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About this book
Aphorism, epigram, adage--the essence of each form is a saying short and pithy. Brief, condensed, and easy to recite, these represent a culture's wise advice. What an aesthetics of the miniature! As French philosopher Gaston Bachelard observes, "The miniscule, a narrow gate, opens up an entire world." Some such sayings are pure description, yet they hint at something more; others appear to be an elder's admonition to a child; some resound with probing observations of human nature and God; others are light, whimsical wordplays. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus, who collected over four thousand adages, believed a proverb to be like a hurled javelin, striking the hearer's mind with a short point, implanting barbs for meditation. Nietzsche proposed that "the relief-like, incomplete representation of a thought, or a whole philosophy is sometimes more effective than its exhaustive amplification." So Bazyn's gnomic verse functions almost like Zen koans to push readers into new ways of perceiving.These four volumes, like a patchwork quilt, are interwoven with 196 color photographs (abstract to concrete), shot from myriad angles in assorted styles. When pondered seriously, they help unravel manifold meanings within each saying.
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Table of contents
- Title Page
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Diminutive Voices
- Abraham’s Tent
- An Academic Put-Down
- According to the Epistle to the Hebrews
- After Reading Dante’s Inferno
- The Aftermath (or a Nantucket Bride’s Nightmare)
- Aha!
- American Hokum
- Anastasis
- Ancient Signposts
- Angels
- The Antidote
- An Archaeological Surprise
- Archival Bonanza
- The Ark: Tangible Evidence?
- The Asthmatic
- Author’s Prerogative
- .ba
- Backfired
- The Bad Samaritan
- Battlelines
- Boot Camp
- Boundaries
- Brokenness
- A Brooklyn Joke
- Buffeting Air
- A Calvinist’s Reading of Genesis
- Cannibalism
- A Cartoon Sequence
- Categorizing Humanity
- The Clothes Tree
- The Compunction of Paul
- Continental Rivalry
- Copycat-itis Dilemma
- Cornpone
- Cosmic Swirls
- Counterfeit Guides
- Country Primitive
- Creatio Ex Nihilo
- Crestfallen
- Crowds at the Cross
- Deadweight
- The Deal
- Death’s Democracy
- Deceased Frequencies
- A Deceitful Balm
- “Demonic” Hieroglyphs
- Diminutives
- Disarray, or Perplexity
- Divided Loyalties
- Divine Empathy
- Doubting Castle
- Listing of Photographs
- Bibliography