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Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths

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If you are a lover of words and wordplay - e.g. you do cryptic crosswords and like oxymorons - then you will love this book. These are not oxymorons as such - but rather these are statements that contain an internally contradictory flavour.

The author has done a LOT of research compiling this collection - and the quality of the oxymoronic statements he presents ranges from silly to clever to "I've-got-to-write-that-down-and-remember-it."

One of my favourites - "television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your house" - David Frost

and "Common sense is not so common" - Voltaire.

The book contains a wide selection of paradoxical expressions arranged in 14 different sections from sex, love and romance, to politics, insults, insights from world literature, etc.

Here are few examples:

The lage F.W.H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would happen to him when he died.
The man tried to ignore the question, but, on being pressured, replied:

"Oh well, I suppose I shall inherit eternal bliss,
but I wish you wouldn't talk abut such unpleasant subjects."

* * *

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

* * *

Last month I blew $5,000 on a reincarnation seminar.
I figured, hey, you only live once.

* * *

We sleep in separate rooms, we have dinner apart,
we take separate vacations.
We're doing everything we can to keep our marriage together.

* * *

Beware! To touch these wires is instant death.
Anyone found doing so will be prosecuted.

Our book club is an eclectic bunch if nothing else. And while we usually stick with some bestseller like ANGELS & DEMONS or McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, we do occasionally veer off the beaten path and try something . . . different. Enter OXYMORONICA. What a wonderful book this turned out to be! VERY funny and with quotes you'll want to memorize just to be able to throw them around at parties. If you liked books such as EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES, then you'll like this one.

If you love words, as I do, this one's for you! Dr. Mardy Grothe has given us 227pp. of mankind's best "verbal joustings."

To wit: "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.If you can fake that, you've got it made" (Groucho Marx); "Personally I know nothing about sex because I've always been married" (Zsa Zsa Gabor); "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous" (Anonymous); and "I am deeply superficial" (Ava Gardner).

Grouped by subject, this collection of "oxymoronica" (a term coined by the author) demonstrates that great wisdom frequently emerges from the coupling of seemingly inherently contradictory words and phrases in the same sentence.

I read this book in one sitting just to see what was there; now all that remains is to savor each contribution in the days and months ahead. In closing I offer this oxymoronic tribute to Dr. Grothe's work: Even the poorest among us shall be made rich by the words contained herein!

There's something about oxymorons that bring us up short even as we laugh over the sheer absurdity of it all. Even the name of this little book is an absurdity in itself: "Oxymoronica"?? Reading this volume helps us to stop and think about some of the gems and malapropisms that have enlivened the English language, both planned and unplanned. Here you'll find some of the more classic Berra-isms and the wit and wisdom of Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Confucius, just to name a few. The book is well organized into different areas of life such as politics, art, romance and sex (some of the more delicious examples of oxymoronica fall into this category), marriage and literature. The book makes you reminisce on some of the choicer oxymorons of your own experience; one of my favorites came from a lawyer friend of mine, who, hearing that an upcoming court hearing was being delayed because the judge-from-hell was ill, said "Gee, I hope it's nothing trivial." "Oxymoronica" is full of hilarious examples that match or top that one. Its wisdom should be absorbed slowly, savored bit by delicious bit. To use a classic oxymoron, it's a terribly funny book.

I laughed and thought and laughed and thought a little more reading this delight of a bitty book. It's even hilarious that it is broken up into chapters like "oxymoronic insults (and a few compliments)". Paradoxical language positively intrigues me. The compilation here is like no book of quotes you've ever read but it is a book of quotes. Quotes that work because they don't work. Backwards uses of words that when used together make perfect sense but no sense at all. Here are a couple of my favorites:

"He has not a single redeeming defect." Benjamin Disraeli on William Gladstone

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my Education." Mark Twain

This book is quick, juicy and a smile maker; a keeper.

