pro) There is a collective unconscious. The ubiquitousness of Sun Gods is one example that proves it. Mention there was a woman who you thought was your anima when you were younger. The Puer and Senex. Alchemy wasn't a misgided search for gold, it was an inner search. James Hillman.

Orwell: Call anything that reminds you of his writing Orwellian.

Le bourgeois est l'ennemi du XIXème siècle après avoir été le héros du XVIIIème.
Flaubert et son génie ajoute sa pierre à la haine générale. Très effacé dans Madame Bovary, il utilise ici un style peut être moins célèbre mais beaucoup plus mordant.
Sorte de petite liste alphabétique des banalités bourgeoises de son temps, le Dictionnaire des idées reçues est tout autant un vrai bijou d'ironie qu'une vision critique et éclairée d'une chose que l'on connaît assez peu : les conversations bourgeoises du XIXème et non pas seulement ce que les romans de gare ( qu'on a effacé de "l'histoire littéraire") ou la littérature (finalement peu réaliste) nous en donne.
Enfin, si tout cela ne vous suffit pas à vous jeter dessus, sachez que cela se lit en 30 minutes, fait beaucoup rire et permet de briller aisément en société ( parce que citer une œuvre plutôt méconnue de Flaubert, cela n'a pas de prix)

Grande Flaubert, grandissimo.
Me lo immagino lí, con l'orticaria alle orecchie per i fastidiosi discorsi, seduto a una poltroncina mentre Madama X parla con Madama Bla. L'unico modo di alterare questo stato é scaricare tutto su una penna, su fogli, e trasformare una cosa insopportabile in una cosa divertente.

E ha tutta la mia comprensione, dal momento che ho sempre odiato tutto ció che deve essere fatto, detto, amato, odiato. Sará che io non so essere molto mainstream, sará che io non so essere una trascinatrice di masse.

Ed ancora, si puó andare oltre questo. Perché é curioso vedere come alcuni dettami colloquiali siano rimasti (Eccezione: dite che "conferma la regola" ma non azzardatevi a spiegare come) e altri siano scomparsi o non facciano parte della nostra cultura. E quindi capire un pochino che pregiudizi potessero avere questi francesi, o quali che potessero essere i piú quotidiani dei loro costumi. O ancora, non capirne una mazza per la lontananza del contesto.

"Bisognerebbe che in tutto il libro non ci fosse una parola mia, e che, una volta letto il dizionario, non si osasse più parlare, per paura di dire spontaneamente una delle frasi che vi si trovano."
Adorabile.

" Orkestra: Toplumun aynası; herkes kendi partisini yorumlar, bir de şef vardır. "

Keyifli bir kitap, normalde Bouvard et Pecuchet' in ikinci cildi.

Très frais à lire, très divertissant, très agréable ! Certaines des définitions sont très drôles. Ce livre permet de passer un très bon moment !

Alcune voci sono divertenti, però nonostante sia corto, letto tutto d'un fiato può un po' annoiare.

CATHOLICISM Has been an excellent influence on the arts.

-Flaubert, The Dictionary of Received Ideas

rude and raw