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A reversal of fortune, and fortunate reversals

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Malcolm Gladwell, Mardy Grothe

Now here's a man with a good project:

Several months ago, I decided to read every issue of The New Yorker in search of chiastic observations and insights. This project will take many years to complete, but what an exhilarating time I've had already! I'm getting a whole new education, as I read articles I would've never glanced at before. Some wise person, whose name I can't recall, once said that when you study one thing deeply, you tap into a vein of knowledge that extends infinitely beyond your original scope of interest. That has happened again and again over the past ten years, and will surely continue as my quest continues. As I find chiastic quotes in The New Yorker, I'll post them here.

I didn't know the word either (it's pronounced ky-AZ-mus), but we all know the trick: a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in this one by Malcolm Gladwell (on Herta Herzog): "She wouldn't ask about hair-color products in order to find out about you...she would ask about you in order to learn out about hair-color products." Ah, I see! It stands to reason that all such phrases would be collected on one website, and indeed many are. This is the gift of psychologist and word sleuth Dr. Mardy Grothe, whose mission (according to his bio) is to bring the yin-yangy word

out of the closet of obscurity and into the world of popular usage. If there's a precedent for what he's trying to do, it's oxymoron, a once-obscure word that is now known by almost all literate English speakers. Grothe stumbled upon the word chiasmus nearly ten years ago and has spent the greater part of the past decade in the grip of this fascinating literary and rhetorical device.

Gripped by a device for devising quips, Grothe discovered lethal pits in pithy ledes by James Atlas, Nancy Franklin, Joe Klein, Jane Kramer, Daphne Merkin, Robert Reich, Jeffrey Rosen, Alex Ross, Andrew Solomon, and more. He wants us to send more in to him, and to refrain would indicate a want of sense. Say it along with me once more: ky-AZ-mus. We learn to blog, we blog to learn.

Chiasmus in The New Yorker [Chiasmus]
Oxymorons [Oxymorons]

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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.

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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.

Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.

The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.

Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

Other writing by Emily Gordon

Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)