President Bush, Literary Genius
Professor Volokh lambastes the latest Slate "Bushism" (as is his custom), arguing that they've blown a mild verbal stumble in an extemporaneous joke entirely out of proportion. Here's the "Bushism":
I don't think the good professor goes far enough: I think President Bush has (probably accidentally) discovered a fascinating new literary device, one perfect for our postmodern, mash-up age. He's taken two separate expressions - "sit around and wonder" and "wander about" - and, using the fact that in his accent "wonder" and "wander" sound basically the same, he's combined them into one super-expression, "sit around and wander", an expression that manages to convey, briefly, a whole set of actions, motion and motionlessness, the unity of the parts.
I'm being serious. After all, isn't wandering about the Oval Office interrogating oil paintings really just a form of "sitting and wondering"? The portraits, after all, can't reply. His body might be moving, but his mind, and his frame of reference, would remain inert. The synthesis of Bush's mashed-up phrasing reveals a deeper truth, in a way that's succinct and, I think, lyrical.
We always knew that there were subtly brilliant verbal stylists in the Bush Administration, but who would've thought the Big Guy was among them? Or that he was sufficiently clever to get the "Bushisms" people to disseminate his avant-garde literary experiments?
"In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?'" — Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005Volokh's argument is basically that people make minor missteps in their off-the-cuff remarks all the time, and that the "Bushism" feature, if it were ever funny, is now pointless and cruel.
I don't think the good professor goes far enough: I think President Bush has (probably accidentally) discovered a fascinating new literary device, one perfect for our postmodern, mash-up age. He's taken two separate expressions - "sit around and wonder" and "wander about" - and, using the fact that in his accent "wonder" and "wander" sound basically the same, he's combined them into one super-expression, "sit around and wander", an expression that manages to convey, briefly, a whole set of actions, motion and motionlessness, the unity of the parts.
I'm being serious. After all, isn't wandering about the Oval Office interrogating oil paintings really just a form of "sitting and wondering"? The portraits, after all, can't reply. His body might be moving, but his mind, and his frame of reference, would remain inert. The synthesis of Bush's mashed-up phrasing reveals a deeper truth, in a way that's succinct and, I think, lyrical.
We always knew that there were subtly brilliant verbal stylists in the Bush Administration, but who would've thought the Big Guy was among them? Or that he was sufficiently clever to get the "Bushisms" people to disseminate his avant-garde literary experiments?
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