I think I struck a blow for civilization last week, or at least blocked one against it.
A guy writes to Vital Speeches hoping we'll help him hawk his book, Your Daily Shakespeare—an Arsenal of Verbal Weapons to Drive Your Friends into Action and your Enemies into Despair.
Among the book's attributes: "It is a collection of over 10,000 (ten thousand) daily situations connected to a befitting Shakespearean quotation. … It is a fertile and inexhaustible resource for any public speaker. … The tome has 1400 pages, double column, small font and it weighs 3.5 lbs."
My reply: "I must say that I do not think your book is of interest to me or my readers. Call us hayseeds, but we try to avoid being dismissed as windbags who lean on Shakespeare quotations like drunkards to lampposts. It's bad enough when people who actually read Shakespeare quote him frequently. Coming from those who would rely on a resource like the one you have created must be insufferable! … [W]hat good could you possibly hope to do with this resource? And what social harm are you willing to risk in return?"
Of course he wrote me back, quoting King Lear, King Henry IV, All's Well that Ends Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
The whole thing reminds me of speechwriting guru Jerry Tarver's noble rule against quoting Alexis de Tocqueville in business speeches: "No Quote de Tocque."
Speakers, quit quoting dead people and say something interesting yourself for once.
Yes! Your audience has come to hear your thoughts, not Shakespeare’s or Goethe’s or Einstein’s.
On the dude’s website he says: “I thought that with a judicious use of Shakespearean lines a speaker can achieve two objectives. One, a good quote captures the attention and two, it breaks the monotony of exposition.” Well, Jimmie, that’s not entirely lame. But if a speech needs to rely on a few lines from Willie to do that, then there are bigger problems with the speech. I suspect Shakespeare himself never would have let a crap soliloquy stand just because it had a couple good lines – especially if he’d pinched them from someone else.
Mind you, David, the mighty tome weighs 3.5 lbs. So it’s got to be good…
Well said, Rueben.
To quote The Onion: This book is an inelegant solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.