Captive Notions

Captive Notions: Concise Commentaries On The Commonplace is a collection of nearly 700 original aphorisms each of which makes a brief but timeless observation on various aspects of the human condition. Using a literary form found in both Eastern and Western cultures from the very beginnings of recorded history, author John King presents down-to-earth insights on a host of everyday subjects drawn from such personal qualities as ambition, character, ideas, and lifestyles, and public venues such as economics, history, the media, and politics. The compendium of succinct observations are as entertaining as they are thoughtful and thought provoking. Captive Notions is ideal for simply browsing and especially recommended to the attention of the non-specialist general reader with an interest in philosophy, ethics, and the nature of humanity. Education: Learning, like loving, may be done not wisely but too well. The Law: The only person less likely to evoke sympathy than a lawyer who looks out for his own interest is one who doesn't. Work: Many a reputed old-boy network suffers from faulty connections.

If brevity is the soul of wit (as Shakespeare had it) then the aphorism is the soul of poetry. But does one set out to write aphorisms, or do they just happen as a by-product of the writer's overall expression? In the case of Shakespeare, surely the latter is the case. On the other hand there is the example of Ambrose Bierce who as a journalist, beginning in 1877 deliberately composed aphorisms for inclusion in his The Devil's Dictionary (1911), first published in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book. John King, aphorist, follows Bierce's example in this attractively presented collection of original apothegms, stating in the Preface that for more than a decade he sought to capture "observations from daily life" that struck him "as ironic, or otherwise noteworthy..." The result is Captive Notions--a concise and apt title for a venture at once modest and a wee bit daring. Adding to the agreeable publication is the clear and modest design of the book and the sensible organization of the sayings into various categories ("Character," "Economics"..."The Law," etc.) arranged alphabetically. But I say "daring" because most collections of aphorisms have been culled from the works of the great--great writers, great poets, great (or infamous) politicians, philosophers, etc., ...Jesus, Marx, Woody Allen, Churchill, Emily Dickinson, the Buddha, and Lao Tzu, to name an eclectic few. It would seem to take a brave person to presume to place a volume on the same shelf as the collected wit and wisdom (briefly expressed) of the world. Well, John King (and the charmingly named Little Philosophies Press) do presume, and the question is, how goes the venture? As both a connoisseur of epigrams and such, and as a sometime writer of them myself, and now as a venomous critic (ha!) I get to pass judgment. In a word I can tell you he does a bang-up job. (Well, two words.) Some examples: "Any job is impossible if you're thorough enough." "In life as in sports, no amount of talent makes up for being out of position." "Honesty reveals our flaws, but tends to upstage them." "The better one's decisions, the fewer required." "Souls are more often sold for luxuries than for necessities." "Business pays homage to the invisible hand while seeking to escape its grasp." "Advantage compounds." Of course not everything is so agreeable to our apprehension. In particular I would note this discordant joke from page 51: "The inbred are full of themselves." And in some places King waxes more than a bit didactic, especially with the aphorisms directed at parents on pages 52 and 53. Also in the chapter on economics, he even gets a little long-winded, as with this: "An American professional sports league is to its host cities like a fickle lady of high station, routinely keeping a handful of suitors in the wings in case one of the first-stringers fails to treat her and her retinue in the style to which they have become accustomed." Nonetheless, he is right. There is an ind