"Some lies are so well told, only a fool would disbelieve them."
The above is the world's greatest squib. I wish I had written it, but it's French. The French would call it une epigramme or a pithy saying expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way. That's the goal of a squib or an epigram. A squib is also a small firework that hisses before exploding. I've written hundreds of squibs and I always try to avoid the damp squib. The damp squib merely hisses and doesn't go off.
For International Squib Day, I've gathered several of my own squibs about squibs.
A squib takes an everyday thought and wrings its bloody neck.
Squibs are judo with words.
Squibs seek the truth the way candy seeks nutrition.
A squib should have just one idea. If it has two, it will have an ugly baby.
A squib is just the good bits of a novel with all the descriptions left out.
Squibs are a lazy writer's novel.
A squib should be apt. But not too apt.
Iconoclasts break icons. The squibster is a clichéoclast.
When the squib writer hears that Flaubert often spent a whole day searching for the right word, he or she thinks, "only one day?"
Have a happy and healthy New Year. --CJ
You can search the world wide web, and you will not find another clichéoclast - any where - much less a clichéoclast like the Chairman.
ReplyDeleteHappy International Squib Day - Wannaska's very own holiday!
Sorry to rain on your parade fellow writers, but there was another Squib Master before Chairman Joe, just as there was another Palmville publication by Johnny Hovorka called the "The Northwest Radical," before THE RAVEN.
ReplyDeleteOle E. Hagen was born in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway on August 7, 1852. He married Beret Paulsdatter in 1876. They immigrated to the U.S., and settled in Crookston, MN. Mr. Hagen worked as a contractor there. After Berets death in 1900, Ole moved to Roseau County in 1903, and filed his claim on land in Palmville in May 1904. Ole's homestead was in Section 9 SW quarter, one mile west and one mile south of the Palmville Town Hall. During that time, Mr. hagen wrote for The Roseau Region, a column titled: "Squibs From The Backwoods."
Mr. Hagen was elected Roseau County Auditor in 1908, but died of peritonitis only weeks before he took office.
Le Mot Juste, eh? You seem to find at least one them every week! Beware, Flaubert. Beware
ReplyDeleteOnly one day to celebrate?
ReplyDelete