Heh Heh Heh

So I found this book on our processing cart at work today. It's not usually my kind of thing, as I have no interest in French literature, but I do love philosophy so I turned the book over to read the reviews and summary on the back.

This is the first review:

"Landy's book delivers what has gone long and scandalously missing; a philosophical analysis of Proust's incomparable book that is muscular, concise, philosophically informed and sophisticated... The book should for a long time be inescapable for anyone writing about Proust, and perhaps for anyone writing philosophically about imaginative fiction, full stop. It is that good." --Philosophy and Literature

Muscular. Inescapable. Sophisticated. Scandalously Missing.

Wow. That is a ludicrous amount of hyperbole.

So I read the next review:

"This is a reading of Proust which is as voluptuous... as it is accurate, penetrating, and richly satisfying" --Journal of European Studies

And the next:

"Incredibly erudite, yet written in a lively, clear, and witty style, Landy's book marks the debut of one of the most brilliant younger literary scholars in america today" --Thomas Pavel, University of Chicago

At first glance it seems that these reviewers couldn't possibly be reading the same book, much less an obscure book about the philosphical underpinnings of a relatively obscure (from an English-speaking American viewpoint) poet.

I mean, how can one book be inescapably muscular, concise, and philosophically informed, as well as voluptuous, penetrating, and richly satisfying; to say nothing of witty, erudite and clear?

Its almost as if the first reviewer were reading HP Lovecraft, the second D.H. Lawrence, and the third Ambrose Bierce.

At second glance it seems something darker, more Freudian, and infinitely funnier seems to be happening.

Look at these groupings of adjectives:

Missing

Muscular

Concise

Philosophical

Sophisticated

Inescapable

Voluptuous

Penetrating

Accurate

Richly Satisfying

Incredibly Erudite

Lively

Clear

Witty

Brilliant

Taken separately, they seem to be describing, in turn, an archnemesis or apocalyptic event, a steamy erotic encounter, and a spectacular after-dinner conversation.

Taken together they amount to an overly optimistic (read fraudulent) and incredibly desperate personal ad. The kind that likely masks a reality that includes dirty romance novels and way too many cats.

Best blurb ever.