Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years By Geoffrey Nunberg

Ascent of the a-wordt wordton

Geoff Nunberg is a linguist and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information in Berkeley California USA He is also a frequent contributor to the National Public Radio program Fresh Air Geoff Nunberg is a linguist and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information in Berkeley California USA He is also a frequent contributor to the National Public Radio program Fresh Air site_link It first surfaced in the gripes of GIs during World War II and was captured early on by the typewriter of a young Norman Mailer Within a generation it had become a basic notion of our everyday moral life replacing older reproaches like lout and heel with a single inclusive category a staple of country outlaw songs Neil Simon plays and Woody Allen movies Feminists made it their stock rebuke for male insensitivity the est movement used it for those who didn t get it and Dirty Harry applied it evenhandedly to both his officious superiors and the punks he manhandled. Ascent of the a-word kindle book The asshole has become a focus of collective fascination for us just as the phony was for Holden Caulfield and the cad was for Anthony Trollope From Donald Trump to Ann Coulter from Mel Gibson to Anthony Weiner from the reality TV prima donnas to the internet trolls and flamers assholism has become the characteristic form of modern incivility which implicitly expresses our deepest values about class relationships authenticity and fairness We have conflicting attitudes about the A word when a presidential candidate unwittingly uttered it on a live mic in 2000 it confirmed to some that he was a man of the people and to others that he was a boor But considering how much the word does for us and to us it hasn t gotten nearly the attention it deserves at least until now Ascent of the A Word Assholism the First Sixty YearsA lot of this book was about the current political climate of incivility Which yeah I know I m living it So maybe future generations will find this a fascinating look at our present day but I wasn t too into it It was published by Public Affairs Press so maybe I m the asshole for not realizing that. Ascent of the a-wordq a wordquest I also question the integrity of some of the research Apparently the charts came from Google Books searches No Oxford English Dictionary No study of oral speech The author also states a bias toward standard usage i. The ascent book review whites It just seems really quickly put together English A disappointing read overall The initial premise is murky and the author tends to get rather lost in the weeds disappearing as it were up his own a hole for relatively long periods of this relatively short book I don t even necessarily disagree with most of it but the book has a tendency to try and have it both ways Assholism is completely new but also not new at all everything is different except when it s the same etc The treatment of the etymology and history is blatantly padded out which given the obvious and easy line drawn between the anus and an unpleasant person is not surprising there s only so much one can say about such a natural coinage and the multiple chapter diversion into the overall history of profanity felt a bit like reading a poorly organized Cliff s Notes version of Holy Shit a book which I enjoyed significantly The central thesis such as it is isn t even coherent initially we are told repeatedly that part of being an asshole is not KNOWING one is an asshole that lack of self awareness is a central feature of the concept as someone who knows that what they re doing is an asshole move becomes of a villain a cad a bounder a heel etc. Ascent of the a-wordn wordne as the book explains Thus far I am in agreement The book attempts to formulate a grander theory then of political assholism and to explain the polarization of modern US politics through the lens of the asshole Again not something I d particularly argue with However the discussion of political assholism explicitly states that this process involves saying things one does not believe or does not wholly believe in order to enjoy imagining how upset one s opponents will be that one said them which means that political assholes are deliberately acting in bad faith and or uncivilly and therefore by the book s own definition can t be assholes Final verdict mildly amusing but clearly written from the highly marketable title concept backward and not as a project in its own right If you want a discussion of profanity pick up Holy Shit by Melissa Mohr instead If you want to read about why people on the political right act like assholes just read Fred Clark s Slacktivist blog archives for a much cogent and less self satisfied discussion of tribalism and othering English That s right a linguist has pinned down the history of the usage of asshole from it s first appearance in print in 1945 and in a novel Norman Mailer s in 1948 to describe Lt Dove A Cornell man a Deke a perfect asshole Since then we re in pretty firm consensus about who an asshole is and when to use it as a descriptor as shown in actual scholarly tests Assholes act from entitled glee and seem to get a kick out of doing it and the reaction is always a mix of