Word lovers find an immediate friend in Dr. Mardy Grothe, for in his latest book, Oxymoronica-Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths, he has labored long to prepare a banquet for their absolute delight. Psychologist and business consultant may be his profession - and a demanding profession it is - but Dr. Grothe always finds time for his chief passion, which is the love of language. In this book, he shares the fruits of many years of collecting quotations, concentrating on those of a peculiar type-the paradoxical and oxymoronic-comprehended in his newly coined term "oxymoronica."

This book is no quick read. When you discover a fine wine, do you gulp it down? Or do you prefer to savor it, to prolong the pleasure, knowing that even when at last you have finished, you can return for many more unhurried sessions. Such is the experience of reading this book. You may open it at random (if you are an unsystematic reader like me) and discover a treasure like this one from Groucho Marx: "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." Then you might laugh, but more often than not you start thinking and finding out there was something true about the thought, something that almost escaped your attention until the paradoxical twist brought it out.

What also impresses you is the broad range of the quotations, historically and culturally, from Confucius to George Carlin, arranged in fourteen different categories encompassing many if not most areas of your experience. What you find here is a tour de force, leading at least this reader to a conclusion - which itself is a paradox - that you will better understand yourself and your experience through paradox. I will not try to convince the skeptic (I was a skeptic myself), except to say that I am so glad that I experienced (so much more than "read") this book. Try it! Just maybe a few depth charges in your mind will clear your head!

I loved this book! If you are interested in the clever and inadvertently clever use of language, you will enjoy Oxymoronica. The chapters are organized into general categories and I especially enjoyed the ones on Politics and Family Life. I think the book would be an excellent resource for attorneys, pastors, teachers and anyone interested in public speaking.

My favorite quote from Dr. Grothe's writing is this one:

"Paradox is a particularly powerful device to ensnare truth
because it concisely illuminates the contradictions that are at the very heart of our lives."

I love words. Whenever I come across someone with a similar love, I am immediately filled with joy. Someone understands me!!

Add to that someone who has an excellent sense of humor, has children who are professional poker players and generally seems to be delighted to have you read his words AND he even made UP a word *the title of the book "Oxymoronica" is a word coined by the author... well, need I say more?

No, but I will anyway. *Smile*

Dr. Grothe introduces the concept and then each chapter as the
quotes themselves are separated thematically. His tone in these sections is engaging. Word lovers will immediately recognize a fellow traveller in the dictionaries, thesauruses and quote books of life and breathe a deep sigh of joy.

Definitely one to read and reflect upon repeatedly.

It seems so funny, amusing, engaging and it is also very deeply amusing and engaging.

More Oxymoronica.

When we hear the word "oxymoron", we typically think of the simple and classic contradictory word-pairs like "military intelligence", "boneless ribs", and "jumbo shrimp". But as Dr. Mardy Grothe teaches and demonstrates to us, there is much more to the oxymoron than meets the eye.

An oxymoron, he explains, is paradox ("a truth standing on its head to attract attention") compacted into a single sentence or phrase. Dr. Grothe offers us a remarkably rich collection of self-contradictory statements which on the surface appear to be false or nonsensical, but which upon reflection appear to be true -- often, as he points out, "profoundly true".

"Oxymoronica" is a book that should not be read quickly, any more than a box of Belgian chocolates should be devoured in a single sitting. Each of the many hundreds of paradoxical gems bears multiple layers of meaning: I found myself inevitably smiling, shaking my head, or whispering a delighted "ahah" to myself as I allowed each one to sink in.

Well-documented and organized (there's even a section on Oxymoronic Insults), "Oxymoronica" is a rich collection, but it does not pretend to be exhaustive. In fact, the author has built a website and encouraged a community of collectors and wordsmiths to participate in a dymamic and growing collection in celebration of this form of word play.

Dr. Grothe's collection is, in a word, "extraordinary". Which is, come to think of it, itself a one-word oxymoron.