What stands out to me in this interview with Bill Shapiro on his new book, Other People’s Rejection Letters is this claim by Mr. Shapiro:
People need to remember people have been getting rejected since the beginning of time.
Since the beginning of time? But isn’t it arbitrary to stop there–why not since before the beginning of time? Can rejection exist outside of existence? Stephen Hawking chew on that for a little.
This is the stuff of college freshman composition essays everywhere (and thus an opportunity to paraphrase the best line I ever read in a college freshman paper: “Since as far back as 3000 BC the problem of media violence has affected modern society.”)
All of which is obliquely related to my Youth Culture Trend #341: The liberal use of the word literally, where literally of course means not at all literally, best practiced by girls aged 16-20.
Working next to some eager interns at an ad agency I was once greeted with the following morning chatter:
“You don’t understand, I literally died last night I was working out so hard. No joke, I was literally unable to breathe and my heart literally stopped working. For real.”
And despite that literal death, she dragged herself into the office. Literally, the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.
Tags: what is funny
Don’t forget “since the dawn of man.” What would first-year comp papers be, without “since the dawn of man”? It’s literally been in use ever since…well, never mind.
Yes, “since the dawn of man,” is a classic, which reminds me of another of my favorite claims from a student paper profiling a gym:
“Sexism has been around since the colonial times.”
Which, when I pointed out that sexism probably pre-dates this arbitrary time-marker, was revised to the technically accurate claim:
“Sexism has been around since before the colonial times.”