indignant contempt usually aimed up the social scale This has even given rise to the character trope of Anti Asshole almost always played by Bruce Willis who is given license to be belligerent back for the good of society Nunberg interestingly identifies the period 1972 1985 in which asshole was most often leveled against men by women although it is an equal opportunity label now Unfortunately there is no linguistically provable way to quantify my favorite use implied at the end of sentences accompanied by the death glare What a great parking job asshole English Every wonder where the word a hole comes from This book not only helps explain Thanks Patton in a way that s really interesting but also helps link the etymology to what the word REALLY means and how we use it today Its real uses go far beyond the dictionary definitions that try to claim that this is just another synonym for cad and this book dives into the undertones of both power differentials contempt and accusations of ignorance implicit in our use of this word The author also explores what our common adoption of this word means for how we view and treat one another as well as how we try to build and justify our alliances against outsiders A really compelling read that I ll definitely want to add to my jerk library English An interesting and often entertaining cultural historical linguistic exploration of asshole as word concept and idea English Ascent of the A Word s restraint is laudable for what is ostensibly a book about assholes Nunberg deftly avoids being mired in snark As he puts it Snark tries to be quippy and drollbut it s essentially cynical and destructive asking the reader to share a sense of superiority to its target often by appealing to familiar prejudices The book is filled with interesting vignettes that illustrate how comprehensive and vital asshole has become to the modern lexicon A friend calls to tell you that she has just discovered that her husband has been having an affair with the nanny You re not about to respond by saying Sacre bleu How caddish or by improvising some novel malediction that invites admiration for your cleverness this isn t about you after all Common decency requires that you simply say What an asshole thereby not just condemning the offense and manifesting your contempt for the offender but also inviting your listener to replace her feelings of hurt and diminution with restorative anger Whatever the topic Geoffrey Nunberg is always a pleasure to read Ascent of the A Word covers than just the etymology of asshole The words that make us laugh aren t usually ones we give a great deal of thought to To study asshole is to dip into a pool unrippled by deep contemplation insulated from the airs and distension that can infect a word like incivility which provides an accurate reflection of what we genuinely think about how we should behave toward one another Over the course of the book the truly academic nature of the discourse leaves the reader feeling empowered with knowledge the fog of the taboo taboo also enjoys a brief history lesson surrounding asshole lifts its impact dwindles but its meaning multiplies As a name for a certain type of person asshole comes by its taint second hand as derivative obscenity When it s used literally an obscene word acquires its stigma from the thing it names But when the word is used figuratively the stigma is passed on via a kind of contagious magic Nunberg dispels this magic by virtue of comprehensive review and suddenly the process of why someone might select asshole as their interjection or admonition makes intellectual rather than simply intuitive or social sense Nunberg expertly disconnects asshole from its inherent vulgarity and exposes the nuances that tend to be overwhelmed by the de rigueur shock of the listener. Ascent of the a-wordt wordtest I could quote pull quotes until the entire book was posted here the writing typical of the author is engaging and intelligent If you like etymology this is worth a read Ascent of the A Word does a fantastic job as a history lesson but it is in parsing the contextual subtleties of a rather blunt word where it shines brightest The asshole s obtuseness makes him incapable of separating his sense of who he is from what he does or what he has or what he knows which is what it means to be inauthentic When you hear somebody say indignantly Don t you know who I am it s a fair bet that he doesn t either. Ascent of the a-word book summary There s a certain delusion in the assumption that there s some virtue in coming clean about one s assholism The fact is that there s no such thing as an honest asshole it s in the nature of being an asshole that you re obtuse about your entitlements and about the way others see you If you re consciously and deliberately offending or manipulating someone you necessarily belong to another breed So when you hear somebody proudly declaring himself an asshole it s a fair conclusion that he s not an asshole he s just a dick. The ascent book review The distinct lack of assholism in Ascent of the A Word lends credence to the author and weight to the subject so that the reader feels compelled by the closing interdiction when somebody is being an asshole about a really important matter then out of respect for the topic alone you ought to refrain from being an asshole back at him and answer instead with the seriousness the question requires The important business of public life creates an obligation of self restraint It is amazing that a book filled to bursting with nothing but assholes could end with the reader less likely to become one English I like a lot of Geoffrey Nunberg s radio essays about language and this was part impetus for reading this book It details various aspects of language profanity and culture values Some of the book examines the origins of the word in print and spoken English arising around the time of World War II and how asshole replaced other previous terms like scoundrel cur and cad while also explaining the different nuances between the words especially about awareness and intent It was also interesting to see what works seemed to pair with asshole such as narcissistic and selfish. The ascent book review The book also discusses the rise of people gleefully being assholes to piss off other people that one deems to be assholes themselves This book was written in 2012 so it does not seem that troll had quite planted in the common lexicon at this point but there is a lengthy description of talk radio provocateurs and other common 21st Century assholes Quite eruditely the book observed the appeal to some of Grade A asshole Donald Trump Unfortunately prophetic. Ascent of the a-word kindle book While different in many ways and sometimes in disagreement with Ascent of the A Word is a good companion piece to On Bullshit English It was an interesting concept and not that it was terribly written It s just there s only so much you can talk about Bringing in history helped a little and making the book interesting but I think it needed Who knows maybe I m just in a hole English What a painful read English So so book but some lovely moments I had reservations about using the bare word asshole in the title I suppose I could have appealed to the dispensation that allows disinterested scholars to address indelicate matters without impropriety to touch pitch and not be defiled But it doesn t quite work like that Vulgar words like these tend to bleed through quotation marks they jerk and quiver even on the dissection table location 175 The Washington Times called it a vulgar euphemism for a rectal aperture which suggested a certain confusion about what a euphemism is. Ascent of the a-word ebook pdf download The location 410 The Oxford English Dictionary OED defines asshole simply as someone foolish or contemptible an uncompromising term of abuse That s roughly the same as the definitions the dictionary gives for shit a contemptuous epithet applied to a person prick a vulgar term of abuse for a man fuckwad a foolish or contemptible person also as a term of abuse and cocksucker used as a generalized term of abuse A foreigner who consulted the OED for elucidation of the fine points of English malediction could be location 508 Yet there s a fair consensus about what kinds of behavior qualify someone for the asshole label and they re only a fraction of the things you could do to make yourself foolish or contemptible as the OED defines the word You can be an asshole for abruptly cutting into a line of cars waiting in the left turn lane but probably not for failing to signal a turn or texting while you drive You can be an asshole for cheating on your wife or girlfriend but not for cheating on your expense reports or a final exam You can be an asshole for taking credit for a colleague s work but probably not for plagiarizing from someone else s book A CEO may count as an asshole if he yells at his assistants or makes sexual advances to women employees but not if he simply gets his board to pay him a bloated compensation package And even if you believe that George W Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq that by itself wouldn t make him an asshole though he might have earned the label for his press conference smirks Of course you can cook up scenarios in which any one of these things might qualify someone an asshole but it takes some additional background If I simply say that I caught a student cheating on his final you wouldn t be likely to remark What an asshole unless we both knew that there was to the story than that location 519 I say fucking is a quasi adjective and quasi adverb because these items don t really behave like ordinary adjectives and adverbs Fucking in the fucking car may seem to be parallel to red or old but we can t say How fucking was the car or The car looked fucking And while you can say That dessert was fucking good if someone asks How good was the dessert you can t just say Fucking though you could answer Very location 3596 the answer to the question Have we gotten ruder has always been yes Since the early Victorian era there has never been a moment when critics weren t looking back wistfully on the decorum that prevailed a generation or two earlier People have been bemoaning the disappearance of old fashioned courtesy since Dickens day indeed the term old fashioned itself reflects the universal assumption that true manners are a bygone virtue In the twenty five billion or so web pages indexed by Google no one has so much as a word of praise for the very latest courtesy or up to the moment politeness location 2026 English .